Pages: 64
Released On: 19/07/2023
You have heard of a nuclear family, but a fallout family? In a world where humanity has been brought to its knees by apocalyptic disaster, survival is the only thing on James’s mind. Determined to protect his sister Piper, James will stop at nothing to ensure her safety. But when a dangerous encounter leaves him injured and stranded, Piper must take the reins and embark on a treacherous journey to roam the ruins to find him. With the help of their trusty dog companion Miss Bella, Piper will discover her own strength and resourcefulness as they fight to be reunited. Will they make it in time or will the wasteland claim another victim? Join James, Piper and Miss Bella in their heart-pounding quest to survive in a world where only the strongest families survive.
*****
Thanks to Isaac for the gifted copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I am going to try and blend my opinions on this book as someone who is in their 20s, as well as how I imagine a child in the target audience would feel about it. So, when you read this review, please be aware that I am 20 years older than the target audience.
So firstly, Isaac has fibromyalgia and chronic pain, which I also do, and so it was lovely to see his commitment to including diversity of health and disability in his work. And he donates a portion of the books sold to the charity Grand Appeal which works alongside Bristol children’s hospital.
Amazon puts the target audience as 8-15 years old, which I thought was quite the difference, because an 8 year old will want to read completely different things to a 15 year old, in my opinion. My gut feeling, going on the kids in my family, is I don’t think it’s the kind of book for teenagers. Yes, there is some terror and danger in it, but I feel it’s a bit too simple for older kids to get their teeth into. But I’d say some of my younger relatives might enjoy it, so I would say 8-10 is probably a better range.
I have read children/YA books before and really enjoyed them, connecting to them at the same level as I would an adult book. But I felt this one was a bit too much out of my reach. I feel mainly because it is so short. I have said before I generally dislike short stories, but I do still read them in the hope one will change my mind. This book does what it says it’s going to, and I know younger readers who maybe don’t have the same patience or attention span as someone older would enjoy it. But as an older reader, I think it needs to be longer in order to explore more of the themes mentioned.
I felt the point-of-view was a bit odd for me. Whilst reading it, I was confused as to whether it was the dog’s story or the people’s story. Having finished it, my instinct is it is from the dog’s POV, but also tells the stories of the human characters.
What it does succeed at is the pacing. A story this short cannot waste time introducing settings and people and past events, it has to go straight in, and this does. There’s no hanging about, and we almost have to join the dots for ourselves which is exciting. There’s no real preamble or slow bits, because there just isn’t time, which I think will definitely appeal to younger readers who want to get straight into the action.
For a book that only has 60-odd pages, it does fit quite a lot in: sibling relationships, friends, loneliness, anger, injury, disability, trepidation, violence. And so for that reason, I think it would excite younger readers, especially as this looks to be book 1 of a potential series, so they could pick up on the stories as the series goes on.
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