Saturday, January 19, 2019

From my TBR shelf...

Title & Author:  Locker Nine by Franklin Horton

Why I bought it:  I love disaster/survival stories--whether the disaster is caused by a massive earthquake, EMP, terrorist attack, or zombie apocalypse. So when I saw this book on Amazon, I couldn't resist putting it in my cart. (Because once again, my library didn't have it.)

The Premise:  Grace is just finishing her freshman year of college when a terrorist strike takes out the power grid. Chaos quickly ensues. Luckily Grace's dad--a serious prepper and science fiction writer who's plotted the end of the world numerous times--has prepared her for this kind of disaster. He's even given her a key to a locker with everything she and her roommate, Zoe, will need to make the 600 mile journey home. Too bad the roads they must  travel on are filled with other people not quite so prepared...and definitely not on their side.

My thoughts:  I really liked Grace. She's tough and resilient and never backs down. And her relationship with her dad brought a welcome layer of humor and heart to an otherwise predictable plot. I wish every chapter had been about her and Zoe and their journey. Sadly, half the chapters focus on another character, Ray, a pot-smoking video gamer who's decided to start living life like he's the hero of Grand Theft Auto. Talk about a despicable human being! But I guess every disaster novel needs its requisite bad guy. (I also didn't love the first five chapters that were all about the terrorists; Horton could have done away with those entirely in my opinion. But at least they were short.) This wasn't a perfect read, but despite its shortcomings, I still liked it. It's a decent disaster read with a memorable and fun heroine. And I'd read book two, Grace Under Fire, just to find out what happens to Grace next.

Rating:  3/5 stars.  Best of all? It counts as my first read for Lark's Backlist Reader Challenge!

Happy Reading!



26 comments:

  1. Hm, I'm on the fence about this one. I like a good disaster novel, especially one starring a strong heroine, but I think the alternate chapters/narrators in this one would drive me crazy!

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    1. Yeah. I really wish it'd just been about Grace.

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  2. One of my favorite genres. :) I'm getting a bit frustrated with the back and forth chapters in so many books. Sometimes it works well, but often it is annoying. Nevertheless, I like the sound of Grace and her resilience and will look for this one.

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  3. There's been books where I didn't like the change in POV and I would just skim through them. I do love end-of-the-world scenarios, too, so I'll check this one out. Great review, Lark!

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    1. There's usually one POV I like best in multiple POV stories. And in this one, it was Grace's. :)

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  4. Maybe since it is a series there may be a reason the author provided the alternate POVs which will come to fruition in later books? You will have to let us know!

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  5. I like the sounds of this one, Lark. And I do like a disaster book at times, though it has been a long time since I read one. I'll check to see if my library picked this one up.

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    1. Disaster books are fun. Hope your library has this one. :)

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  6. Ooh a college aged disaster story! I need more of those. And power grid outages/ EMP stuff freaks me out because I think most of us are totally unprepared for something like that lol, total societal meltdown. :) Fun to read about though!

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    1. I think we're completely unprepared to lose the power grid, so I hope it never really happens. But I do like reading about it. :D

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  7. The failure of my library system to have absolutely every single book I want to read is responsible for many of the books on my TBR shelves :) "One-click" buying also shares some of that responsibility.

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  8. Hi Lark, I really like your analysis of what went right and wrong with this story. I have found that with authors too where they don't give enough time to the more interesting characters in the book, in this case Grace and Zoe, but instead focus on a character that didn't deserve all the attention they gave him. Congratulations too on starting your backlist file. I'm finding this a great idea.

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    1. Thanks, Kathy! It's sad that I have to sign up for a reading challenge to read my own books that have been languishing on my shelves for years, but there you go. :)

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  9. I enjoy these types of stories every once in a while. It's been a long time since I read a dystopian book though.

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  10. I love these types of books. It'd be so terrifying if something like this happened in real life, but it makes for an incredibly compelling read.

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    1. I completely agree! Wouldn't want to live through it, but love reading about it. :D

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  11. I am s curious about. The humour in this!

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    1. It definitely made parts of this book a lot of fun.

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  12. I do love a good disaster/survival stories and it's been a while since I've read them. Grace sounds like an interesting character. :)

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  13. Locker Nine is one of the many apocalypse series that I need to get to!

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    1. I liked it enough to want to read the next one in the series. But I'd love to know what you think of it. :)

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