Review: Gets progressively better. Ending set up for a great sequel
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 13, 2013
"HL" starts a bit slow, but it does get better.  In this story, the key characters are not preppers; and they are definitely not ready for the implosion of society.  But in some ways they are better prepared than many would be because of their rural existence.  By the time the lead character, Jake, gets violently assaulted for the third time, I was beginning to get irritated with his character development.  But, after reconsidering that he is only 17, I came to terms with it.  But, if he sees trouble coming again in the sequel that is sure to follow, and demonstrates that he is still unable to cope with it, it may be more than I can tolerate.  I have to believe that Yauchler is consciously developing young Jake slowly.The writing definitely draws you in to the characters.  You have a good sense of who everyone is, and it is easy to keep up with the various personalities - mainly because of the method of introduction that the author uses at the beginning of the book.  And, as I have noted in only a few of my SHTF/TEOTWAWKI reviews, this author has relatively few grammar/spelling errors.  Most of the few spelling errors were things like "were" instead of "where", an easy typo to overlook - although the editor certainly should have caught them.  The only significant grammar issue only happened twice toward the end of the book, and it was ironic since the author had used this frequently misused verb correctly so many times prior to that.  Yauchler correctly said things like, "He was tired and lay down for a nap", where so many less educated authors would say "...laid down for a nap".  Sounds right to most folks because almost nobody uses it correctly.  Congrats to the author for getting it right so many times; but just as "to Lie" is intransitive and requires no object of the action, "to lay" is transitive and does require an object.  It is not correct to say something like "he lay his hand on her shoulder".  In that case, it is "laid".  The hand gets laid on the shoulder (transitive!!)  But, having said that, this author has much better writing skills than most in this genre; and his story line keeps you interested.  If you want an even better editor, YL, shoot me an email.I very much look forward to the sequel.  Most readers were probably shocked at what the characters saw overhead at the end - bet the majority never even thought in that direction at all.  I was actually fully anticipating something like what happened; but I'm a prepper, and am always thinking ahead of the curve about what could occur next - that's why I was a little unhappy that Jake did not make the right choice in handling his third assault.  Very few authors have gone the direction that Yauchler takes at the very end; but this has set up what could be a series of really good sequels.