A Beginning at the End

Prior to the rise of COVID-19, I read a slew of post/during-apocalyptic fiction in advance of a Tucson Festival of Books panel that I was set to escort the authors to and from (Mike Chen, Kimi Eisele, Chuck Wendig), and this stood out for sure.

The plot is well-organized and I enjoyed navigating this new world with such a developed group of characters. Though some could fall into stereotype (rock star that’s moved on with her life, over-controlling dad-ager, precocious child), each of our central figures are complex beyond their immediate wants. Chen did a wonderful job subverting expectation, which can be a difficult feat in a genre that usually follows a predictable storyline.

The audio book was pleasant, as well. I switched between listening to it (download Libby by Overdrive if you have not done so already) and reading the hard cover. Though I’m sad that TFOB was cancelled, I am glad that it led me to this book and this author.

Chen has achieved a feat I would have thought impossible: making a story about a global pandemic and the collapse of our infrastructure into a personal, emotional story about parenthood, family, survival, and trauma. Its beautifully written, superbly executed, and gripping even as the core stakes are so personal and small compared to what the world of the book is facing. It puts an incredible new spin on this genre.

Strewn with needless accounts of characters incessantly chit-chatting. Chapters named for characters the reader has no interest reading about.
I think that the author may have had potential to write a good dystopic post-apocalyptical novel when on page 374, he writes: “The truth is that this cure we are working on … is not going to last. MGS is the fastest mutating virus we’ve ever seen. The thing that has been unleashed (is) going to be around for a really long time. All we can do is throw all our resource (against) it.” Had the author started with that on the first page and introduced serious characters, with a cognizable plot, my impression of the novel would probably have been completely different. Rather, his first discernible character is a female rock artist Mojo followed by a succession of unredeemable unimpressive people you would prefer not to know anything about. You will find yourself skipping page after page trying to find where the “good part” begins but in vain – as there is no “good part.” It is more like a script than a novel in that the vast majority of space is occupied by speech. Often inane speech. A lot of palaver. Description is largely absent. Such bunk.
I could only recommend this book for English as a Foreign Language or Second Language (EFL/ESL) student endeavoring to speak American colloquial English.
Easily one of the worst book purchases I have made in my adult life.
I shall endeavor to give it to an EFL/ESL student if I can find one. I do not want to give it to a Library as it would be a waste of good library space. If I had to give a present to someone that I do not like, this book would be ideal. In the end, however, I may just relegate it to the trash.

How chilling that this book should hit the market during the beginning of a mutating, insidious pandemic where we see real society respond much like what the book describes. With an exploding human population invading previously untouched environments, the loosing of new diseases is both frightening and inevitable. But let’s hope that the disaster documented by this fiction author does not come to pass in reality. This is a good book documenting a natural disaster, society turned on its head and individuals trying to navigate thru their new reality while also dealing with the scars and poor judgements from their pasts.

I really liked this book..some parts more than others but overall it was a great read. I will say I enjoyed the beginning better but the end was still pretty well written. I recommend to anyone who likes post apocalyptic fiction.

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