Beth H. (suburbanalien) reviewed on 8/17/2011 + 63 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

This book wrecked me emotionally, which is not a state of mind I enjoy, but I am still glad I read the book. I am a fan of dystopic fiction, and have read many similar books - but they were similar only in the sense that something catastrophic has happened and the characters need to figure out how to deal with it. I can't say that I've actually read anything like this. I often hear it mentioned in the same breath as Rawles' "Patriots", although "Patriots" has completely different protagonists. While the folks in "Patriots" are uber-prepared and are pretty much there just to document the "here's how you do it" scenario, this book shows the consequences of a complete lack of preparation and a "dude you are SO SCREWED" scenario. There were many times I thought I could not bear to find out what happened next - I couldn't hardly take having to read about the difficult decisions they had to make and the sacrifices they made along the way, and the consequences of inaction/wrong action, and the extremely low survival rate of the characters you grow fond of. Several times I thought I couldn't finish the book - about the time the town leaders had a meeting to decide if they were going to issue an order to shoot all the pet dogs in the town to feed the starving residents - with protests in the meeting similar to "I can't shoot Rags! I've had him since he was a puppy! My kids love him!" - OH MAKE IT STOP! I think I would die before I would choose to survive in the way many of them did. I finished the book because I had to find out if anything got any better. I agree the ending was kind of rushed, but I'm glad to have finished the book and glad I didn't lose heart anywhere in the very difficult middle, or I'd likely never fall asleep dry-eyed again. I agree, this is a very important book with many important topics and great detail on how everything can go really, really wrong. Brace yourself.

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