Blog Tour: The End of the World Survivors Club by Adrian J Walker
Time for another tour here on the blog and The End of the World Survivors Club by Adrian J. Walker is the next on the list. My many thanks to Anne Cater and Chloe at Ebury Press for allowing me to be a part on this tour.
Author: Adrian J. Walker Publisher: Ebury Press Pages: 464 Genre: Post Apocalyptic, Thriller Publication: 5th September 2019
Synopsis:
In The End of the World Running Club, Edgar Hill ran 550 miles after an apocalypse to try and find his family. He had it easy. This is his wife’s story.
Beth Hill has survived the apocalypse with a baby and toddler in tow. And what’s more, she’s done it alone – without her husband’s help. He’s never been any help. But when disaster strikes and someone steals her kids, she knows what she has to do.
The new world might be very different: no government, no law, no infrastructure and a whole lot more ocean than there used to be. But one thing hasn’t changed – the lengths a mother will go to save her family…
Review:
The story starts with Beth and her two kids on board the SS Unity, a ship that should take them to a safer place to begin a new life. But disaster strikes and Beth sees herself separated from her kids. And so it starts her adventure to get her family reunited again.
When I jumped to the opportunity to review this book, I thought it was a companion novel to The End of The World Running Club. I thought it took place at the same time, but it was following a different perspective and new challenges. Turns out this book is a sequel set where the first book ended. Throughout the book, it briefly mentions what occurred in the first one, but never in detail. Even though I was able to understand everything, I felt I was missing something. Not just the fact that the apocalypse had already occurred as well as the relationships between the characters. So I highly recommend you to read The End of the World Running Club before jumping into this one.
For most of the time, I was on the edge of my seat. I wanted to see what was going to happen next? Where were they going to? Which challenges were they facing? And I had a blast! For a 450 pages book, let me tell you that it didn’t seem that long. The ambience was amazing like I was there with the characters. Breathing in the sea breeze, hearing the waves crashing at the hull, feeling the sun on my skin. The author really creates an astonishing atmosphere for this story which makes it addictive, fascinating, and hypnotic. I never wanted to lift my eyes off the page, and when I did, I was thinking about the next opportunity I would have to be back in the story. And when the tension was building up, stop reading wasn’t an option.
However every book has its flaws and The End of the World Survivors Club, it’s the side characters. There were moments when the story was so self-centred on Beth that other characters were forgotten and completely disappeared for a few chapters. Usually, this happened when they weren’t needed for the story, or nothing was happening to them, but acknowledging their existence would’ve been great. It was especially strange when there were time jumps, and none of the characters reacted to the absence. At least, you might think to yourself where did this person went or what is he doing. Most of the times, nothing happened, and everything was normal, but it felt odd.
I can’t avoid mentioning that the side characters felt more like a plot device rather than characters with personal motivations. The character that stood out to me the most was Maggie. She is presented to us about fifty pages in, and we don’t know if she is a villain or a friend, what problem she might create or if she is going to be a great help. Slowly we begin to know her, and the novel keeps developing as normal. But after many more pages with Maggie having little to none existing appearance, she is completely ditched. I never cared much for her, and leaving her behind didn’t bother me, what annoyed me was how long it took and for what?? She could have been ditched many pages ago, and making it a big deal. You know, like going out with a BANG. Something memorable. Instead, it was just a flop. The way Maggie was ditched was too quickly and somewhat out of the blue that I kept questioning myself, what was the point??
This was still a great book, and I couldn’t recommend it more. The atmosphere was amazing, there was gore, excitement, fear, and overall a captivating story that can keep you up all night reading. Probably, since I was enjoying this book so much, I picked up on those small details that bothered me. I wanted this book to be a new favourite, and it fell short in some ways. But did I still enjoyed this book?? Hell yeah, I did!
So take advantage of the remaining summer weather, get down to the beach or the pool, and read this big boy. If you like stories set at sea, post-apocalyptic tales or any story that can leave you on the edge of your seat, this book is for you.
PS: I also have to mention that Portugal is referred to in this book multiple times which gives it extra points from me. Too bad it actually didn’t take place there, otherwise it would have been awesome!
About the author:
Adrian J Walker was born in the bush suburbs of Sydney, Australia in the
Ever since he can remember, Adrian has been interested in three things: words, music and technology, and when he graduated from the University of Leeds, he found a career in software. His novel The End of the World Running Club, a post-apocalyptic running fable about hope, love and endurance, was a Simon Mayo Radio 2 book club choice.
He lives in Aberdeen with his wife and two children.
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The blog tour isn’t over so go check out the other bloggers that already posted their reviews, and don’t miss out on the upcoming ones.
1 Comment
Thanks so much for supporting the blog tour x