Tag: Georgia

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#BookReview: Fuji Fire by Chas Henry

Mass Effect. September 11. Small Exurban Atlanta, Georgia. A Blimp Commonly Seen At Major US Sporting Events. All Connected By One Event. Many, many years ago – nearly as far back as the fire at the heart of this book, though I’m not quite *that* old – I attended a Family Day (or whatever they called it at the time) at the Goodyear plant in Rockmart, Ga, just outside metropolitan Atlanta at the time. My dad and several uncles all worked for Goodyear at one of their two plants in my hometown of Cartersville, just up the road, and for whatever reason this year (and maybe one other?) Goodyear was combining the event for all three plants. Little did I know that in attending that event, I would have a direct – if extremely remote – connection to a fire that killed 13 US Marines and injured nearly 50 other people when my dad was 19 and just before my mom’s 19th birthday, nearly a year before they wed and within 5 yrs before my birth. To the level that given my family and community connections, it is at least somewhat likely that I actually know people who know the people who likely never even knew that something they had made had unfortunately indirectly caused so much devastation.

And little did Henry know that in including the tiny detail of who made the fuel bladder that leaked the fuel that burned and caused these casualties, he would instantly make this tale that much more personal to a reviewer who had never heard of this tragedy before seeing this book.

But there are wider connections here, both more in the aftermath than the setup. One issue Henry dives into for a page or two (of just barely 230 pages of actual text here) actually connects directly to an issue explored early in the first Mass Effect game in an encounter that is almost unavoidable, but to reveal which one would be a major spoiler for the discussion at this point of the book, as they are in fact identical, with identical reasonings if not identical particulars.

The other, perhaps even most surprising connection of all, is actually that this 1979 USMC tragedy along the slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan is directly connected to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City – and directly helped save lives in 2001. All because one doc in particular was there in 1979 trying to save the lives of as many of these Marines as he could and learned lessons that became directly applicable that Tuesday in New York.

Read this book to learn of the Marines tragically lost over those two months in late 1979. Their stories have rarely been told outside of Marine circles, and everyone deserves to be remembered and have their stories known. Read this book to learn of the mistakes that were made that caused this calamity – or certainly exacerbated it, at minimum – and what we can do better both in the military (which *has* updated and clarified the relevant regulations over the intervening decades) and as a society in response to emergency and traumatic situations. Read this book to learn of the selflessness and heroism of so many working to save as many people as possible, and of the Marines themselves who were so often so much more worried about their fellow Marine than their own body. Read this book because so few of us have ever heard these stories, yet the sacrifice and courage of so many truly deserve to be more well known by so many more of us.

And yes, after you read this book… leave your own review. Tell the world what you thought of Henry’s reporting here (reads like a thriller, even as you know it is all too real) or the events shown here (I think I’ve been clear on that point). Help get the word out about this book so that the world can see what happened in 1979… and since.

And then go hug a loved one, because as this tale so poignantly points out… you never really know when it will be the last time you have a chance to do so.

Very much recommended.

PS: The star deduction? Unfortunately there was no bibliography at all in the Advance Review Copy edition of the book I read, and while I understand that this is original investigation, even by my more relaxed bibliographic requirements of nonfiction books these last few years I still really need to see at least around 15% of the text be bibliography, as that does seem to be a rough industry standard and is the standard I’ve been judging nonfiction books by for quite some time.

This review of Fuji Fire by Chas Henry was originally written on May 30, 2025.

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#BookReview: Gothictown by Emily Carpenter

Did Carpenter Steal My Life? (No, She Didn’t.) Hmmm… a book set in the real-life Bartow County (if in a fictional town within it) along the real-life Etowah River and some real-life roads (and some fictional ones). Featuring a veteran of a war named Major. Where an old Confederate area mine plays a major role. With (fictional) long-time area families being a key component of the story.

And I, a reader who is a native of the real Bartow County, whose great-grandfather was a WWI POW named Major, who went to high school not far off one of the roads in question (which runs through the northern section of Bartow County in real life, fwiw), who knows exactly where the real-life Cooper’s Furnace and several area mines (including several similar to the fictional one in the book, which aren’t on many current maps) are located, who can readily identify where the scars of the real-life war criminal terrorist bastard William Tecumseh Sherman’s troops left scars on the land that are still visible *to this day*, who went to both high school and college near the sites of famous actions during the Atlanta Campaign, whose families (including all relevant branches) have been in the area for over 200 years as I type this (though to be clear, my dad and his siblings were the first to call Bartow their home county), who knows well how well-connected families *continue* to control the real-life Bartow County via its (one of few remaining *nationally*, per my understanding) Sole Commissioner government system…

Yeah… the parallels between my real life and the fictional world Carpenter created here allow me a rare (not *quite* unique, as there *are* at least a few hundred others who have similar life experience and knowledge) view into this particular tale. 🙂

But to be 100% explicitly clear, while Carpenter and I have interacted via social media off and on for a few years now, and while several of my grandparents and older were from her own area of Georgia in the Roswell area she admits in the Author’s Note she actually based much of the tale on, we’ve never actually met and she had no possible way to know *all* of that about me. Thus, it is 100% coincidental that the story bears so much resemblance to so much that I can readily identify. 🙂

With all of *that* noted… this truly was a tremendous book. The motivations of pretty well everyone are pretty clear and believable (if a bit twisted, in the case of the antagonists of the tale). The parallels to The Lottery are blatant (as that tale is referenced in-story), but actually work well here with the story as presented. As things begin to go towards the psychological/ horror, it is done in a very believable manner, with open questioning of reality. The emotions are raw and visceral, no matter whether it be the hope of a new move, the horror of… the horrible things that happen (to avoid spoilers 😉 ), the disgust of some other things that happen… it all completely works.

And yes, I could absolutely see some parallel reality where the real-life Cassville – the County Seat of what was then called Cass County during the Civil War – actually plays out very similarly to how Juliana plays out here. The tale really is that close to being true to life, at least life as I experienced it as a former trailer park trash kid growing up alongside Bartow’s elite.

Finally, as Billie’s diner is a big part of this tale, I wanted to end the review in a unique manner for me, since this is a rather unique book for me. I’m going to leave you with a few recommendations for places to eat and things to do in and around Cartersville, should you ever find yourself on I-75 in Georgia north of Atlanta. (Unlike Carpenter noting that her Bartow County was *two* hours outside of Atlanta, in real life it is closer to 45 min from downtown Atlanta without traffic, and with traffic… who knows how long. During a snow storm one year, it literally took my dad over 12 hrs to get from his work on the perimeter of Atlanta (on I-285, basically) to his home in Cartersville.)

Places To Eat:
4-Way Diner. Historic diner near downtown Cartersville, still retains its “black only” entrance from the days of Jim Crow (now for historic purposes only, to be clear).

Jefferson’s. Restaurant in downtown Cartersville, inside the same building that houses the world’s oldest outdoor Coca-Cola sign on its railroad-track facing side. Likely the closest thing Cartersville currently has to a real-life Billie’s, as described in the text.

Moore’s Gourmet Market. Small eatery near Roselawn (below) and the Bartow County Library, just outside of downtown Cartersville.

Restaurants Along Felton Rd. There are a lot of places here, none of which have any historic significance – but the road name does. The road is named for Rebecca Latimer Felton, who owned a plantation in this part of the County before and after the Civil War. She was the first female US Senator – and the last formerly slave owning one.

Things to See:
Roselawn: Sam Jones’ mansion just outside of downtown Cartersville, one of few antebellum houses still existing in town. Across the street is a historic marker noting the former home of Lottie Moon, prominent Baptist missionary to China of the same era Sam Jones was preaching in and the person the Southern Baptist Convention’s Christmas fundraising effort is named for.

Old County Courthouse/ Sam Jones Memorial Methodist Church: Side by side, these buildings represent much of Cartersville’s history. I’ve personally seen KKK rallies at the Courthouse (and went the other way), and a cousin got married at Sam Jones, which was named after a preacher who was essentially the Billy Graham of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

World’s Oldest Outdoor Coca-Cola Sign. Along the train tracks at downtown Cartersville.

Etowah Indian Mounds: Mounds made by a pre-Columbus native tribe. The site is now across from a cemetery where several of my family members are buried and from Cartersville’s main recreation park, Dellinger Park.

Atco Village: Early 20th century mill village, its mill has now largely been destroyed, but the elements of the town are largely still intact to varying degrees. The mill was actually one of two that locked its doors on my dad when it shut down nearly 25 yrs ago, but the old Methodist Church still stands at the entrance to the village, along with its old post office (next to the railroad tracks) and the Baptist church (where my family attended for decades) still stands at the dead end of the street that you enter the village on. Many of the houses still retain their original looks, despite improvements over the century.

Cooper’s Furnace: I mentioned this site above. Just outside of Cartersville and just below the Allatoona Dam on the Etowah River, as you leave US 41 to drive over to this site, if you look into the river you’ll see the stone pillars that once held railroad tracks destroyed by Sherman’s troops as he moved through the region.

New Echota: Technically in Gordon County just north of Bartow, this is the site of the Capital of the Cherokee Nation at the time of the Trail of Tears. There is a relatively small State Park here with several buildings that were moved to this site to show what life was like at the time.

And enough with the tourism board stuff – I’m not Juliana’s Initiative by any stretch of the imagination, just a man proud of his hometown and constantly in awe of just how much history he grew up around, largely unknowingly.

Even as a Bartow County native – maybe *especially* as a Bartow County native – this book is absolutely…

Very much recommended.

This review of Gothictown by Emily Carpenter was originally written on March 21, 2025.

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#BookReview: Collar Me Crazy by Kay Bratt

Quick Introduction To Bratt’s Style. At around 1/2 to 1/3 of the length of a “normal Kay Bratt book” (at least in my experience reading them since 2019’s Dancing With The Sun), this book serves as a perfect quick introduction to Bratt’s (current) style of storytelling, with a solid small town, solid friendships, light romance elements (with about as much spice as a warm glass of milk, for those who need to know these things either direction), and with a central crime (or a few of them) based on real-world cases that Bratt largely expertly fictionalizes to work within the worlds she is creating while also (largely) faithfully recreating the crime inside that world.

In this particular text, the crime element centers around animal abuse, and it is here that Bratt can get a bit more preachy in this book than she normally gets. It is also here that certain elements bring forth wisps of the scent of James Rollins’ books involving Tucker Wayne.

Ultimately this entire series centers around a love of dogs, and dog lovers are in for a true treat as we go through this entire series of largely short story/ novella length books (largely in the 120-160 ish page range), and this is a particularly strong book to kick off the “meat” of the series after Book 1 largely used the first chapters of all of the books to introduce us to the overall town and concept of the series.

Very much recommended.

This review of Collar Me Crazy by Kay Bratt was originally written on January 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: Borrowed Time by Kay Bratt

Crystal Palaces Still Hide Much. Growing up, it seemed that one aunt in particular always had the perfect… well, everything, other than not having kids herself and having married a couple of times. She was the one that my brothers and I always dreaded coming over, because we knew we would have to clean the house to her (damn near white glove) level, and we *hated* that. (Meh, we were young Southern boys. ie, not exactly the cleanest neat freaks around. 😉 )

Get to a point about the freaking book, Sexton…

I’ve noted in reviews of other books in this series that Bratt manages to detail small town rural northern Georgia (outside of the Atlanta Metro area) remarkably well, and here Bratt shows even more of both the features and the bugs of the region. Including the all-too-real scenario of the aunt who has it all… but doesn’t, as I’ve learned later in life. In real life as in this book, there are a lot of trials and travails that for various reasons the person chooses to hide, particularly from their siblings’ kids and even from their siblings themselves. Even the exact scenarios here… are all too common. (To be clear, even now I have no idea about the exact circumstances in my real-life aunt’s case.)

Fortunately (so far as I know), it never got quite as intense as the one scene from the trigger warning in the book. And while I’m no fan of trigger warnings… yes, even that nearly successful attempted suicide scene – it is stopped in the last seconds by an intervening action – deserves a mention in reviews at minimum, as it *is* something that could cause others issues. Seriously, that thing was *that* intense, some of the most tense moments Bratt has ever weaved into any of the dozen or two of her books that I’ve now read.

But that is still just one scene in an otherwise compelling book that continues the story of Deputy Taylor Gray’s family and community, this one with yet another heinous and yet all too real crime, though I do not remember seeing an author’s note to see if this one (like others in the series) was based on specific cases from the general region.

Start with book one, but go ahead and order the entire series if you haven’t yet. You’re going to want them all anyway. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of Borrowed Time by Kay Bratt was originally written on April 11, 2023.

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#BookReview: Country Capitalism by Bart Elmore

Flawed, Yet Well Documented. This is a book all about how several corporations from the American South used *CORPORATISM* – not Capitalism, and yes, there is absolutely a difference – to remake the American (and, yes, global) economy and planet in ways both foreseen and not. Documentation-wise, it clocks in at about 28%, which is very healthy and perhaps slightly above average. Elmore transitions from company to company well, almost as well as the best transition between various groups I’ve ever seen – that of Power Rangers: Dino Thunder’s Legacy of Power episode which gave a history of the entire franchise to that particular entry. There’s a lot to learn from any perspective here, but the flawed title, referencing the left-academia boogeyman of capitalism -rather than what Elmore accurately describes which is corporatism – is indicative of the overall direction of the narrative. Mostly accurate – and, again, well documented – but from a leftist viewpoint that some readers may find off-putting. The overall tone is nowhere near as dry as some academic tones and even approaches the conversational, which makes for a pretty great read for anyone remotely interested in the subject.

Ultimately this truly is a seemingly solid history, if from a leftist perspective, and actually exposes something I suspect I’ve *known* of for a while without realizing the full extent of the problem – a problem Elmore exposes here while proclaiming it to be a great and beneficial thing – and that is the problem of lobbying not in Legislative Halls but in Corporate Boardrooms. Of lobbying interests attacking not elected legislators, but CEOS and others in power of corporations that, thanks to the corporatism described in this text, have power that in many ways rivals – and arguably even exceeds – that of elected officials. Thus, for these reasons and despite its flawed title and narrative, it is very much recommended.

PS: And for those like me who are contemporaries of Elmore – based on when he got his BA and when I got my BS and him discussing a few times – including the conclusion – that he grew up in “North Atlanta”, just a few miles down I-75 from my hometown of Cartersville (referenced a few times when discussing the history of Coca-Cola, as it played a role there) – the book can be particularly interesting. Perhaps moreso when the reader happens to be, as a native Georgian, a big fan of back to back College Football National Champions the University of Georgia Bulldogs… and finds out that Elmore works for perennial whiner (in football at least) “the” Ohio State University. Ok, so this entire paragraph has little to do with the book, but this review is my *thoughts* on the book, and the proximity of Elmore as we were growing up – though to be clear, there were literally tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of teenagers roughly the same age and within the same 30 ish mile radius in the northern Atlanta general vicinity, and thus I am not in any way claiming to have ever so much as heard his name before – as well as our respective claimed schools adds a bit of spice to my own thinking about the book.

For those still reading… go pick up the book. Either pre-order if you’re reading this between when this review is written on February 27, 2023, or simply straight up order it if you’re reading this more than two months later and the book is now publicly available.

This review of Country Capitalism by Bart Elmore was originally written on February 27, 2023.

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#BookReview: The Personal Assistant by Kimberly Belle

Meganets And Pre-Networks. Ok, I know what you’re thinking – what does computer networking and the Internet have to do with this book? Well, on some level, it is somewhat obvious – one of our main characters is a social media “influencer” with a million followers. But on another level… Belle actually manages here to show the pitfalls and advantages of two different eras of human history, perhaps without even being cognizant of doing this, just seeking timelines that worked for the story she was telling and making the other details work around that. Yet speaking of details, there are some wrong ones here, particularly around guns – which anyone who follows Belle’s own social media knows that the anti-gun paranoia expressed by one main character is at least somewhat close to Belle’s own real life feelings (though, to be clear, I am not saying the character’s specific motivations for these feelings are anywhere near Belle’s, as I have never seen any public comments from her anywhere near those specific actions). Specifically, guns are not “registered” anywhere in Georgia, not even in Fulton County (home of Atlanta and generally heavily left-of-center of American politics, much less non-Atlanta Georgia politics). Still, going back to the main thrust of this review, Belle truly does do a remarkable job of showing just how easily today’s meganets can be used for harm… while also showing that the pre-meganet era was still pretty dang bad itself. All told this is a remarkable tale that manages to bring elements to the general setup not often seen anywhere else – and never seen before in my own reading within the genre – and thus this alone is quite commendable. Very much recommended.

This review of The Personal Assistant by Kimberly Belle was originally written on October 30, 2022.

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#BookReview: The Lost Book Of Eleanor Dare by Kimberly Brock

Interesting Twist On Dual Timeline Historical Fiction. Over the course of 800+ books in the last three years alone, I’ve read quite a few dual timeline historical fiction books. Generally, one of the timelines is “current”, or at least mostly current – end of the 20th century at its oldest. Here, the “current” timeline is actually much older – the last months of WWII – and the “older” timeline is *much* older – 16th century. The poetic prose here highlights the idealized South of the pre-air conditioning era… and yet also doesn’t shy away from discussing some of its lower points, including both slavery and extrajudicial murders. (I intentionally don’t use a particular “l” word there, as it generally has connotations that do not apply in the particular situation in the book.) All of this is wrapped around the mysterious Dare stones and how so many of them could be judged to be fake… except the first one, Eleanor Dare’s stone and the tale therein inscribed isn’t necessarily so easily dismissed. The care Brock takes to show an atypical yet also completely realistic and plausible tale of what happened and why to Ms. Dare is quite remarkable, and indeed this shines through in the variety of other situations portrayed in this book as well. It quickly becomes readily apparent that Ms. Brock is a Southern storyteller of the best form – one that doesn’t excuse the atrocities of our past, yet one that also respects the real and vibrant cultures of the era, showing that even while misguided on particular points, the overall people were not the monsters many non-Southern (or even Southern of particular political persuasions) writers portray them as. Truly a remarkable work in so many ways, and very much recommended.

This review of The Lost Book Of Eleanor Dare by Kimberly Brock was originally written on April 23, 2022.

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#BookReview: Loserville by Clayton Trutor

Intriguing Look At Atlanta And Professional Sports History. As I sit to write this review, the Atlanta Braves are less than 90 minutes from First Pitch on Game 5 of the 2021 World Series – and with a 3-1 lead over the Houston Astros, Atlanta stands a chance at winning the series in front of the home town crowd before the sun rises again, its first in 26 years. And yes, I’ve made it a point to read this book – which I’ve had on my ARC Calendar for seemingly a couple of months now – this particular weekend, for exactly this reason.

Here, Trutor does a phenomenal job of showing the full history of the first decade of professional sports in Atlanta, with all five of its major league teams at some point in the late 60s to early 70s – my parents’ own childhood, on the exurbs of the very town in question. Indeed, Trutor speaks of the *development* of things that were well-established by my own childhood in the same region in the 80s and 90s, such as the Omni, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, the Georgia Dome, and even Underground Atlanta (which apparently had been redone by the time of my childhood, as it wasn’t nearly so infamous then). He then does a great job of showing how while Atlanta was the first Southern City to acquire these franchises, there were (and are) several other Southern Cities that have largely followed Atlanta’s model over the decades since… with similar results, for the most part.

There are arguably two weaknesses to the version of this text I read: On a style side, the final chapter, covering in broad strokes what happened in the other Southern Cities that tried to follow Atlanta and how they turned out over the years, is a bit of an abrupt ending. Apt, but abrupt.

The other is that Trutor tends to argue that race played quite a bit of a role in the development of Atlanta Sports and what I came to know as the Geography of Atlanta. I wasn’t alive during the periods Trutor mostly covers, so I can’t speak to those periods as the Native Georgian I am. But I *can* speak to one move Trutor covers, if briefly – the Braves’ move from Turner Field to SunTrust (now Truist) Park over the last decade, where fans are finding their seats as I type this to hopefully watch their hometown baseball club win the 2021 World Series. I was actually there for that one, and as one of those fans on the northern Perimeter I can attest to a lot of the fears about safety and finding a good (yet not overly expensive) parking spot at Turner Field. (Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, where I saw my first Braves games as a child and even a monster truck rally or two, was demolished right around the time my age began having two digits in it, so I can’t speak to issues there.) I can also attest that the new Battery design is much more conducive to getting me to spend money in the area immediately around the park, which is something the former Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium / Olympic Stadium / Turner Field site has never offered. But these are observations from a native who has been to the relevant areas throughout his life – vs a Vermont-based academic.

Even with these differences though, Trutor’s work here is truly well written and solidly documented – roughly 20% of this copy was bibliography, and the prose here is enlightening and engaging without ever going too deep into “academic speak”. Fans of Atlanta and Georgia sports or history are absolutely going to need to read this book, and indeed fans of major US sporting in general should fine quite a bit here to be illuminating. Even people who decry “sports ball” will find an utterly fascinating read about a little-documented series of events that has come to shape, in parts, the entirety of American professional sporting. Very much recommended.

This review of Loserville by Clayton Trutor was originally written on October 31, 2021.

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Featured New Release Of The Week: Anchored In Jesus by Johnny Hunt

This week we’re looking at another former Southern Baptist Convention President’s latest book. This week, we’re looking at Anchored In Jesus by Johnny Hunt.

As I say in the Goodreads review below, just to be completely upfront: I’ve been in the crowd a few times when Johnny Hunt has preached. The church he has been at for over 20 years, Woodstock First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga, was where some relatives were members for several years and was not far from my grandfather’s home in nearby Hickory Flat. One aunt in particular damn near considers the guy one of her favorite preachers ever.

So I know the guy and his style, despite neither of us ever saying a single word to the other in any medium I am aware of, including face to face. And I knew what I was getting into in reading this book. And the only thing that struck me as somewhat unexpected was when he specifically speaks of showing love for everyone, no matter their sins. Some of his parishioners… well, they’re some of the reasons I began using the term “Talibaptist” many years ago, and some of them are fairly influential in local and State politics there.

But the book itself very much reads as though you are sitting in the sanctuary for his Sunday morning sermons for a month or two (twelve total chapters, but a couple of them could be combined into one sermon). And they really are pretty much exactly what he would say on a Sunday morning, all the way down to outright including the Sinner’s Prayer a couple of times. If you’re a conservative evangelical American christian, you’re going to love this book. The further you are away from that philosophy… the more you likely won’t. If you don’t want a preachy book even if you are in that mindset, I cannot emphasize enough that this book reads as though he strung several sermons together.

Theologically, I can and over the last 20 yrs have several times poked so many holes in the overall theology that it begins to resemble swiss cheese, but again, I knew what I was getting into here so I’m not overly going to lambast it in this review. Hunt is a bit more hard headed and blunt than I prefer, and absolutely old school – at one point he tells the story of talking to his daughter about the birds and the bees years ago and says that he told her “if a boy tries to get you in the backseat of a car, you better not go back there!”. Basically the dude is one of those that you listen to while letting most of his points go in one ear and out the other, because he does occasionally have a solid if not excellent point, and those are usually worth sticking around to find. Kind of like a bitter grandmother or crazy aunt. You respect them, and you’ve heard it all before, but occasionally you get an “aha” moment.

Thus, I think the three stars I decided on for this book are pretty solid for my own feelings with it. Again, someone more ardently in Hunt’s particular mindset will likely rate it higher, those brave souls who read this book despite being even less inclined to Hunt’s mindset than I will likely be a bit more harsh. But I’m comfortable with this, and this is my review and my blog. 🙂

As always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:

A Few Good Points. A Few Troubling Ones. Standard Johnny Hunt. Full disclosure up front: I’ve been in a few crowds Johnny Hunt has preached to, and some relatives have been members of First Baptist Woodstock, where he preaches. So I know most of Johnny’s story, what he believes, and his style. And this book is effectively sitting through a month or two of his sermons – each chapter tends to sound nearly identical to a given weekly sermon, in at least two instances complete with the Sinner’s Prayer. And that is why I can’t rate this book any higher, yet also don’t feel comfortable rating it any lower. Conservative American Evangelical Christians will likely hit this book with 5*, the further away you are from that group, the lower your rating will likely be. Overall he does in fact make some solid points, he just does it in the lazy country preacher style I’ve known him to employ for the last 20 yrs – which works well in a region that 20 yrs ago still composed a fair amount of farmland, despite being in the middle of Metro Atlanta’s northward surge. Recommended, just do your own research any time he makes a claim.

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Featured New Release Of The Week: The Post by Kevin Munoz

This week we look to an excellent post Apocalyptic zombie tale by a promising debut author. This week, we look to The Post by Kevin Munoz.

This was a book that was very reminscent of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in terms of overall bleakness. The key difference being that while I often cite The Road as the singular worst book I have ever read, this particular book was genuinely great. While I cop to being a Georgia native – and UGA athletics fan -, I am not overly familiar with most of the particular locales described in this book. That said, it is always nice to see an area you’ve known even a bit to be featured in a book. This book is an excellent examination of how society can rebuild itself from nearly anything, including the dual Apocalyptic events described as having happened years before the events here. Truly an excellent human centered book that happens to take place in a world that has survived the Zombie Apocalypse and is still in the process of rebuilding, this book shows those efforts – and secret efforts that could undo every ounce of progress made so far. I really cannot heap enough praise on this debut work. If you are open to genre, read this book. If you like post Apocalypse, read this book. If LGBT centered stories are your particular bent, you will also enjoy this book. If you’re just looking for a solidly entertaining read, read this book. Seriously, just read this book and hope – as I do – that we get an unnecessary yet welcome sequel.

And as always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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