• Status: Read (October 23, 2021)
• Pages: 384
• Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure, Post Apocalyptic
• Type: Paperback/Advanced Reader’s Copy
• ISBN: 978-0-06-309903-6
• Rating: ★★★☆☆
• Reviewed: Yes

I am not a professional reviewer, I just enjoy reading books and sharing my thoughts about them. I also have no sense of what counts as a spoiler, so read at your own risk! I also cuss like a sailor.

Before we begin, I feel the need to say that I got sick right as I finished this book, so it’s been several days since I completed it and my memory ain’t that great. For that, I’m sorry, but I’ll do my best to categorize what I thought about this book. I’m still recovering so my brain is wonky and I’m forcing myself to write this before I lose more of my memory of this book so forgive me if I don’t make sense. I won this book in a giveaway.

After finishing chapter one, I was really intrigued by what was happening. The copy I got also says it’s an unread proof, but there was very few mistakes throughout this book which was honestly surprising to me since my own proofs are FULL of mistakes. Big points for that aspect. I really love the cover and I felt curious to see what was going to happen.

This started as the flu and then wiped out most of the population in six days. Hmm, it’s beginning to look a lot like covid~

{When I was younger, the coronavirus seemed to last forever.}

Oh… I guess it ISN’T a covid story then, for fuck’s sake lmao One thing that threw me off a lot was the mention of the monstrosity. When the explosion started, she grabbed the ‘monstrosity’ and darted from the house but I could NOT figure out what the fuck it was until many chapters later.

{“That dish is called the Monstrosity, and it’s coming with us. Nonnegotiable.”}

I’m honestly not even sure if she mentioned the name – it’s the bowl she made by the way – and I honestly couldn’t be bothered to go back and check to see if she did mention it. I just know that it left me scratching my head a few times until I finally realized it was the damn bowl.

{I open the back of the car, lift the cargo mat, and hit pay dirt. Not a crowbar, but a tire iron will do just fine.}

This is another thing that really fucking confused me. When she said ‘pay dirt’ I imagine that with a negative connotation. I have NEVER heard this phrase used in my twenty-eight years of life and every time I read it, I figured she didn’t find what she was looking for only to find out it’s a positive thing meaning she DID find what she was looking for.

Now, most of the time when I get books, especially giveaway books, I don’t read the synopsis which is how this book went for me. I didn’t realize it was Sci-Fi, which is one of my least favorite genres. I’m not big on space or aliens at all. I’m not a non-believer per se but it just feels very… farfetched, I guess? And not the pokemon. Like, why the fuck would some other planet ever give enough fucks to come and visit US? Humans are terrible. And who’s to say that they are any more advanced than we are? They were probably popped into existence at the same time we were. I don’t know, man, it’s just not a topic that excites me and it’s kinda blah to me. At the time that I wrote this comment, I did not know if it WAS aliens, but if that weird glowy guy in the hospital was anything to go by, I was pretty sure that’s where it was heading. I won’t lie – when I read the description of this thing and Trey’s insistence that it was aliens, my enthusiasm for this book dropped quite a bit, but that may be my fault for not reading the synopsis to know what I was getting myself into.

{“I’ve personally always thought the world would be better off without humans,” Tanq says. “Maybe it’s time to give another species a turn at the top.”}

We found it, bois, the best line in this book. If you know anything about me, you know that I do not like human beings as a whole and I’ve thought this many times in the past. Maybe that makes me an asshole, but I’ve seen the cruelty of human beings just for the fun of it. Humanity is trash and they’ve honestly gone unchecked for way too long, running free to rob, murder, and rape to their heart’s content. Ridiculous. But that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms.

The March 26th chapter is so goddamn long and goes on for AGES. Every single page, I would tell myself that I would finish the chapter and then go inside, but it continued to go on and on and on and finally, I just said feck it. I understand that the chapters are formatted like diary entries, so if a lot happens in one day, that chapter is gonna be super long, but my fucking god do I hate that format. For me, I’m not fond of taking a break in the middle of a chapter and usually force myself to finish the chapter before taking a break, so when you have a chapter that goes on for 20+ pages, it really fucking sucks. I don’t actually know how many pages there were in that chapter and I don’t have the energy to check, but it certainly feels like it was 20+ pages.

{“Shawntelle made me swear off of Black guys.”
“What? Why?”
“She said that white women fetishize Black guys. That it’s a form of racism. And she was my best friend, so… I listened.”
“She sounds like an amazing person.”}

No, she sounds fucking terrible. I don’t know what has me more shocked here, the fact that Shawntelle made her promise that shit or the fact that Paige actually fucking agreed to it. You’re deadass gonna sit there and tell me that falling in love with someone of a different skin color is fetishizing them and it’s racism… No, fam. You say that is fucking racist. Love does not see color, bro. If Paige happens to fall in love with a black dude, she’s racist if she tries to date him?? I honestly can’t tell if this author is trying to appeal to the ‘woke’ community that has cropped up in recent years or if she just genuinely felt like the character needed that personality but my fucking god, bro.

And then they fucking PRAISE her for it. Like yeah, she’s dead and you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but “she sounds like an amazing person”? No, she sounds like a goddamn dumbass.

Don’t get me wrong here. There’s over 7 billion fucking people in this world so I’m sure there ARE people who fetishize black people (and asians and mexicans and every fucking body else assuming you’re not switching preference with fetish which are two very different things), but to look at your BEST FRIEND and say that they can’t date an entire fucking race because it’s a fetish if she’s white… what the actual fuck, man. Like, this is blowing my mind right now. For you to sit there and pretty much say “I don’t give a fuck if you fall in love with someone, if they are black and you’re white, you’re a racist” I… is that not racism in its self??

You’re putting the color of someone’s skin above all else which does not matter. It’s nice to know who are you and to respect your heritage and culture, but at some point you have to stop looking at skin color as a factor to fucking divide people and put them into boxes to fit your own fucking narrative. Like, I know I’m saying more on this topic than I should be but goddamn if this ain’t the stupidest shit I’ve ever read in any book. Just imagine that you fall in love with someone. They are your soulmate and you want to spend the rest of your life with them, but then you got to your BEST FRIEND to share the news and they call you a racist and say that you’re fetishizing that person JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE BLACK AND YOU ARE WHITE.

I literally could not continue reading after this. I had to stop and put it down for a while before continuing and, honestly, I wasn’t sure I WANTED to continue reading this, but I forced myself to finish it. And when I say force, I mean it. I did not like this book and I think maybe three stars is even too generous, but I’m a bit biased against Sci-Fi and it was my fault for not preparing for that which I think earns it another star.

Overall, I didn’t feel any attachment to these characters. They felt paper-thin and didn’t seem to have any life to them. I had no emotional response to this book aside from annoyance. It wasn’t thrilling to me and, honestly, I wasn’t really rooting for them to succeed in the end because I just didn’t care about them at all.

The ONLY good character in this book was Emmaline and I don’t even fucking like dogs. But, unlike most media featuring pets, she survives. Though I think it would be a lot better if ONLY the dog survived, but you know. Gotta give her props for not killing off the dog, at least.