Bogormen

Title: Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend
Author: M.J. Wassmer
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 1.5/5
# pages: 350
Date read: September 2024

Vacation Checklist: Pack swim trunks. Apply sunscreen. Survive the apocalypse?

Professional underachiever Dan Foster is finally taking a vacation. Sure, his life has been average at best, and yeah, he's never quite lived up to his potential. But after a few Miller Lites in paradise with his girlfriend, Mara, things are starting to look up.

Then the sun explodes.

With the island resort suddenly plunged into darkness (he really should've sprung for the travel insurance), Dan's holiday goes from bad to worse when elite guests stage a coup and commandeer supplies. As temperatures drop and class tensions rise, revolution begins to brew on the island, and Dan accidentally becomes a beacon of hope for the surviving vacationers. But when one six-person plane is discovered that could get them back to the mainland, Dan realizes he has a choice to make.

Does he escape the island with Mara? Or does he stay and fight to become the most unlikely hero of the end of the world?


Unfortunately the last part of the title could also have been the title of this review: "Do Not Recommend". I had expected a dystopian novel, with people trying to figure out their new normal - perhaps a bit like "Life As We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer. What I got was a common-day "Lord of the Flies" - a less humorous and less believable (amazingly enough) version of "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray.

Rico was one-dimensional evil for no particular reason, and the "lovely" influencer and her preacher husband got on my nerves something fierce, and I desperately hope this is not how events would have turned out in real life. I have to believe that, or I would loose all faith in humanity.

I considered giving up on the book on multiple occasions, but I did want to know if there was any sort of resolution, so I stuck with it. And there was, but not really a satisfying one. While the explanation was fine, there was still a lack of closure.

So yeah, I don't understand all the high ratings here. This was definitely a "do not recommend" for me, and the book goes straight in the trash.

Title: In the Lives of Puppets
Author: T.J. Klune
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~12 hrs
Date read: May 2023

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots--fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They're a family, hidden and safe.

The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled "HAP," he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio-a past spent hunting humans.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio's former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic's assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?


I'd probably categorize this as "good, but not great", and as I'm used to T.J. Klune being great, it was a bit of a let-down. I liked it, but it never blew me away like some of his other books did. I liked Victor and Nurse Ratched and Rambo was cute with his definite shades of Wall*E. But I never really took to HAP. I think there was too much telling and not enough showing when it came to him, so he just never really grew on me.

The plot itself didn't do much for me either, but I didn't really realize that until after finishing the book. T.J. Klune's strength has always been his characters, and many of his books are far more character-driven than plot-driven, which has never really been an issue for me.

Title: Den sorte enkes by (The City of the Black Widow)
Author: Nicole Boyle Rødtnes
Genre: YA, dystopian
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 440
Date read: April, 2020

In the city of Viduana men and women live completely separated. The separation means peace in a world of chaos... but not everybody can adhere to the rules of separating the sexes.

Clara has just turned 18 and has to participate in the duty of procreation.
As a male, Silas is little more than a slave. He wants to change the city, but in order to gain influence he has to make an unbearable sacrifice.
Emma's mother dies, and she has to move in with her grandmother, the black widow, who rules over Viduana with an iron fist. But Emma hides a secret that could cost her her life.

Welcome to Viduana, where it is forbidden to fall in love, and every attempt at escape is punishable by death.


I started out by listening to the audiobook, but the narrator for Silas got on my nerves, so I dropped it and picked up the ebook instead - much better :-)

The story is very heavily influenced by "The Handmaid's Tale" (which the author acknowledges) but with some interesting twists, so it doesn't seem like a copycat story at all. I grew to care for the characters - Clara and Silas especially - and was very keen to see what would happen to them next. Generally speaking, I enjoyed it a lot, and had a hard time putting it down.

However, it had a few things working against it, which made me subtract a few stars.

First of all, it is clearly YA - not just in plot, but in writing style too. That doesn't usually bother me, but it used some very stereotypical YA tropes (illicit love, unrequited love, bad violent guy with no redeeming features whatsoever, teens having to take care of themselves etc.) that were just a tad eyeroll-inducing, because they are SO common.

Secondly, it is VERY obviously the first in a series. Fortunately the world-building was interesting, and as mentioned I really got to like Clara and Silas, so I didn't mind too much, but it's still rather telling when the scene is still getting established at 75%. I knew there was no WAY everything could be resolved before the book ended.

And it wasn't. Fortunately, I knew ahead of time that it's the first in a trilogy, so I was prepared, and wasn't quite as annoyed as I would otherwise have been. I do think I'll wait until all three books have been published, before reading the next one though.

Title: Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children #3)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 186
Date read: July 2019

Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

This is the story of what happened first…

Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline.

Jillian was her father’s perfect daughter—adventurous, thrill-seeking, and a bit of a tom-boy. He really would have preferred a son, but you work with what you've got.

They were five when they learned that grown-ups can’t be trusted.

They were twelve when they walked down the impossible staircase and discovered that the pretense of love can never be enough to prepare you a life filled with magic in a land filled with mad scientists and death and choices.


So far the weakest of the Wayward Children books, but I still really liked it - even if I now do feel the urge to reread "Every Heart a Doorway" to remind myself what happened "next" to Jack and Jill.

It is a LOT darker than the other books in the series - but due to the nature of the Moors (no pun intended) it really couldn't be anything else. I mean... there's even a character CALLED "Dr. Bleak"!

Title: Year One (Chronicles of the One #1)
Author: Nora Roberts
Genre: Paranormal, Dystopian
Rating: 4/5
# pages: Audiobook ~12.5hrs
Date read: September, 2018

It began on New Year’s Eve.

The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed—and more than half of the world’s population was decimated.

Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magic rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river—or in the ones you know and love the most.

As word spreads that neither the immune nor the gifted are safe from the authorities who patrol the ravaged streets, and with nothing left to count on but each other, Lana and Max make their way out of a wrecked New York City. At the same time, other travelers are heading west too, into a new frontier. Chuck, a tech genius trying to hack his way through a world gone offline. Arlys, a journalist who has lost her audience but uses pen and paper to record the truth. Fred, her young colleague, possessed of burgeoning abilities and an optimism that seems out of place in this bleak landscape. And Rachel and Jonah, a resourceful doctor and a paramedic who fend off despair with their determination to keep a young mother and three infants in their care alive.

In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a savior, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.

The end has come. The beginning comes next.


An interesting read in that it was SO similar to "Until the End of the World" by Sarah Lyons Fleming in genre, style and plot that I kept expecting zombies to turn up sooner rather than later! Fortunately, this wasn't the case (and the plot started diverging at some point too) and the dead people actually stayed dead, but it still made for a bit of a disconnect at times.

I mostly really enjoyed it, but got so frustrated with the Purity Warriors. I hate bigotry in any way, shape or form, and really don't enjoy reading about it either, so I'm kinda conflicted about whether or not I want to read the next book in the series (due out in December), as it seems like they'll feature even more heavily there. On the other hand, I do want to know what happened to the other people at New Hope, as that was left quite open, so we'll see.

Title: All the Stars in the Sky (Until the End of the World #3)
Author: Sarah Lyons Fleming
Genre: Dystopian, Horror
Rating: 4/5
# pages: Audiobook ~12 hours
Date read: January, 2018

Cassie Forrest has sworn she'll never let the world get the best of her again. She's chosen to believe everything will be all right.

But on a journey filled with heartbreak and madness and zombies, Cassie and her friends must struggle to stay alive - and it's hard to believe in a future when survival seems unlikely.


A really good conclusion to the series. I was afraid that it would end on too "open" a note, but fortunately that wasn't the case (though I really wouldn't mind an epilogue a few years later). I'd seen a certain relationship change coming from a mile away though - that really was too obvious.

But all in all, a really great series, although the first was by far the best.

Title: Until the End of the World
Author: Sarah Lyons Fleming
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 5/5
# pages: Audiobook - 13hrs, narrated by Julia Whelan
Date read: December 2017, August 2020

Cassie Forrest isn't surprised to learn that the day she's decided to get her life together is also the day the world ends. After all, she's been on a self-imposed losing streak since her survivalist parents died: she's stopped painting, broken off her engagement to Adrian and dated a real jerk. Rectifying her mistakes has to wait, however, because Cassie and her friends have just enough time to escape Brooklyn for her parents' cabin before Bornavirus LX turns them into zombies, too.

This is difficult enough, but Cassie's tag along ex-boyfriend and her friend's bratty sister have a knack for making everything, even the apocalypse, more unpleasant. When the two attract a threat as deadly as the undead to their safe haven, Cassie's forced to see how far she'll go to protect those she loves. And it's a lot farther than she'd anticipated.


One of the best books I've read this year! It was a random recommendation from Audible support. I read the blurb, thought it sounded interesting, so downloaded it and started listening to it not long after. It took me perhaps around 2 chapters to get thoroughly hooked and I didn't want to put it down again until the very last word was spoken. Almost certainly a book I'll eventually want for my physical library as well.

In some ways, it's definitely very similar to the Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant (but it's a book about zombies! It'd be hard for it not to be), but where Newsflesh takes place 15-20 years after the zombie outbreak, "Until the End of the World" IS the zombie outbreak. I found it absolutely fascinating - much the same way I do with most apocalyptic stories.

Peter and Anna infuriated me for much of the book, and I wanted Cassie (or somebody) to smack some sense into them, but at the end I was glad to see them come around, rather than have karma bite them. I really liked Cassie, John and Penny and absolutely loved Beth :-)

While we definitely didn't get all questions answered by the end of the book, I found it nicely contained, and am still making up my mind whether or not I want to continue with the next book in the series. If it's anything like Newsflesh, it'll still be awesome, but not as groundbreaking as the first one.

Title: Wool (Wool #1)
Author: Hugh Howey
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 58
Date read: October, 2016

Thousands of them have lived underground. They've lived there so long, there are only legends about people living anywhere else. Such a life requires rules. Strict rules. There are things that must not be discussed. Like going outside. Never mention you might like going outside.

Or you'll get what you wish for.


I honestly don't know what I think of this book. I liked it well enough, but found it exceedingly weird! Even more so, because it's the first in a series. I think I'd have thought it less weird as a stand-alone short-story, but I really can't figure out where Hugh Howey will take it from here.

Guess there's only one way to find out ;)

Title: Rise: The Complete Newsflesh Collection
Author: Mira Grant
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 608
Date read: July, 2016

A collection of all the Newsflesh short stories published until now, plus two never seen before. Some are obviously better than others, but they're all well worth reading for people wanting to remain (figuratively only, obviously!) in that universe.

The book includes a short introduction by the author to each short story, which I enjoyed.

Short stories included:
- Countdown
- Everglades
- San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the Browncoats (this one always makes me cry)
- How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea
- The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell
- Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus
- All the Pretty Little Horses (*new* - how the Masons moved on from losing their son in the rising)
- Coming to You Live (*new* - 2 years after Shaun and Georgia disappeared off to Canada)

Title: The Girl with All the Gifts
Author: M.R. Carey
Genre: Dystopian, Suspense
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 435 pages
Date read: March, 2016

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.


DEFINITELY not your average zombie novel... And I think I need to revisit my attitude of "not liking zombie novels". Between this, "Feed" and "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" I'm constantly being proven wrong.

But like I said - this is definitely not your run-of-the-mill zombies. Melanie is a fully cognisant human being, with the capacity to focus on other things than her hunger. She feels love, fear, empathy, is insanely intelligent and makes connections to other people. And it is those connections (not to mention, the way other people respond to her) that makes this such a fascinating book. I couldn't put it down.

I'm glad "The Girl with All the Gifts" turned out to be a stand-alone novel. 20 pages before the end, I wondered how on earth they were going to wrap everything up in time, but M. Carey took a completely different track than I had expected, making for an unusual, but totally satisfactory ending.