California in Apocalypse Whenever

Nov 02, 2014 Erin rated it it was ok

Shelves: book-club, post-apocalypse-dystopia

Let me start off by saying that my recommendation of this book for my book club now has me on a three to six month death penalty for suggesting books. And the worst part is that I was confused and meant to suggest Station Eleven. Crap.

Unlike SOME people in my book club, I didn't think this was the worst book I ever read, but so much of the premise was so insane that it is hard to remember any good parts. There's really no way to discuss my faults with this book without spoilers, so.....(view sp ...more

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Feb 05, 2015 Amy rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-book, post-apocalyptic, 2015-books-read

So, this book was a GoodReads Choice Awards finalist for 2014? What an underwhelming choice. To each their own, I suppose. It's supposed to be a kind of a post-apocalyptic world where a bad economy has shifted people from living in cities to living in private communities or living off the land. Frida and Cal are living off the land and discover a community within a 2-day walk that they hope to join. A great portion of the book is spent with Frida hiding her pregnancy from the group because there So, this book was a GoodReads Choice Awards finalist for 2014? What an underwhelming choice. To each their own, I suppose. It's supposed to be a kind of a post-apocalyptic world where a bad economy has shifted people from living in cities to living in private communities or living off the land. Frida and Cal are living off the land and discover a community within a 2-day walk that they hope to join. A great portion of the book is spent with Frida hiding her pregnancy from the group because there are no children living there and what happened to them is a big secret. I wonder if this theme was influenced in any way by the author being pregnant while writing this book. Probably.

I found the characters in the book annoying. Frida is overly sensory-aware. She focuses largely on the way things affect her senses: the memory of the taste of licked stamps, the longing for the feel of abacus beads in her mouth, etc. But they're usually weird sensory things. And the big secret she's been hiding from her husband is that she has a turkey baster. He only learns of it when she offers it as a peace offering to the community and gets mad at her for keeping it a secret. A turkey baster. A friggin' turkey baster. Why would you keep it a secret, be mad about it being a secret, or think anyone would be thrilled to receive it? Her husband Cal doesn't seem to have much of a personality. However, sometimes the author accidentally overlays Frida's sensory awareness on him. Their fights do tend to be over dumb things that make no sense. Funny how they don't fight at the end when a fight would have actually made sense.

Additionally the big hero of the story turns out to be an evil terrorist. I'm surprised that this word is never used for him in regard to his bombings, beheadings, banishments, etc. Why would you want to keep a person like that in your life, be a part of their inner circle, and make plans with them? Wouldn't you question whether or not it would be a good idea to stick around with a psychopath, even if he's someone you were close to in your past? I don't understand why there was never a conversation about this.

There are several other things that don't make sense to my way of thinking: the rat poison incident, why there are no children in the community, why several of the women in the community are terrified of the color red even if it's just red blood, and why Frida couldn't keep her big mouth shut. There are explanations given, but they don't satisfy me.

The ending felt rushed. The reader gets a couple of big reveals about what the community is all about. And then they live happily ever after. The end. What?

This definitely ranks among the least enjoyable post-apocalyptic books I've read mainly because the reasons for everything just don't seem to add up to the way that real people act. But I suppose that's fiction for ya. This is a 2.5-star book rounded up to 3 stars simply because I cared to see it through to the end despite it's shortcomings. ...more

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Feb 01, 2015 Alison rated it really liked it

I loved the apocalypse of this book, but hated the characters. The male lead (Cal) was ok, not great, but ok. But I thought the woman was selfish, and a bit spoiled brat like. But there are questions I still want answered and for that I liked it. I also just a loved the way their apocalypse happens and their back to the land reaction to it.

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Sep 16, 2014 Jason rated it it was ok

Shelves: audio-book, my-library

This was given to me via a free giveaway through goodreads. It was the audio version via audiable. It took me a long time to listen to this book mostly because I only listened on those days I did not carpool with my wife on the way to the office. And also, because it was not the kind of story that made we want to listen to it at other times. It was just okay. It was a very interesting story, but not all the characters were very deep and at times I felt lost in the story, this could very well be ...more

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Oct 08, 2015 Alice rated it liked it

Shelves: scifi-apocalyptic-fantasy, couple-s-book-club, 2015

It was ok. Maybe a little overblown with hype before hand. Don't think the author had any intention of writing a sequel when she initially wrote this, which makes the ending annoying. Heard she is considering a sequel now though. ...more

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