This is a story about waking up at the start of the end of the world.

What an enjoyable, fun, unexpectedly touching read, I loved the interactions & varied cast of characters, and the haunting nature of empty cities was well utilized.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Mariner Books for this eArc!

There are 2 books to be found here. The first 3/4 is a fun and thrilling post-apocalyptic survival story featuring that classic (for a reason) trope of disparate strangers coming together and becoming greater than the sum of their parts. The last quarter starts with an exposition dump and drags from there to an underwhelming finale. I don't think the end is nearly bad enough (it's just a whateverending) to change my overall positive feelings towards the novel and I would still recommend it for the great setup.

DNF - did not finish. I tried to read this interesting novel but did not connect with it. I won't be reading the rest. Thank you, netgalley and publisher fir the early copy/

DNF @ 13%
I was admittedly quite curious about this one (in the beginning) but having given up the ghost at a mere 13%, that curiosity clearly died quite rapidly. The Apocalypse Seven opens from the POV of a college freshman who woke up confused as to where he was, thinking that he was late for class, and worrying about how he smelled because he fell asleep in yesterday’s clothes. The sympathy is not strong for this one. But there were subtle curiosities, like the fact that he couldn’t find any of his personal belongings in the room, but he was for sure in the dorm room he was assigned. The world outside his dorm has become overgrown with vegetation and animals roam freely, a far cry from the world that he fell asleep in just a few hours prior. The subtle curiosities kept popping up (the strange wolves, the breakfast place that was a completely different business, the lack of electronics, and more so, the complete lack of people) but everything else about this “whateverpocalypse” (a name given by one of the characters) was unfortunately too dry for my liking.

This “whateverpocalypse” may very well have developed into a full-fledged story if I had actually given this one more of a chance, but unfortunately, I just felt, well, whatever about it.

This was a really strange, but interesting experience. I think Doucette did a really great job at tying the setting to this interesting premise - once things started picking up (around the 30% mark), I was truly spooked out. Elements of the plot started to reveal themselves and the way those parts were described? I was paranoid in my own living room. The feeling of being alone and being watched/stalked WORKED. I also really enjoyed the characters, I think they were all interesting and had their own personalities (some of them took some getting used to (Toure), but overall I enjoyed them). My problem with the novel really came down to the pacing. The first 100 pages were such a struggle to get through, I really thought I was going to dnf the book, but I pushed through (and I'm happy I did, for sure! But it was definitely a choice I had to make). Additionally, the novel completely flips on its head in the 15% and I am not even sure I understood the ending because it happened so fast. So while I enjoyed the middle of the novel, both it's beginning and end were hard to get through.

Exceptional. Beautifully Written, Brilliantly Read

Oh. My. Days. This was phenomenal. The plot delivers in a way so many mysterious stories don't. The questions is poses are both genuinely puzzling and satisfyingly resolved.

For me, this as much about the characters as the plot. The seven were each interesting and complex in their own right. My favourites were Robbie (Zeno Robinson) and Ananda (Farah Merani), but I liked them all. Except maybe Bethany... But even there I was fascinated by her motivations and wondered what she would grow up to be had the world not 'whatevended'.

This was my first Gene Doucette book. I'll definitely look out for more.
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Soundbite

The performances were excellent. I particularly warmed to Zeno Robinson as Robbie, who came across as affable and an all round relatable person. The casting just right and it's always fun to have one narrator per main character, lending it that extra realistic touch.

I appreciated the user experience of the back-end of this audiobook. For example, chapter listing was especially detailed, showing not just chapter numbers, but also titles and parts.
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Shall I Compare Thee To...

The TV show Lost, but with a proper ending.

When Robbie wakes up the morning after his first college party at Harvard, the dorm is so quiet he's sure he's slept through his classes. Turns out it's quiet because nobody else is there. Everyone is simply gone, and Robbie keeps finding other strange things — crumbling buildings, empty supermarkets, overgrown plants, a TON of wildlife that usually isn't in Cambridge. When he eventually does find a few other people, they band together in a joint effort of survival and solving the mystery of what is going on.

Doucette does a pretty good job of incorporating the realities of regular people facing brutal survival situations, something that isn't always realistically portrayed. I particularly liked his inclusion of a blind woman, whose disabilities and strengths were even more pronounced in a difficult situation. That said, there are some definite problems (such as the assumption that a random public library would have a large Braille section — those books are both huge and expensive!) and a somewhat disappointing ending. The first 90% of the book is great though; just wish he could've finished as strong as he started.

I like good post-apocalyptic and dystopic story. I'm not sure why, but it's strangely fascinate me. This book is definitely one of the good ones.

Seven people wake up in the world that went mad. There is no electricity; nature just went wild and not a single human in a sight. Did that happen over the night? Also, what the heck is wrong with the weather?!
These seven were not exactly best examples to beat the apocalypse, but I appreciate they were from totally different backgrounds - teenage girl, D&D nerd (who was the only one happy about it), freshman, blind woman, pastor, astrophysicist; you get a picture.
I liked how impossible they were together but well, you don't have a much choice, if you are the last seven people on Earth. Also, there are strange things happening, not entirely earthly...

Doucette navigate the story with humor, I actually smirked few times. The logic of the world wasn't far-fetched (at least, I imagine something like that can happen in future). This post-apocalyptic world was not only black & white - in the story some quite big things were so greyish as they could be - which is good for the reader. You don't need to get everything on the golden plate, you can have an opinion on your own.
But not only celebrate this novel; I would appreciate more details about why "the intruder" looked how he looked. I'm not sure I got the joke. Or was it just lazy brush off?

Finally, don't expect post-apo lovestory - for that I give the book extra points. Points go also to the research done in the process and inspiration of this whateverpocalypse. Now excuse me, I'm going to look up all Doucette's books.

interesting concept. i'm glad that it's been getting popular and people have been enjoying it. i hope more people read it for sure. i read it a while ago so i dont remember details but i know i was having fun so

‘The whateverpocalypse. That’s what Touré, a twenty-something Cambridge coder, calls it after waking up one morning to find himself seemingly the only person left in the city. Once he finds Robbie and Carol, two equally disoriented Harvard freshmen, he realizes he isn’t alone, but the name sticks: Whateverpocalypse. But it doesn’t explain where everyone went. . .’

THE APOCALYPSE SEVEN, by Gene Doucette, was fun! Twisty-mind-bending-fun-at-times, but fun nonetheless. As many of you know, I’m a massive fan of survival-apocalyptic-type stories; this one is minus the Zombies.

So, when I say ‘fun’—from the reader's perspective—I love to see the said writer of the story I’ve submerged in throw their characters into the literal apocalyptic-sh**t-storm, stir it up a bit, and bear witness to the tension-filled narrative that unfolds.

Doucette does a great job confusing this reader, and the characters, as we struggle to piece together their altered surroundings.

The one pet peeve I have is the depiction of Carol regarding her inability to be self-sufficient and contribute. I don’t want to tread down Spoilerville Lane, so I will stop there.

Thank you, NetGalley and Mariner Books, for loaning me an eGalley of THE APOCALYPSE SEVEN in the request for an honest review.

Recommend!

This was really different and creative, and I liked it, but it felt very strange at times and I had a little trouble understanding the time sequence. Sometimes, when authors try to tell a story from the point of view of a variety of characters, they end up sounding the same, or at least quite similar. These characters were distinct and had their own voices, and I appreciate that accomplishment.

I was hooked on this book from the start. Seven completely unconnected characters coming together to solve the mystery behind the "whateverpocalypse" -- that they all apparently slept right through!

Our seven adventurers are a band of complete misfits: a Harvard freshman whose only college experience was passing out at a kegger, another Harvard student who is blind and woke up without her seeing eye dog, a DnD nerd/computer programmer, a 13-year-old arsonist and lockpicker, an MIT astrophysicist, a Bible-thumping tough guy with a weird gun obsession on the run from the law (well, that last part probably doesn't matter anymore), and a farm-raised woman who can at least actually hunt. Facing severe weather of all kinds, weird shimmers and gusts of wind that may just be their imagination, a vampire (??) that might (??) be out to get them (??), and packs of vicious wild animals, this unlikely crew is left to solve some of the greatest mysteries mankind has ever faced.

Just how much time has come to pass, how many survivors there are, what exactly happened to end the world... all these questions and more we just have to figure out as we go along! There was a lot of foreshadowing and somewhat subtle hints dropped throughout that made the story exciting and kept me guessing.

That said, this book has A LOT of flaws.

1. The pacing of this novel was really tough for me. It gets very slow a few chapters in because, again, there are <i>seven</i> protagonists. Some of the perspectives early on do seem to overlap in the timeline. It picks up once you meet all the characters, and then once they all find each other, it starts fast-forwarding, like "It was months before Paul could..." and "After several weeks of...."

2. The ending felt very rushed and I did not appreciate the hand waving over the science or the info-dumping. Style and content felt very different than the rest of the story.

I have mixed feelings about the representation in this book. I do appreciate that the main character is Black, and this isn't just another story of a white kid leading a bunch of racially diverse characters. In some ways, I liked how Carol's blindness was written, but I could have done without the weird dialogue in the middle where she feels like a burden and thinks it would make sense to be left behind and Paul tells her that Robbie and Toure "taking care of people like her" is what shows that Earth will be ok. Not to mention that most of the characters don't really take her seriously because she's blind. Pretty much for all diverse aspects in this book besides the blindness, they seem to just be randomly ascribed to characters who are otherwise written as straight and white and even male. Bethany and Win are strong characters, but in a weird masculine way. It's just tokenism at it's finest, but it is (I think) an improvement over no representation.

Overall, I did really like this book and stayed up way too late reading it, but the ending was not worth the late night. My sincere appreciation to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for the review.

I really hope the author makes this into a series or something because I feel like this book was just a set up for what's coming. At least I hope. I actually enjoyed the story and the writing style.
Thanks to Netgalley for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I met Gene Doucette at a conference the first year or so that I was blogging (I was working for an indie press at the time) and he convinced me to read his book Immortal even though it didn't seem like my kind of book. Well, I loved it. It was different and I enjoyed Doucette's writing style. So when I saw he had a new book coming out I was excited. That it was post-apocalyptic was even better because I need a book I can recommend to my book club. The Apocalypse Seven was probably the book I was most disappointed that I didn't get to read in May so as soon as I had room in my schedule I squeezed it in.

Admittedly I had high expectations for this book and I wondered if I would be disappointed having built it up so much in my mind.

The first thing I noticed was again how Doucette puts his own unique spin on a genre. Being part of a post-apocalyptic book club for the last 3 or 4 years, I have read quite a bit in this genre (though not as much as some of the members) and I haven't read one yet that starts with such a quiet, yet quick apocalypse. Usually, there are signs the end is coming, such as a disease spreading quickly, or noisy, such as a meteor or nuclear bomb. The Apocalypse Seven starts with a college freshman waking up later after a late night of partying. At first, he is too disconcerted about the power being out (causing him to be late) and focused on getting to class that it takes him a bit to realize there are no other people. Similar situations occur with the other 6 "main" characters - they wake up thinking life is normal and then realizing something is wrong, very wrong with the world.

The characters are as clueless as to what happened as the readers. Each of them has their own theory and their own reaction to the situation they find themselves in. It is easy for the reader to put themselves in the character's shoes and probably if you woke up and everyone was gone, you would have the same reactions as at least one of these characters.

The book is very much focused on the characters and there is little action as the plot revolves around the characters coming to terms with their situation and surviving. And I'm not going to say much about the plot as I'm afraid I will reveal too much and ruin it for you as the biggest enjoyment I got from reading this was figuring out what happened.

When I read a book, I record my initial reaction immediately after finishing it at Goodreads. Those thoughts are what I felt in the moment without thinking too deeply about it. My initial "review" is usually along the lines of wow that was great or good I finished it. When I finished The Apocalypse Seven, my first thought was that as entertainment it was good, though the ending felt a bit rushed.

A few days later I start really thinking about the book in preparation for the review I will write for Girl Who Reads. While I still think it was good entertainment because I kept wanting to come back to it to figure out what happened. It was when I really started thinking about the characters that I started to see some problems.

Five of the characters are in the same town - Cambridge, MA. Two of the characters travel to the city from further away. So the reader gets some information before the characters - that whatever happened isn't isolated to them. I felt that the characters had realistic reactions and that their survival skills were pretty accurate. I liked that one of the characters has a handicap - she is blind. I can't think of another post-apocalyptic story that I read that had a handicapped character.

While the story is told by all of them with chapters being focused on individual characters and that it is a character-driven story, I felt the characters were not fleshed out as much as they could be. It is like they each serve a certain purpose and that is all they can do and be. I was particularly disappointed with the scientist and it was while thinking about her that I realized how one-dimensional all the characters were. In addition, I can't say any of them showed much growth throughout the book.

As I said in the beginning, I was hoping to have a book to recommend to my book club. We meet this week to set our calendar. Will I recommend The Apocalypse Seven? Yes. I think there is plenty that would provide a good discussion. I know a few of our members probably won't enjoy it but I think a few will like it.

Overall, if you are looking for something that will hold your attention and you will get wrapped up in, then I definitely recommend the book.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Monday, July 5 - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2021/07/the-apocalypse-seven-by-gene-doucette.html

Thank you Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for the ARC!

Lately, I haven't much enjoyed reading YA novels, so I was surprised to like this apocalyptic story. The premise was intriguing. Can you imagine yourself waking up alone and feel that the world just stop? The world building, tone, and atmosphere were well-established. I could feel the isolation and confusion among the characters. Speaking of characters, they were diverse and likable. There were character growth and development that the author wrote realistically. The first chapters were quite slow, but the pacing picked up during Carol's perspective. Although the ending quite felt rushed, it didn't affect much of my overall enjoyment.

I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys some unique scifi dystopian novel.

4/5 stars!

Science Fiction | 15-Adult
<cover image> The Apocalypse Seven, by Gene Doucette (2021)
Harvard freshman Robbie wakes up in his dorm with a killer hangover, still in the clothes he wore to the keg party, and clearly late for class. He soon discovers the electricity is out, his backpack is missing, and there is no one else around. Anywhere. No cars, no people. No one. Until he runs into Carol, a blind student whose service dog is missing, though the streets are filled with wildlife like deer, bunnies, and coyotes. They head out together to try and figure out what the hell happened, and meet up with computer programmer and uber-geek Touré. It takes nearly half the book to finally meet the rest of the Seven – 13-year-old juvenile delinquent Bethany with useful lock-picking skills, archer Win, ex-con turned preacher Pastor Paul, and Cambridge astrophysicist Ananda. All have their own ideas on what happened, and Doucette masterfully creates memorable and sympathetic characters with authentic emotions and motivations. The bulk of the story is on surviving weather, starvation and hungry wolves and wildcats, with the plot taking a big twist around the three-quarter mark toward solving the cause of the apocalypse. I really liked the struggle this group has with cohesion – no one wants to be the leader – and all have something to contribute to the group’s skillset. Setting this in Massachusetts’ Ivy League corridor is brilliant, as there are tunnels linking buildings, some great references to iconic campus locations, and cool findings in display cases. Though, honestly, Mr. Doucette, library resources really could have been more helpful! Along with plenty of humour, drama, and danger, there’s a subtle warning for humanity today, and a reminder that threatening other living species for our own benefit is immoral. This book was thoroughly enjoyable, though the ending fell flat in my view. Most of the characters are young adults, so in addition to appealing to fans of dystopia and apocalyptic fiction, this is a good choice for teens ready to start trying adult fiction. My thanks to John Joseph Adams publisher/Mariner Books for the digital reading copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and reviews of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53716983

I was sooo excited to read this one. It’s full of all of my favorite things.. the apocalypse, time travel, aliens, science fiction in general. But…

I found myself in a perpetual state of waiting for it to finally GET there so that I could give it 5 stars.
-The characters were likable, but not lovable.
-The factionalized science was original-ish, but not groundbreaking.
-The dialogue made me chuckle, but wasn’t top comedy.
-And the alien was a BIG head scratcher.

But I did love:
-the writer's tone
-the direction it was going before the climax of the story
-the similarity to HBO's Tenet

Imagine waking up alone in your bed. The electricity is out, no electronics work, and no one is around...
These seven people go through exactly that. Through different sets of circumstances, we watch each of these people find each other and struggle to survive in what appears to be some sort of apocalypse. They just don't know what.
I really enjoyed that this have POVs for each of the seven. I liked reading about each of their "wake up" experiences and how they found the others. As I reflect back on the story, I wanted it to maybe be just a bit faster paced. Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I didn't want to put it down, and I needed to know just what on earth what happening to them. I was very happy with the explanation! I think this is a great read for anyone that enjoys a post-apoc story!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

This is <i>The Day of the Triffids</i> meets <i>The Langoliers</i>. Seven people wake up in a strange new world that used to be their home—the once-familiar city of Cambridge, Massachusetts is suddenly overgrown and full of overlarge wild predators.

There is no sign of other humans anywhere, and the seven survivors slowly band together to stay alive. They face erratic weather, killer wild boars, packs of roving wolves, and a mysterious shimmering presence that could be something even more dangerous.

Robbie is a would-be college freshman, along with Carol, who is blind and desperately missing her service dog. Touré is a hyperactive coder with some theories about what he’s dubbed the “whateverpocalypse.” Paul is an off-the-grid, gun-toting preacher (but not as crazy as that makes him sound). Win is an archery pro with an affinity for horses. Bethany, only 13, is a self-taught lockpicking master and delinquent. And finally, Ananda is an MIT astrophysicist whose research might help them all figure out exactly what happened to the world they woke up in.

I read this in a single sitting, pulled along by the story and wanting to know what happens next. I love a good post-apocalyptic survival story, particularly where the characters aren’t terminally stupid or at odds simply for the sake of ginning up narrative tension (looking at you, AMC's <i>The Walking Dead</i>). There’s plenty of tension already, stemming from the eerie world they’ve woken up in and the strange clues that start adding up to a disturbing new reality.

Received a free copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novel tells of seven people who wake up to find eventually that they are the only people left. They find that humanity is gone. Nature has taken over — turning grass into fields, deer not afraid of man and a new hybrid of coyote and wolf. The climate is strange. Besides the strange climate the seven must figure out how to find foo and shelter. Each one has their own experience of surviving a day as well as what happened to the planet. Is any of them right about what happened? Part of the ending was something I expected but the other part of the ending. I didn’t.

Speculative fiction goes from strange to bewildering. Eerie events happen. The novel is a tempting adventure to read due to the author excellent writing. I enjoyed seeing how each character dwelt with the lack of humanity and everyday living.