Juneau lives in a world where most of humanity has been destroyed by the nuclear bombs of World War III. Her clan dwells in the wilds of Alaska, living off the land and avoiding the brigands who survived the apocalypse. 
 Except... not really. 
 And the discovery of lies and a not-apocalypse are only the beginning of Amy Plum's "After the End," a strange little sci-fi novel that introduces readers to a plucky action girl who finds that civilization didn't actually collapse. While the Miles sections undercut the initial tension, it's a fascinating little story that mingles sci-fantasy with a contemporary tale of corporations and technology. 
 When brigands attack her village and kill many of the people there, Juneau manages to escape on a dogsled. But instead of a radioactive wasteland, she finds a thriving city, cars, happy people, and all the other trappings of civilization. And slowly she comes to realize that her entire life was a deception, and that World War III not only didn't destroy the world.... but it never actually happened. The elders -- including her mentor Whit -- lied to her. 
 So she cuts her hair, boards her dogs, and sets out for Seattle. By chance, she encounters the one person in Seattle who is looking for her -- Miles, a troubled rich kid who was hoping to find her for his father's company. Yes, a company wants to capture her, apparently because she has a gold star in one eye, which signifies that she can Read the Yara. 
 Miles and Juneau each think the other is kinda crazy, but they end up on a road trip, dodging the people who are trying to capture her. Then Juneau discovers that someone she trusted has betrayed her, and the life she has known was not only a lie, but something much more sinister. 
 "After the End" doesn't seem like science fiction for most of its length -- most of the time it feels more like fantasy, since the Yara (a hippie-dippy version of the Force, but without telekinesis) is depicted as granting immortality and magical web-of-life powers. But Amy Plum drops hints that there may be a more scientific explanation for this unscientific phenomenon, and twists the entire story around at the grand finale. 
 In fact, she spends the whole book unraveling a web of lies that Juneau has to come to terms with, and it becomes pretty harrowing as the heroine struggles to deal with the nasty, cold realities of the world. Plum's writing alternates between the perspectives of Juneau and Miles, and she does a pretty good job writing in two distinct styles -- Miles is more snarky and casual, while Juneau is more formal and slightly ethereal. 
 However, there are some flaws. The early Miles chapters kind of undercut the OMG BIG REVEAL! of Juneau finding the city, since we already know civilization still exists. and there's a very long, rather dull chapter where Juneau hangs out with a hippie neopagan in the woods so she can learn a Life Lesson. 
 But both main characters are pretty good -- neither is a perfect person, and both make some nasty mistakes that disrupt the fragile trust between them. While Juneau and Miles are obviously falling in love, Plum throws some powerful obstacles in their way, some of which seem to be potential breaking points -- such as, say, Miles freaking out and calling his dad because Juneau used him as an "oracle" without his consent. 
 Guns, corporations and the Yara all come together in "After the End," which ends on a cliffhanger that will presumably be resolved in the next book. A solid little sci-fantasy thriller with likably flawed characters.