Help me remember this book

[annaspanner18]

It’s a dystopian novel

it has two young people / children / tweens living wild and foraging post apocalypse

there's a section where one character picks chestnuts and the other says ‘those are horse chestnuts and totally inedible’

it came out in maybe 2010?

I thought it was ‘it ends with us’ (the Colleen Rooney now a film with Blake Lively) so I think the title is similar?

That is ringing a bell - was it set in the UK but the main character was American and had come to live with her British relatives for the summer, before some kind of invasion? In the book that I remember, the main character and her younger cousin have to live in the woods for a while, and at the end of the book she’s reciting all the things they lived on, including hazelnuts. Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the book or the author.

It's ages since I've read it but could it be How I Live Now by Meg Roscoff?

ChatGPT says - could it be Pure by Julianna Baggot

That’s definitely the book that I was thinking of, thank you!

Yes if you put the rough quote into Google books How I Live now comes up

"We roasted sweet chestnuts in the fire and they were pretty good except incredibly hard to peel and the skins got under your fingernails and hurt for days. I spent practically a whole afternoon collecting chestnuts and when I got back Piper looked at me with as close as she ever got to contempt and said Those are Horse Chestnuts and Inedible."

It is how I live now!! Thanks @madeinbelfast, impressive that you got it so quickly!!