The Darkness After — Scott B. Williams

In this dystopian YA thriller, two teenagers battle their way through a collapsing New Orleans after an EMP brings down America's electrical grid.

When massive solar flares send an intense electromagnetic pulse to Earth, every electrical device is fried instantly. The modern world that sixteen-year-old Mitch Henley has always known comes crashing down. Anarchy, looting and chaos explode all around him. Stranded in New Orleans, Mitch escapes into the Mississippi backwoods he knows so well, hoping to stay alive using the survival and hunting skills he learned from his game-warden father.

Alone and on foot, Mitch sets out to make his way back to the family farm and his younger sister. Not knowing if his parents are dead or alive, nothing else matters . . . until he meets April Gibbs along the way. Smart, beautiful, lethal and alone, she is also making a treacherous trek to find her lost family. They decide to travel together for safety, but neither can begin to imagine the danger that awaits them in the woods.

Set in the same anarchy-and-desperation-reigned world of the author's dystopian thriller: The Pulse, The Darkness After is a frightening look at how fragile our technologically dependent lifestyle really is.