Review: don't get all the five-star reviews
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 15, 2013
Where to begin. It got two stars because I finished it -- it was at least readable. I did want to find out what happened.I know this is a first novel. But an editor would've helped a lot. The "teases" were really annoying, all the instances of "And then, things really changed ... " and nothing changing, not for many, many more words.There is very little meat in this book -- no whys whatsoever. Why, for example, was there a fully stocked underground habitat built under a small school? Not a fallout shelter, mind you, but a huge structure complete with power, gardens, livestock, a swimming pool, all fully stocked and operational the day the bombs came.What was the war about? You never find out.What caused Susannah's paranoia -- never did find out what that was all about. Or the megalomania of the newly installed president. Why were all the inhabitants, teachers as well as kids, so passive? There's just not enough here to help make sense of anything. They grew sugarcane (for the rum)? Where did the new uniforms come from? A duffel bag -- why would Nad have a duffel bag? Just too many holes -- some bits just stopped me cold trying to figure out what the ... ?Also found it hard to believe a drunk could come up with a coherent plan, let alone one dependent on precision timing. And too many convenient things just happened to be available.With a lot of trimming and tightening this might be a good short story, or chapter one of a longer, more complete book. There is just not enough substance to this tale.