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Into the Outside  By  cover art

Into the Outside

By: Lynda Engler, Henry Dixon
Narrated by: Carlo Libertini
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Publisher's summary

When the mutants' survival is threatened, will Isabella risk it all for the man she hardly knows, or stay underground protected?

Fifty years ago, the Earth died. The Earth is now a fertile but dangerous jungle world. Wildlife has prospered, although often in oddly altered forms. Survivors live in underground shelters waiting generations for the environment to become safe enough to emerge. Above ground, the radiation and poison has mutated the few humans that are left, but they do their best to survive for the 20 to 22 years they might live before the toxic planet or disease kills them.

Sixteen-year-old Isabella has grown up believing mutants are sub-human, stupid, and would eat every shelter person if they had the chance, until she spies a wandering mutant tribe through the glass bottom swimming pool that is her shelter's only light source. Isabella is fascinated by them, but it's their 17-year-old leader, Malcolm, who truly captivates her - ebony skin, straw-colored hair, rippling muscles, four fingers on one hand and six on the other. Night after night, she sneaks out of her shelter to watch the tribe, dressed in her grandfather's chemical/radiation suit. When Malcolm discovers her, they are wary of each other at first, but eventually become friends, and then lovers. Isabella finally leaves the safety of her shelter to follow Malcolm into the perilous Outside.

Isabella knows the government plans to exterminate the mutants once it is safe for the shelter-folk to come Outside, and she expects radiation and disease, but no one in the tribe is prepared for cannibals!

Isabella's family mourns for their lost child, knowing she will die Outside, but Grandfather refuses to search for her. Luke defies him and leaves the shelter to track down Isabella and warn her of the threat she knows nothing about. But he is no more prepared for the dangers Outside than she is. Hunted and finally captured by the military, Luke must escape their grasp, find Isabella, and save her life.

©2015 Lynda Engler and Henry Dixon (P)2016 Lynda Engler and Henry Dixon

What listeners say about Into the Outside

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not for me.

I was so looking forward to listening to this!! The reviews are all mostly positive so I dived in eagerly, but oh my word, the narrator was awful. Maybe it was this fact that had me disliking the book too, I don't know for sure!!

The world is separated into two different factions as such, the below ground dwellers who are waiting till the world is habitable again, and the mutations, people who live on the surface but have some form of mutation. Isabella is a below ground dweller and has never been outside in her 16 years. Her grandfather tells her that the mutants are dangerous, not really human and would kill and eat you if they had the chance. But Isabella is curious and when she sees some mutants swimming in a pool above their shelter (don't ask me why they have a see through pool above them anyway) she needs to investigate. Night after night she puts on her grandfathers safety suit until she is caught by one of the mutants, Malcolm. She soon learns that he isn't like her grandfather said and she decides to leave with Malcolm and his tribe and step into the outside!

Sounds good, right?? It kind of was, but also wasn't. Isabella was annoying at times and I couldn't connect with her. She literally falls in love with the first guy she has every seen, (that wasn't related to her) and is completely focused on him. I really wish she would have experienced some of the outside first and then met Malcolm and fallen in love. I think it would have made it more real, instead she wants to marry a boy she only just met and knows next to nothing about. Plus she has no problem leaving her family behind, she didn't realy hesitate!! It felt too unreal.

The overall plot was slow. Not much happens for ages, only Isabella fawning over Malcolm, and I felt like giving up then, but I kept listening because I had to give it a fair chance. And while I finished it, I really don't think I'll keep on with the series. I didn't connect with the characters or care what happens to them unfortunately.

Now onto Carlo Libertini. I rarely give a one star to any narrator because they put a lot of effort into their work, but this narrator read the whole book as if he was reading it to a young child, He read it in a happy, uplifting tone the whole way through and it really, really grated on my nerves and I had to speed up the narration to make it any bit bearable. He made the story extra hard to get into or like.

I was given this free audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent post apocalyptic book!

Into the Outside was a great post apocalyptic book about a family living in an underground shelter after a nuclear war had destroyed most of humanity. The people who did manage to survive outside of a shelter mutated. The mutants mature much faster and have shorter life spans due to all the toxins left from the war. Isabella is part of a shelter family. She sees a family of mutants on their land and gets curious enough to sneak out and meet them. After realizing that they aren't much different from her, she decides to leave her sheltered life and venture out into the world. Not only have people mutated, but the animals have as well. Some of the people mutated into something much worse, eaters! Excellent performance by Carlo Libertini. Looking forward to book 2!

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5 people found this helpful

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Fun and investing story, but the story tellers sound like they are talking to kids

In general, I enjoy kids stories and audio dramas, but this topic and story is not a kids story. That being said, I was surprised that at times the story tellers sound almost like they are telling a kids story. The idea is very interesting, I enjoy post-apocalyptic stories and I like the angle this story is taking. I cannot wait to hear the next story, the good news is my wife already got it for me. 😀

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1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good YA Post Apocalyptic story

I didn’t give the book 5 stars as I felt it was marketed as an adult story when it was more of a young adult fiction. I think a younger audience would enjoy this book more.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Finding family

The story is the second one of the book about the radio active poison,You now i am looking for my sister cousin Isabel she is with Malcolm and his tribe. now that Isabel left they are looking for people to tell them that the government will kill them or take hem hostage.

You see in the bunker before things happen people would stock up toilet paper and house household thing for up to 50 years they do not get destroyed the government would give you can food and coffee and sugar and tea and other r things.

Well Isabel and her group came upon another group that live in the hill and they let them stay with them to have food and then they went to the woods to look for food they found a deer but they traded the deer for jerky and other food so they can make it on the rest of the trip the kid got squirrel and other small animal they can skin and use on the trip

But thing did not go as they were going on there trip because they got caught and now you have to see were the government took to them and then it will be no good.

You will in joy both books and then they are good audio bookd
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

An interesting future sight

I received a review copy of this book for an honest review.

It was pretty interesting actually, i liked the plot of what could happen to us if we actually were to al most destroy our planet or our way of life.

Isabella is true to her nature and age that's for sure but it's okay she is pretty young and just discovering a world she didn't knew existed.

Other thing that was brought to my attention was the religions and stuff since the mutants that actually try to outlive everything outside have merge into everything since most of them doesn't live longer they learn whatever the can in their short lives, but it was a good message of coexisting.

Will see were do this journey will come to and end.

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Into the outside

This wasn't exactly what I expected,but it was a good book.I am up for book 2. A half century has passed since the earth was bombarded and 995 of the population died.Those that survived suffered deformaties as did their children.Some saw it coming and went underground...literally.Now that the air may be clean enough to venture out,the pure are ready to rid the world of the mutants. Carlo Libertini was a good narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Listener received this title free

Ready For Book II

Take a deep breath and be glad that this book is a work of fiction. Be advised that this story might make you, but it will also make your eyes leak. I blame the poisons.

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Great Story

I loved the story. I hesitated listening to this because it is a bunch of teens in an apaclyptic world and I usually prefer adult stories. In this case it is explained why they are teens. Great narrator too. Looking forard to the next book. Worth the listen.

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A Post-Apocolyptic Love Story

Years after the war has laid waste to the whole of the United States, a young woman lives with her extended family in a very sophisticated but none the less restrictive underground "bomb shelter" When a small tribe of mutant survivors literally passes over top of her hide away, the girl becomes fascinated by the outsiders and determines to meet them.
As might be expected of a young girl of "a certain age" who's never had an opportunity to fraternize with men outside her own family, she becomes fascinated by the small tribe's leader and ... well, things take their normal course and she slips off into the wilderness with her newfound family.
This story is the first of the series, so you'll have to stay with it to find out how both extended family groups and many of those they encounter fare in this hard, new world. If love your books tied off with a bow and a heartfelt "THE END", this probably isn't one for you, but I was aware off what I was taking on, and this one's well enough written that I don't find coming back to these characters for another go-round any kind of detraction. They are a fascinating combination of resolute toughness and naive vulnerability and as they battle mutant monstrosities, deal with the perils of life in the wild, lose tribe members and meet other survivors along the way, I found myself, again and again, sticking around for "just one more chapter".
This writing team has, with a seemingly effortless style, found that happy medium between dry "real science" fiction and frivolous "it works that way because I said so" pseudo-science.
All in all, this one was well worth the time and I look forward to the next stage of the adventure.

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