Review: Entertaining, Light-Hearted Yet Frightening Look Into the "Future"
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2010
I honestly didn't expect much from this self-published book, despite the reviews. I thought it might end up being corny or trite.Not the case at all. I was thoroughly engrossed in the book from the very beginning. The premise, though fiction, is frighteningly plausible.The book begins in the news room of a small newspaper located on the Atlantic Coast of Central Florida while the 'five+' hurrican Walter decimates the small town. Mia, the self-proclaimed 'bad environmentall reporter' has stayed behind with a small group of co-workers to wait out and purportedly report on the storm. Her husband, Aaron, also stayed behind to work at the local hospital. There is a fun cast of characters that appear during the book, some surprisingly related in the past. The character development is well-done. They're quirky, but still believeable.The story is told in the first person by Mia and describes not only the aftermath of 'Walter', but the series of natural and terroristic disasters that befall the US and the rest of the world that could almost have been pulled from Revelations. We follow Mia, Aaron and company through their journey from Florida back to Upstate New York where their families still struggle to survive.The author's take on what could happen after a cluster of disasters hit is at once scary and poignant. She gives us a peek at what could happen if the world economy and much of the US were to be destroyed and just what people would do to survive.The novel could very well have taken the low road and shown only how greedy, violent and self-absorbed the world can be, but instead we see most of the character overcome their personal foibles and actually become better persons despite their hardships.While there are a lot of sad (and funny) happenings in the novel, what it all boiled down to for me was that the author's message is that we don't need all our material posessions and modern comforts; essentially her theory is that love conquers all.Considering the apocalyptic plot, the novel ends up being a funny, feel-good story and moral lesson that I highly recommend.