Joseph Turkot

WIPE is a fantastic dystopian YA novel. It took me awhile after reading this book to digest the story. It is truly gripping and keeps you feverishly turning the pages.

Pulled from his safe world within the fence, Wills follows Maze out of his little village and experiences things he never thought he was strong enough for. Maze is on a desperate search for truth, Wills is blindly chasing love. Characters along the way are well developed, events are written in a believable (for the story) way. show more The story nears its end with a specific mission for Wills, one that could finally answer all the questions about what the world was like before the WIPE, why the WIPE happened, and the world post-WIPE.

Dystopian YA is my favorite genre, therefore I tend to be a little harsh in my reviews. It's easy to find fault in lesser novels when you've already read the best. WIPE is one of the best! This stand alone novel is so rich that it easily compares with the now common trilogy series. Author Turkot is able to do in one book what others need 3x the amount of paper to accomplish.

Make sure to buy the complete novel, as this was originally released in parts.

*NOTE: I received a review copy of this novel in trade for my unbiased review. And, I assure you, I don't let free books coerce me into kindness. I've trashed many a novel that I've received for free, because that's what they deserved.* show less

The Rain is definitely a chilling look at the potential effects of climate change and our failure to do anything about it. The Rain is told from two different points of view. One from Rook, a meteorologist who is hired by a company who claims it is going to be helping people stranded by the rising waters. The other person is Tanner, who is probably about 20 years old and does not remember the world before the rain started.
Overall this was a fantastic story, gripping and frightening with show more very well developed characters. It does end rather abruptly (and on a pretty significant cliffhanger) and I did not realize when I requested the book that it is part of a series which I am thrilled about.
I definitely would recommend this to anyone who loves a good post-apocalyptic story. show less

The Rain by Joseph A. Turkot is a highly recommended survival novel set in a postapocalyptic America.

Civilization has collapsed. After almost twenty years of rain, almost all of North America is underwater. Any survivors have boats and/or made it to land on higher elevations while avoiding the face eaters, people addicted to "Red" a drug that makes them murderous and cannibalistic.

There are two story lines that are told through alternating chapters. In the first, Tanner, seventeen, and her show more adoptive caretaker, Russell, have long been searching by boat for Leadville, Colorado, which is rumored to be "the highest-elevation city in America, the last place where it’s not raining." In the alternate chapters, the plot follows Rook Wallace. Rook is a meteorologist who joined a a pharmaceutical company called Yasper. His job there is to help the company maintain a trade route between groups of survivors. He kept up contact with his parents until he stopped receiving their letters.

This is a bleak end-of-the-world climate science fiction novel with Yasper, a pharmaceutical company, an equal antagonist in the overall plot. The two different narratives remain separate until the very end when a connection is made that most readers will have deduced much earlier, but the journey of these characters is the point.

Character development is most certainly present, but, as with any mythological tale, the more important element is the struggle and encounters on the journeys of the heroes. It is obvious at the open ended conclusion of The Rain, that there has to be second novel.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Blackstone Publishing via NetGalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2023/07/the-rain.html show less

I found Black Hull to be a unique and interesting read. It has a very fast-moving plot with a lot of time jumps – chapters are not chronological, but rather, they take place during different points in time. Everything occurs in the future, but the story often takes you back to the pasts of certain characters (which is still the future to the reader).

For me, these flashbacks were productive in terms of providing backstory, but it was often difficult to keep track of when in time I was in show more terms of the story. It would've been useful if there were chapter titles or headers announcing the year each chapter occurs in – some kind of time stamp.

Though there is never a moment in which nothing is happening, thanks to the quick plot, the story really lacks detail. Occasionally, a moment of beautiful description shines through, but for the most part, the story is all action. And with the lack of detail came a lack of understanding for me. Instead of my imagination filling in the blanks (such as what exactly these futuristic ships look like), my mind tended to just skip over them – which the fast plot demanded.

I found this disappointing since the novel contains a lot of really awesome ideas. Time travel, living on different planets in different galaxies, and really advanced technologies are all super intriguing concepts – I just wanted to know more about them. The novel's take on Utopia as a dreamlike world, which it did do a good job of describing, was one of its strong points.

I found character development to be a little lacking, probable due to the amount of detail, but that being said, this novel has some interesting figures in it. Mick, the protagonist, is certainly not a hero. He is flawed: he has anger issues and makes mistakes. But I think that's what makes him likable. I could still like him at the same time as I was shaking my head over a poor decision of his. Yet I'm not sure if I was really rooting for him.

I think the real hero of the story, the one character who knows right from wrong, is the criminal/villain (according to the authorities of the novel's world), FOD. Still, I found myself wanting to know more about him, which I never really got.

One other thing I took issue with was the women in this story. I found myself questioning if Karen would really say this particular thing, or if Axa would really behave in that particular way. Perhaps these females were poorly written, or perhaps they just aren't likable characters / ones I could identify with. Sera, however, was a strong female figure (quite the badass actually) that made up for this a little.

That all being said, Black Hull has some incredible stuff going on. It's science-fiction, action, futuristic, dystopian madness all in one. I really enjoyed experiencing the world Joseph A. Turkot created; I just wish I could've gotten to know it a little better. show less