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A review by krissy22247
Wipe by Joseph A. Turkot
2.0
I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway. The premise seemed interesting. I love a good post-apocalyptic story. This had all the right elements. Small societies living in the aftermath of some great and final conflict. A return to simpler times and ideals. A headstrong girl and the boy who adores her venturing boldly into the wreckage of human history. They seek out the truth of what really happened to mankind. Honestly, I wanted to love this book. There were some really great ideas and contrasts, but the execution didn’t hold up.
There was a lot of repetition. The main character goes through the same series of thoughts over and over again, showing resolve and losing the resolve again in a heartbeat. He has the same thoughts about Maze seemingly every other page, making him less sympathetic and more whiny. They escape absolutely certain death multiple times by miracles of coincidence that stretched the limits of suspended disbelief. Even the same phrases are repeated many times. I lost count of how many times i read “It was all I could do...”
There is a lack of solid explanation for a lot of things in the book. Why does the resistance have access to fuel, when it seems centuries have passed since The Wipe and all fuel would be useless? There’s no explanation of how the skin of the Nefandus is somehow like armor or how some of their tribe have antlers attached to their skulls. The story doesn’t seem as though so much time has passed that evolution would have allowed for these changes. I was also confused how the main characters had so much knowledge of the world before the Wipe. They knew what cars and skyscrapers were. They understood that vehicles used fuel and even that there were different kinds of metal such as steel. They even knew what computer circuitry looked like. However, all of these things were forbidden. So, where did they get all of this knowledge? These inconsistencies, among others, took me out of the story.
Overall it was a solid concept that needed a few really good editing passes. This would have helped alleviate the repetition and close up holes in the narrative.
There was a lot of repetition. The main character goes through the same series of thoughts over and over again, showing resolve and losing the resolve again in a heartbeat. He has the same thoughts about Maze seemingly every other page, making him less sympathetic and more whiny. They escape absolutely certain death multiple times by miracles of coincidence that stretched the limits of suspended disbelief. Even the same phrases are repeated many times. I lost count of how many times i read “It was all I could do...”
There is a lack of solid explanation for a lot of things in the book. Why does the resistance have access to fuel, when it seems centuries have passed since The Wipe and all fuel would be useless? There’s no explanation of how the skin of the Nefandus is somehow like armor or how some of their tribe have antlers attached to their skulls. The story doesn’t seem as though so much time has passed that evolution would have allowed for these changes. I was also confused how the main characters had so much knowledge of the world before the Wipe. They knew what cars and skyscrapers were. They understood that vehicles used fuel and even that there were different kinds of metal such as steel. They even knew what computer circuitry looked like. However, all of these things were forbidden. So, where did they get all of this knowledge? These inconsistencies, among others, took me out of the story.
Overall it was a solid concept that needed a few really good editing passes. This would have helped alleviate the repetition and close up holes in the narrative.