Genre: Fiction—Thriller
Completed: 3 July 2017
Summary & Review:
As John gets ready for his daughter’s birthday party at their home in the hills of North Carolina the world changes forever: unbeknownst to him America is hit by three EMP attacks that wipe out all electronics in the country. As the reality of the situation dawns on John, he knows that their town must band together to survive as civilization collapses around them.
Man, this was one downer of a book. It was relentless in its attempt at realistically portraying the catastrophic results of this type of attack. Rather than softening some of the blows for the sake of the reader, Forstchen holds no punches. I see the point of this, of course, since this is a topic that the author is very worried about and what’s America to prepare for, but as the reader I didn’t like him killing everybody off. It was like how J.K. Rowling went wizardcidal in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (#10). Did she really have to kill off Hedwig to get the point across? Really?!?
That being said, I have to agree with Forstchen's portrayal. I do think that this is how things would play out in the States if something like this were to occur. While diversity is often touted as one of our greatest strengths, in times of disaster and war, it is a huge liability. When neighbors don’t trust eachother, they will not cooperate or look out for one another and history has shown time and time again that diverse communities have lower levels of social cohesion and trust thus they are much less likely to band together when disaster strikes. It is what it is.
Rating: 7.0
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