Interesting Factoid: The Epilogue's Legacy Two tells us that the Coast Guard's Investigating Officer on the Bluebelle case recommended in 1962 that the body of buoyant apparatus, life rafts and life floats be painted or otherwise colored international orange. Meredith Maggs hasn't left her house in Glasgow Scotland in 3 years, 3 months, and 29 days. She works from home as a writer and gets all of her supplies delivered so she never has to leave. Along with her cat Fred, her friend Sadie who drops by, and an online chat group that she's a member of, Sadie keeps busy. She also has a passion for jigsaw puzzles and baking but some things still missing. If this was a bit of land that was involved in a territory battle, why weren't there drones or other recon flying over the area? Or planes? Or anything that made it seem like the entire rest of the world wasn't just DEAD?

Maddie wants a night to herself, or at least to herself and her friends. She doesn't want to babysit. She doesn't want to deal with her step-parents. She just wants to relax, eat junk food, and sleep too late. So she and her friends come up with a plan to sneak out and stay at her grandparent's empty apartment. But, when the night comes, her other friends have to bail and she ends up alone. Too nervous to tell her parents about her lie, she decides to stay by herself. And this decision will change everything. Meredith didn't use to be this way. She used to work outside and go out to bars but something happened that changed her life. Instead of Sadie and Tesco delivery man; she doesn’t have many visitors during her volunteered home quarantine.In my novel The Sunlit Night, a few outcasts travel to one of Earth’s loneliest latitudes: the Norwegian Arctic. A recently dumped painting student heads north to works as an apprentice to a Nordic master; the master is a reclusive descendant of the nomadic Sami reindeer hunters. These characters are seeking relief from their losses, but they’re also looking to prove that they can make it alone. I love the fact that the synopsis of this book on Goodreads is short and sweet. It tells you as much as you need to know and that's the best way to begin reading this story. I was hoping the book would be more like an Erik Larson, in which we hear the story and details and glimpses into the future are revealed as they become relevant. Instead, everything is presented in a very clinical way. I guess I should've expected that since one of the co-authors is a professor. I have been spoiled by listening to excellently produced true crime podcasts and reading non-fiction histories that are written in a fictional style and peppered with references and facts.

Do you think Maddie and her friends Emma and Ashanti would still be close if they were reunited after Maddie's years alone? Have you ever had an experience that changed your relationship with one of your friends? If so, are you still friends with that person? What kind of conversations did you have to get through it? Meredith is lovely. I instantly liked her character and the way she works. You can relate to her, like she is a friend you can trust. Despite her agoraphobia she tries to be there for Sadie and her new online friend Celeste. She has a good heart. Interestingly, I had a discussion with a good friend who's sister is struggling with anxiety. I listened as she talked about the frustration she felt. It made me think, sometimes, when a friend/family member suffers with mental illness, our impatience, without realizing, can be hurtful, detrimental to the sufferer.Helping those with serious trauma, mental illness' requires more than just patience. It requires you to ask yourself, how would you want to be treated? The cast of characters that stand by her are an example of what that would look like--empathetic. Barry Falls has created a character, Billy McGill, who lives alone at the top of a huge, loaf-shaped hill. He is quite happy with this, but his world is regularly invaded by a strange collection of visitors, both human and animal. He reacts to them with a mixture of anger and impatience. I am making it sound a lot more fun than it is. It is an hour of people creeping cautiously through woods and startling at sounds we cannot hear. And then lying awake all night telling us how frightened they feel. It is very boring watching people be scared by noises. If you like Alone! you might also like: our collection of picture books to read before you are five, our list of reception class books, NO! said Rabbit by Marjoke Henrichs, Can You Whistle, Johanna? by Ulf Stark and Anna Höglund, My Sneezes Are Perfect by Rakhshan Rizwan and Yusuf Samee, The Princess and the Pea by Emma Martinez, Scruff by Alice Bowsher and A Million Dots by Sven Völker.