Saturday, March 3, 2018

What do you love?

I have many bookish loves:  psychological thrillers, supernatural stories, urban fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, certain classics, and even some romance. But one of my absolute favorite kinds of books is disaster/survival novels. I just can't resist them. In Outage by Ellisa Barr, the disaster is an EMP that wipes out all power and technology and leaves fifteen-year-old Dee stranded with her grandfather at his farm in rural Washington. (Her parents are on an Alaskan cruise when the EMP hits.)


With her grandfather dependent on a pacemaker that no longer works, it's up to Dee to handle the majority of the farm chores. Then there's the problem of not having any clean water. Or enough food. It gets even worse when their truck gets stolen. Luckily they have good neighbors (who just happen to be Mormon), who will trade bread for eggs and help with the farm work for a few chickens of their own. And Dee and her grandfather will need all the help they can get if they hope to fend off those men in town determined to take what they want no matter who gets hurt in the process. (Because every dystopian novel needs its requisite bad guys!)

I liked this one! It's not a perfect read, but I thought it was fun. Dee's a bit spoiled and naive in the beginning, but she grows up fast. And she never gives up. I liked that about her; I also liked her two friends, Hyrum and Mason. There's a little bit of faith and prayer in this book, and lots of focus on preparedness and figuring out how to survive in a scary and uncertain world, all of which I enjoyed.

I'm a bit of a prepper at heart, so books like this always make me wonder what I can do to be better prepared for whatever the future may hold--whether it's stocking up on batteries and candles for the next power outage, investing in a good first-aid kit, or buying a few extra cans of food and bottles of water the next time I'm at the store. 'Cause a little preparedness goes a long way.

Happy Reading!

Similar reads:
     Trapped
     

17 comments:

  1. You've pretty much covered my favorites! And, since reading Robinson Crusoe (a children's classic version) in the third grade, I've always loved survival novels. Outage sounds like something I'd really enjoy. :)

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    1. Survival stories are the best, aren't they?

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  2. I like disaster survival stories too. This one sounds fun.

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  3. EMPs are one of my favourite things to read about. I wasn't keen on the MC in this one but I have tons of them on my bookshelves and Kindle! For me it is preppers and apocalypses, zombies, horror, non romance UF, dinosaurs and monsters!

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    1. I need more dinosaur and monster books in my life! :D

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  4. Ooh, I love these types of novels, too. I hadn't heard of this one before, but I'm going to add it to my TBR mountain chain. Is it written by an LDS author? I never thought about it before, but Mormons are kind of the original preppers!

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    1. I don't know if Barr is LDS, or not. But reading about the Mormon family next door kind of made me smile. And you're right, Mormons kind of are the original preppers. :D

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  5. I like to be prepared too. :-) This sounds good!

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  6. I love the list you mentioned. I think I love reading most genres, well except for sci-fi (it depends on the subject, I guess) and zombies-related books, lol.

    Survival stories are a hit or miss to me; and I think it's always good to be prepared after reading these kind of stories. :)

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  7. It's so interesting to think about what we would do if something like this happens. Have you read When The English Fall? It's a similar kind of story from the POV of an Amish man. I really liked it.

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    1. I have read When the English Fall, and I liked it for many of the same reasons I liked this one. :)

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  8. I have too many loves. Horror (all kinds), romance (most kinds), psychological thrillers, funny cozies with animals, true-crime. Ugh, this is why my tbr is endless!

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    1. But at least you'll never run out of things to read! :D

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  9. When I read books like these I realize I'm in no way prepared for anything like this! haha... I really enjoy dystopian type stories (not sure if this one would necessarily classify as dystopian) because it's so interesting to see how characters will grow from their challenges right?

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    1. Yes! I really like seeing how the characters act and react and figure out how to survive in these types of books. :)

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