Z for Zachariah (Young Adult Post-Apocalypse) Paperback – January 1, 2007

In a literary world where YA has come leaps and bounds (especially since I was a kid!), it is surprising to find a much older book within the genre that can compete with the great fiction that is out there right now. Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien is a really great post-apocalyptic novel that was written for the YA genre decades ago; it is a trailblazer as far as I am concerned!The story begins with a girl named Ann Burden who has been left alone in a small valley on her parents farm to survive the aftermath of nuclear war. She is surviving well enough between the fresh food from the farm and the dry and canned goods at the local general store. When her parents, brother, and owners of the store left last fall to find other survivors and never returned, Ann knew she had to keep going as she had in order to survive.Her lonely but peaceful existence was shattered, however, when she spotted a campfire coming her way through the barren, destroyed landscape. When the mysterious man in a big plastic suit enters the valley, she hides, afraid of what kind of man he is. When he impulsively jumps into a contaminated creek and becomes sick with radiation poisoning, however, Ann decides to abandon her hiding place in order to help him. But after she nurses him back to health, she realizes he is not happy to just share the valley with her- he wants it all, including Ann.I have read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction in the last 12 months, so it is hard to surprise me these days in this genre, but when the man gets better and starts actually hunting Ann, it was just so disturbing! The way it was written, the way he hunts her, and the sheer magnitude of being the last two alive in this second horror scenario, got to me! It was truly unnerving to see his calculation and deception as he ties up her dog to use for tracking her, locks the store where she is getting her supplies, and takes the keys to her tractor.This was a really interesting story and quite easy to read with low vocabulary level and comprehension levels. But I don't think this would be a great story for middle schools students- it is just too creepy in a subtle way that gives you the shivers! It would be a GREAT book for an older student who has a low reading level but seeks mature reading material. Now I am going to have to stockpile a HAZMAT suit along with my canned goods, shelter, and ark! I have got to find some cheerier books!

I first read this book as part of a class assignment back in middle school. I'm not much of a reader, but this book never left my mind. This is probably a short read for most readers.

In Sunday School when she was much younger, Ann Burden learned the alphabet from "The Bible Letter Book." A was for Adam, B was for Benjamin, C was for Christian. "The last page of all was 'Z is for Zachariah,' and since I knew that Adam was the first man, for a long time I assumed that Zachariah must be the last man." Now, nearly sixteen, Ann has had to come to terms with the fact that she just might be the last woman. The earth is dead everywhere the bombs fell. Ann's valley, a "meteorological enclave" with its own self-contained weather system, escaped the radioactive fallout, but her family and neighbors were killed when they went out to search for other survivors. Keeping up the family farm, taking supplies from the neighbors' general store, she has managed well enough in the year that has passed since the war. Then, one day, she sees smoke in the distance, and every day it's a little closer. Someone else has survived, and is exploring, camping out, certain eventually to find the last spot of green in the still-radioactive landscape. Ann is excited at the prospect of having some human companionship again, but can't help worrying, too: "suppose it was someone mean, or even cruel, and brutal?"Ann's "Zachariah" turns out to be a research chemist, John Loomis, who was in an underground laboratory when the bombs hit - along with a prototype radiation-proof suit. Wearing the suit, he's wandered around the country for a year before he finds the valley. Despite his precautions, he chooses the wrong stream to bathe in when he finally removes his suit, and Ann must nurse him through the agonies of radiation sickness. Will her new companion, this Adam to her Eve, be taken from her almost as soon as they've found each other? And if he doesn't, then what happens? Listening to the fevered Loomis's delirious rantings, Ann finds herself suspecting the the man in whom she's suddenly invested so much hope is holding back a sinister secret.Robert C. O'Brien's "Z for Zachariah" is, along with Peter Dickinson's "Eva," about as bleak as any novel can get, let alone one targeted to the juvenile audience - bleak even for the post-apocalyptic genre - and, like "Eva," it's gripping and thought-provoking and likely to haunt the reader for years. O'Brien originally intended this is a novel for adults; I don't know whether he changed his mind or if it was his wife and daughter, who completed the novel from his notes after his death, who decided it belonged in the YA market. However it happened, O'Brien managed to create a novel that should engage and enthrall adults, adolescents, and even mature preteens. It's a deceptively simple novel, a quick read, and Ann is an engaging and sympathetic narrator. At the same time, the real richness to be found in this novel comes in contemplating it afterwards, weighing, evaluating, questioning, reconsidering. Ann and Loomis are people who have survived, and inevitably been changed by, a year of isolation, grief, fear, struggle, and repeatedly dashed hopes. O'Brien sets them down together in a sort of perilous paradise, and what happens there is as inevitable as it is unsettling.

I chose this book as a recommendation for a teen book club. They loved it! In fact, it was a favorite for 2 of the boys.This is a classic sci-fi, post-apocalyptic book. I read it in high school, and it still perseveres as a classic for teen readers and adult.As a side-note, if someone likes the game, "Fallout", they will probably enjoy this book. I know the teens in the book club did.

My kid read this for 9th grade summer reading and I did too just to read it. Not a bad story, you need to suspend a little disbelief that a nuclear war would leave a valley alone and uncontaminated. That aside it was an ok book

I forgot how much enjoyed this story in junior high school. The story all young adults should be aware of....life definitely has a tendency to turn our lives upside down.....how we react is always the real question. This story forces that thought process for tje days wz live in today.

One of my favorites chapter books out there! I first read it in 8th grade and decided to get it again for basic training! It’s written like journal entries and is a very compelling tale of a post apocalyptic world.

Very interesting and fascinating diffrent from the move which made me want to read the book i love the way it gives so much more infor on both the characters lives it makes me see them from a diffrent point of view.i cant put the book down within a couple of hours i will be done.