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Cover of All That Glows

All That Glows

Lauren Smyth (2026-05-12)

Subgenre
Age groupYA 12-17
Content ratingPG-13
Pages (Standard (250-400))
Setting
CSM age13

Content levels

ViolenceModerate
Sexual contentNone
LanguageMild

Synopsis

The apocalypse didn't take everyone. It just took us. Ever since the rain turned green, Kyrie's world has been bathed in glowing dust. She packs it into old mascara tubes and sells it as makeup alongside dried cacti, threadbare blankets, and long-expired canned food. There's not much else to do when everyone outside Kyrie's small town in the Mojave Desert died from the plague-bearing rain ten years ago. Everyone--except the man in the rubber mask. He's on the dangerous side of the fence, huffing infected air like it's nothing, babbling to Kyrie about college and umbrellas and yogurt and everything else that disappeared the day it rained. He doesn't seem to know that the world ended, and he has no explanation for how he survived the apocalypse. But Kyrie doesn't believe in ghosts. She can't trust him, but he's right about one thing: Towns without secrets aren't surrounded by chain-link fences. And chain-link fences won't keep out the plague forever.

Tags

DystopianPost-Apocalyptic FictionMysterySurvival Horror

Is All That Glows appropriate for my child?

Suitable for most readers 13 and up.

This post-apocalyptic YA novel features a plague that killed most of humanity, implied mass death, and the psychological impact of isolation. Violence is threat-based rather than graphic, and the mystery surrounding the man in the mask drives the suspense.

What to know going in

This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include death, mass death, and grief (see the full list above).

Who'll love this

Teens will be drawn to the atmospheric post-apocalyptic setting and the mystery of the stranger who survived when everyone else died.