Cover Image: The Apocalypse Seven

The Apocalypse Seven

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Member Reviews

My thanks go out to netgalley and the publisher for granting me access to an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, for me personally this one didn't really work. It was an ok read, but is pretty forgettable and nothing really stood out to me.
I would still recommend it to people looking for a fun action packed post apocalyptic read, however, know that it doesn't have any thematic work about the human condition melted in.
I definitely enjoyed the set up of this world and some of the revelations we uncovered later on, even the twist at the end. But, I'm a reader who needs either character work or thematic discussions and both were lacking in here.

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In this age of apocalyptic predictions from every pundit, it is definitely wonderful to see a different kind of non-zombie response to the "end of the world as we know it". These 7 people are now representing the entire population.....maybe.....and they really don't like what they see. This was an entertaining.....yes, entertaining.....look at an apocalypse from a different angle.

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I'm a sucker for apocalypse stories so this one felt right up my alley. I was engaged all the way through. Great read!

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TW// animal death, human death, descriptions of gore, mention of drowning

I’m so disappointed in this one. I had really high hopes because the synopsis sounded amazing and I usually love apocalypse stories, but I hated almost everything about this story. The only thing I liked about this book was the setting. It was interesting to read about the different locations in the story and how the characters were able to use the unique locations to their advantage. That’s the only praise I can give to this book.

My major issue with this book was that it was extremely boring and dull. There was so much potential to have this be a super fast paced, action packed adventure, but everything dragged and the writing style made me nearly fall asleep while reading it. There was also nothing appealing about the characters to keep me interested in the story. There’s Paul, a religious nut job who would’ve supported Trump if he were a real person. Paul’s religion was extremely shoved onto the reader and it got a bit overkill at some points in the story. Robbie was just straight up bland and boring. He was like a piece of cardboard. Touré was supposed to be the comedy relief, but the author sucked at writing any sort of humor. Bethany was a rebellious teen, but she was also a straight up jerk. Win was probably the most interesting character, but the story didn’t spend enough time developing her character. Ananda went on scientific rants that left me feeling really confused. And Carol… Carol had the potential to be the best character. She’s someone who’s blind and likes animals. That seemed like an interesting person to have in an apocalypse, but she ended up having somewhat of an annoying personality and all of the characters viewed her as a burden. She clearly wasn’t a burden, but everyone viewed her that way and it pissed me off that the only disabled character in this story was viewed as a burden.

To make matters worse, nothing made any sense until the very end of the book. Most apocolypse books have a clear reason why there’s an apocalypse whether that be global warming, zombies, or aliens. Most of the time you are aware of what the reason for the apocalypse is at the start of the book. This book didn’t do that at all. It kept throwing in random events throughout the whole story, like freak weather or no humans or giant animals, but there wasn’t any answers until the last 10% of the book. Even then, though, not everything was explained. Only the reason why there weren’t many people was explained. Even that explanation was confusing as it dealt with a lot of technical scientific terms that I didn’t understand at all.

The icing on the cake of my hatred for this book was how this book dealt with women. This story kept bringing up how the men weren’t good with women for no reason and it rubbed me the wrong way. Like what was the need for a character describing that he’s not good at guessing women’s ages if they’re between the age of puberty and thirty? And why is it socially acceptable for things like that to even be written in a book? This book also made a joke about misogyny and a male character played it off like misogyny isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The women also kept refering to their first period as when they first “bled.” No women says this and the whole period talk sounded very scientific. It felt like the author understood the scientific elements to periods, but not how women actually talk about it. Cis men just shouldn’t include disucssions of periods in their novel unless they talk to someone with a uterus about it. The way this book dealt with women and periods wasn’t exactly sexist, but it raised some red flags for me and I’m sure a lot of other people will hate how this book dealt with women as well.

I honestly have no clue why this book has so many positive reviews. It’s almost like I read a different book than everybody else. Overall I’d only recommend this book if you’re a fan of the author’s other works. If you haven’t read any of his other works, then skip this one. There’s tons of better apocalypse books out there.

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As I read this, I kept thinking that if the author had started the story in Carol's point of view, the tension and the emotional stakes would have been higher. The characters' decision to go to a restaurant instead of the grocery store for food or even deciding to drink water from a river was not what I expected. It seemed very unrealistic to me that a group of intelligent people who got into an Ivy League school would be making such decisions. This had so much potential, but it ultimately fell flat for me.

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The Apocalypse Seven is exactly what the titles suggests. Seven people pulled together during an apocalypse. It’s a bit unusual of an apocalypse. No big event, nothing that stands out to any of the survivors, they just wake up one day to find most people gone, and everything is overgrown with lots of animals wandering around. As they group together, and begin to search for other people and food, they also begin searching for answers to what happened.

I’m a big fan of apocalypse stories, so I was really excited to read this one. And while it was indeed an apocalypse story with some intriguing twists and turns, it also fell a little flat for me. I didn’t really connect to any of the characters, or the relationships between them. Despite having a decent amount of time with each, they never seem to grow and fell one-dimension. Having a larger cast of characters usually means we’ll find some favourites, and some fall flat, but none of them jumped out at me as being one I was particularly interested in following the story of.

The setting was interesting, and the mystery behind what happened was interesting, but the pacing didn’t manage to keep me overly engaged. Instead, we get brief glimpses of what’s happening that keep us wanting more, but it takes a long time to really get anywhere with the story. I love having some questions right up until the end of the book, but when the pacing feels off, I don’t always care about the answers by the time I get them. I think I wanted just a touch more excitement interspersed into the story than what I got.

If you’d more of a character driven reader, this one might work for you a bit better than it did for me, especially if you manage to connect to the characters more than I did. If you’re looking for a more adventurous action packed apocalypse story, this one might not be quite what you’re looking for.

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This was a very unique book. I think I enjoyed the beginning most where all of the characters are meeting up and trying to figure out what's going on. I was definitely not expecting the twist and thought the part after the reveal dragged a bit. Not a huge fan of the ending but I also don't know where else the author could have taken it either.

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An apocalypse has led to the near extinction of human life on the planet. Eight people have survived but the circumstances of that survival are a mystery. As they find one another, they form a group with enough survival skills to learn what happened, and why.

By the end of the book, I really enjoyed it. The first bit was slow and the stories of some characters we better fleshed out than others. The plot and world building were well done. The how and why of what happened was original and interesting. I think the fleshing out of some of the characters and elongating their stories would have helped overall. It was an easy and fun read. (less)

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“Wanderers meets Stand and Revolution series vibes. It’s not too close definition of this quiet mind spiraling, grey cell fryer, thought balloons popper, teeth gritting, nerve bending novel but at least it is a start!”

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I love books that talk about the end of the world and I liked it when the aliens made their appearance in this one. The characters are in control of everything and, although some despair, it is perfect for the context of this fun, fast and enjoyable story.

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This was an ok read for me, personally I would have liked more to happen. I am not a huge fan of stories that are solely driven by the characters. With that said, it was enjoyable! The plot and the storyline were great

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I felt like this book was more of a good idea than it was an actual read. I’m not sure if the author just wasn’t sure of exactly what he was attempting to accomplish or just wasn’t up to the task, in the end. Those who are really hankering for a post-apocalyptic story might enjoy this. On the other hand, it could leave open the door for an author to really dig into a more action-oriented story with mysteries that can build toward a resolution as the story progresses.
Full review to come on YouTube.

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After reading the description, I was expecting a young adult/adult book, but it's more of a young adult book.

The book was very character driven and I would have like to have seen a bit more action.

Originally, I was reviewing this as a 3 star book, but I love a good epilogue, so I pushed it to a four.

All in all, well written and a good read.

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More character driven, but not surprising given the title assumes you are following 7 people during the apocalypse but a little more action was expected, I guess.

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From the synopsis and cover of this book I was expecting a more mature adult or NA Post-Apocalypse novel, so I was surprised when I started reading and found a much more YA tone. I haven’t read a lot of Apocalypse fiction before, and I think it may be a genre I could really enjoy, but this book just wasn’t for me.

It wasn’t bad by any means, it does a lot of things really well- but overall there were just enough little things that I became less and less excited for this book, and it left me pretty disappointed.

In terms of things this book does well- it strikes a good balance of humor to serious content, and all of the characters are well developed and interesting.

In the con category, my biggest complaint is where the effort and description was devoted. The majority of the book was mostly a character study without much plot with these little blips of plot scattered throughout. When we eventually reach the climax of the book it is resolved so quickly that it left me feeling unfulfilled and disappointed.

The most interesting part of the entire book is the epilogue, which is unfortunate. Overall it wasn’t a bad book, I enjoyed a lot of it, but it won’t be going on my favorites shelf.

I would be interested to find a review of this book by someone who is blind, as there is a blind main character that I would be interested to hear their opinion on. Many of her actions in the book felt strange or tropey to me, but as someone who isn’t visually impaired, I can’t speak to the accuracy of the character.

An enjoyable read, but I feel like it could have done so much more.

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I loved this book so much!! It was creative, the story was excellent, and I'm a sucker for apocalyptic fiction. I felt like this one will stick with me for a long time. Bravo.

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Seven diverse people wake up in a world seemingly devoid of people. At first they wonder what happened but winter is coming soon and all thoughts turn to survival. The book takes place mainly in Cambridge Massachusetts which allows the author to bring a good deal of verisimilitude to this work since this is where he lives.

Toward the very end of the book we finally find out what is going on as the tale comes to its surprising but logical conclusion.

Overall entertaining read. Reminded me a lot of The Society in Netflix.

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I was draw right into this post apocalyptic world, the odd assembly of characters, and their adventures as they try to understand what has happened to the strange world around them. I enjoyed the quiet apocalypse, the mystery to be solved, and the way they are drawn together. It feels a lot like Chuck Wendig's Wanderers, which is high praise from me.

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I didn’t know what to expect from this book, but I was in need of a dystopian novel and decided to just give it a go. And man, that was the right decision.

Just like the characters, the reader is tossed into a strange environment where it seems that not a lot of people exist. No one knows what happened and over the course of the story, we find out more and more about the strange events that occurred and why our heros are, where they are now.

The writing style of Gene Doucette was very captivating. I was gripped from the first moment and as clueless as the characters. I tried to find answers on my own and that’s something I really enjoy in books. Even though I predicted one or two things beforehand, I was never to sure if I was right until the twist was revealed.
I LOVED the characters. They were all loveable in their own way and brought different views and opinions. The relationships they build, especially the friendships, were amazing and I wanted to be with them even after the story ended.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I think it was perfect for this book. It left me satisfied and wanting more at the same time. I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed this book.

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Big fan of sci-fi with end of the world themes, not a fan of aliens. This book almost lost me when the aliens showed up but most of the characters were so likable to me that I kept reading. I loved the little twists at the end and would have loved more info about life after they all got used to living in a post-apocalyptic world. Overall, a fun read with a very interesting premise.

*I received a free copy of this in exchange for my honest opinions.

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