Happy Doomsday: A Novel

Having read and enjoyed Sosnowski’s previous two books I was quite looking forward to this one. We follow three unlikely survivors of an extinction-level event where it seems every other human being has dropped dead. One has Asperger’s, another is pregnant from a one-night stand with her gay best friend and the third a radicalised Muslim who was about to martyr himself at a school sports event.

The book deals well with the actuality of surviving such an event. With things like the smell of decomposing bodies left to rot where they drop and the parasites such things bring. Probably not a good idea to be living too near a zoo for when the animals start to miss their daily feed either. What will the house-pets locked in their homes show more resort to when they also get a little hungry and their owners starting to smell a little ripe.

There is quite a bit of social commentary on growing up in the (more or less) current United States (being set under Trump) but it’s of the more in-your-face variety than the author’s previous offerings. Probably best to be avoided if you’re of the die-hard Republican persuasion or an animal lover. I think it’s difficult to find originality in this section of the genre and that’s probably what saves this book a little. Having an Asperger’s character as one of the leads helped with this though it did at times feel like it was a zombie book only without the zombies. show less

I'm normally one for a good apocalypse. This one especially captured my eye with the pink cover and smiley ball. However, my interest in it died around roughly the same time as 99% of the population.

The idea of the story was definitely interesting. Having an apocalypse where almost everyone drops dead one day for some unexplained reason definitely brought up some interesting questions like, What would happen to all the decomposing bodies just lying around? (Disgusting smells, parasites, and a swarm of rats and pigs, apparently) and What would happen to all the animals trapped in homes or in zoos? (Death. Lots and lots of death. In fact, that was pretty much the entirety of the story.)

At first, I really liked the characters. Dev the boy show more with Asperger's, Lucy the Southern goth, and Marcus the popular almost-terrorist. Not your usual run-of-the-mill characters. (Especially in the apocalypse where you expect super buff sharp shooters...or those Walking Dead people at least.) But, they felt very underdeveloped and wishy-washy. One moment Dev is locking a dog in an office to eat a hated principal, but later he finds a neighbor eaten by her dog and is furious. Also, Lucy is desperate to terminate an unwanted pregnancy only to turn around and want to get pregnant so badly that she resorts to reproductive coercion. (Hypocritical with a hint of unhealthy relationship! Did Stephanie Meyers help write this?) And even Marcus... At first I thought it was interesting to show the perspective of someone who is convinced by strangers on the internet to commit a suicide bombing, but it all just seemed...easy. (Because Muslims are the only ones to commit mass murder, right?)

In fact, a lot of the story just seemed too easy. Other survivors? Nope, dead. Animal friends? Dead, too. One autistic boy moving hundreds of corpses? Sure, why not? It was like doom was always looming for the characters, but never really struck. (And when it did, it was so...non-apocalypse-y.)

It was also one of those stories that implies world-wide catastrophe, but is then reduced to concerns about the U.S. There is never any mention of searching even Canada for survivors. (I mean, sure, who wants to go to Canada in the winter? But why not find a boat and sail to the Bahamas? Live on the beach for goodness sake!)

As far as the writing, there were places where it felt like it didn't flow. I would have to stop and reread a sentence two or three times to figure out what it was trying to say. The author also kept using the word "re". I thought it was a typo at first since it is not normally used in common writing, but there it was again...and again...and again.

Sadly, I was really disappointed in this one. But, if you like loads of death - especially animal death - this might be the book for you. (No seriously, it's a crap ton of death. Don't eat while reading this...fair warning.) show less

Very unique post-apocalypse novel, but not for the squeamish.

DNF!

This was tough to get through from the start. It was a little too heavy and intense, not at all what I was expecting. Then the protagonist locked a seeing eye dog inside a room to die of thirst and starvation alone and that was too much for me. This one is a big nope!

Had potential but missed in follow through.