(Image from author's official website)

(Note:  While this review will not contain spoilers for The Outside, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from its predecessor, The Hallowed Ones.  As always, I recommend reading a series in order.)

With blood-thirsty vampires haunting the land, feasting on anything that moves, it's more dangerous than ever to be "outside."  But Katie can't stay in her isolated Amish community.  She's been banished for helping an "English" man, for putting his life above those of her people.  Now, she's heading north with Alex Green, the 24-year-old Canadian who's stolen her heart; Ginger Parsall, an older woman who's determined to find the family she hasn't heard from since the vampires took over; and Katie's valiant horse, Horace.  Alex is leading them across the border, where he hopes to find his family alive and well in Canada.  If only they can make it in the same condition.    

It's a brutal new world outside, one few survive.  Just when it looks like Katie and Co. won't make it either, they are rescued by unlikely angels.  The glowing band of luminescent people seem to have the perfect solution for keeping vampires at bay, but at what cost?  Does altering themselves make them just as inhuman as the blood-suckers they're trying to exterminate?  In a world where nothing is safe, who can Katie look to for guidance and protection—the God who has abandoned her?  Her superhuman saviors?  Alex?  Or is it simply up to her to save herself and those she loves?  

Like The Hallowed Ones before it, The Outside by Laura Bickle is a character-driven horror novel that asks important questions about faith, family and what it takes to survive—humanity intact—in a world gone mad.  Katie continues to be a sympathetic character, one who's more mature than the average YA heroine, yet whose struggles to know and remain true to herself feel authentic.  Her story rages on in The Outside, just as heart-poundingly intense as ever.  Original and satisfying, this series begs to be read for so many reasons.  If you're looking for a chilling, Halloween-worthy tale, look no further.  Bickle's YA Amish horror novels are guaranteed to please.    

(Readalikes:  The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle; also reminds me of Ashes and Shadows by Ilsa J. Bick and The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan)

Grade:  

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  

 for language (no F-bombs), violence/gore, and mild sexual innuendo/content

To the FTC, with love:  I received and ARC of The Outside from the generous folks at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  Thank you!