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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
This is one of those books that I was always curious about but never got around to reading. Well, I finally got around to reading it. And putting aside the scientific aspects of it, I found it to be a pretty decent survival novel. It depicted the hopelessness, hunger, isolation, claustrophobia and uncertainty of survival fairly well. I don't particularly mind that not much happened over the course of the novel.
It can seem dull and boring at times, but I've grown up reading survival novels like Island of the Blue Dolphin, Hatchet, Sign of the Beaver and of course the classic Robinson Crusoe. There's a lot of downtime where the character is just surviving: searching for food, making weapons, longing for companions, et cetera. I'm not suggesting this novel is anywhere close to those classics, but this book did do well on the survival aspect.
What it didn't do well was in the science aspect. Maybe if this was in some alien world, all the things that happened could be excused. But since it happened on Earth, it was much harder to ignore. I found this disaster impossible to believe. Even something as mundane as the homework assignments weirdly focusing on the moon felt unbelievable to me. I've lived through historic moments and aside from watching on television, no teacher felt they had to assign homework based on it. I won't go into the asteroid knocking into the moon and all that happened, as I am admittedly not the most authoritative on the subject. I will say that the scenario seemed like it could never actually happen, and that is a lack when you're dealing in survival stories.
But that wasn't my only issue. I honestly did not like how certain people and organizations were portrayed in this novel. Mentioning George W. made this book dated, and the mother's obvious distaste for him and Fox News gave a certain tone. I was also unhappy with how Christians were handled in this novel. It seemed very unpleasant and made them out to be delusional, brainwashed or greedy. I don't want to put too much on my own personal bias on this, but it honestly seems to me like the author did.
Honestly, I think that if the political and religious biases were kept out, or at least looked at more fairly, then I would have enjoyed the book a bit more. Again, I would have to ignore the lack of scientific accuracy, but I still would have enjoyed it more.
It can seem dull and boring at times, but I've grown up reading survival novels like Island of the Blue Dolphin, Hatchet, Sign of the Beaver and of course the classic Robinson Crusoe. There's a lot of downtime where the character is just surviving: searching for food, making weapons, longing for companions, et cetera. I'm not suggesting this novel is anywhere close to those classics, but this book did do well on the survival aspect.
What it didn't do well was in the science aspect. Maybe if this was in some alien world, all the things that happened could be excused. But since it happened on Earth, it was much harder to ignore. I found this disaster impossible to believe. Even something as mundane as the homework assignments weirdly focusing on the moon felt unbelievable to me. I've lived through historic moments and aside from watching on television, no teacher felt they had to assign homework based on it. I won't go into the asteroid knocking into the moon and all that happened, as I am admittedly not the most authoritative on the subject. I will say that the scenario seemed like it could never actually happen, and that is a lack when you're dealing in survival stories.
But that wasn't my only issue. I honestly did not like how certain people and organizations were portrayed in this novel. Mentioning George W. made this book dated, and the mother's obvious distaste for him and Fox News gave a certain tone. I was also unhappy with how Christians were handled in this novel. It seemed very unpleasant and made them out to be delusional, brainwashed or greedy. I don't want to put too much on my own personal bias on this, but it honestly seems to me like the author did.
Honestly, I think that if the political and religious biases were kept out, or at least looked at more fairly, then I would have enjoyed the book a bit more. Again, I would have to ignore the lack of scientific accuracy, but I still would have enjoyed it more.
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Possibly the best part of this book was its dis(for lack of a better word) of Fox News. And obviously George Bush. That was funny. I think that is why i gave this book 5 stars. The book itself was pretty good but that other stuff topped the cake. This book was basically your typical end of the world book. An asteroid, meteorite or whatever hits the moon and shifts just a little closer to the Earth. And then there's chaos and mayhem and pandemonium etc. etc. This book is told through diary entries which normally would have been unfortunate but in this case it was okay, even if the girl in the story was a little too self indulgent for my tastes. Well anyway, besides the fact there were far too many unanswered questions and whining, this was one of the best reads for me in 2010. Chao!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was a book that I felt like I couldn’t put down, I thoroughly enjoyed the plot and seeing what sudden descent into an apocalyptic world would look like. I thought that a lot of it was realistic in how regular folks would respond to something society-altering, although there was times where it felt like the book was set up to give the characters just enough so they could survive when it maybe was not so accurate to real life. I think the thing that stuck out most was that their water worked after the electricity went out, when I am fairly certain that our water doesn’t run when the electricity goes out. It just took me out of the story and immersion a bit.
Overall, I thought this was an entertaining book and it truly made me start thinking about what would I do if the world plummeted into absolute chaos and the luxuries we’ve come to rely on are no longer available. I look forward to reading the rest of the series!
Overall, I thought this was an entertaining book and it truly made me start thinking about what would I do if the world plummeted into absolute chaos and the luxuries we’ve come to rely on are no longer available. I look forward to reading the rest of the series!
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
medium-paced
Let me just say I don’t think I’d survive if this ever happened. This book started out a bit slow, but it got better as it went along.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No