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Some say a journey starts when you leave your front door. Some say it starts far away from home, when you neither smell its scent, nor see it in your dreams no more.
Eighteen-year-old Jack wakes up from a blackout to find an apocalyptic landscape—the earth split open and a violent flood engulfing the farming valley where he lives. Orphaned and homeless, Jack and his dog Bud begin searching for signs of life.
But someone, or something, is stalking him.
Through flooded farmlands and mountain terrain, survival hangs on a tenuous edge as Jack struggles through a transformed world and into a new life, haunted by the demons and scars of the old.
Book one of the Earthlight series, Ship in the Sky is a coming-of-age adventure, a hero’s journey for all ages in which friendship and love are found in the surprising fissures of a drowning world.
“A boy and his dog scrape by in an apocalyptic wasteland. The descriptions of the landscape are minimalist yet evocative, made up of fragmented sentences that reflect Jack’s desolation. The inherent dread of the rural setting, which evokes the American South, seeps into every page, creating a building sense of horror. Biblical allusions make the relatively grounded world feel almost supernatural. Despite the story’s grittiness, budding moments of human compassion prevent things from seeming hopeless. There are plenty of lingering mysteries about the nature of the calamity and the truth behind Sky Station that are sure to have readers coming back for the sequel. A haunting survival story with impeccable atmosphere.” — Kirkus
“In Young Adult fiction, voice is everything. Skip in the Sky brings it! With a gritty yet lyrical and singular voice, Ship in the Sky creates an in-depth world that at times evokes apocalyptic literature like McCarthy's The Road in tone. It's an adventure, to be sure, but more importantly, a journey, which is not the same thing. The story celebrates perseverance and relationships between human beings (and a great dog!) that will satisfy readers looking for connection from their stories and characters.” — Tom Leveen, author of Hellworld, Heartless, and Can't Wait for Tomorrow
“Skillfully wrought and shot through with a tender, lingering lyricism … the work of a writer fully and satisfyingly in control of her material” — David Medalie, Director of the Unit for Creative Writing, University of Pretoria
“A standout work ... In Evans’s sure hand, moments of great humanity are herein combined with desperate violence in a sensitively imagined world” — Ron Irwin, author of Flat Water Tuesday
“A terrific debut! Jack’s sweeping, shimmering journey is unforgettable” — Joanne Hitchens, editor, publisher, and author of Death and the After Parties
“A deftly scripted coming-of-age story set in a dystopian future. Original, compelling, and a simply fascinating read from start to finish, Ship in the Sky is appropriate and unreservedly recommended for middle school, highschool, and community library YA Fiction collections for ages 14-18.” – Midwest Book Review
Elle Evans is Welsh, though having moved so many times, her accent is decidedly mid-Atlantic. She is currently penning three novels on the go, one of which is the sequel to Ship in the Sky. Elle is also a Transpersonal Psychotherapist, working privately from her home practice in Cape Town, South Africa.