bookshelf_from_mars's review
2.0
Not well-written, long to get into, mildly implausible, and with an opening section that I hated, this is a book with many, many things going against it. The emotional outbreak of the last hundred pages or so were noticeably better than the first two hundred pages and make up for some of the glaring issues.
Don't read it if you are expecting scientifically accurate talk of pandemics and flu - the fact that the book seems to think flu is caused by bacteria throws that hope out swiftly. Don't read it if you want the action to begin immediately - the initial characterization a are annoying and engender hostility to some characters without the benefit of entertaining depictions of the outbreak itself. Don't read it if you intend to finish it within a day or two - the pacing prevents the reader from enjoying the novel in such a short time frame.
Don't read it if you are expecting scientifically accurate talk of pandemics and flu - the fact that the book seems to think flu is caused by bacteria throws that hope out swiftly. Don't read it if you want the action to begin immediately - the initial characterization a are annoying and engender hostility to some characters without the benefit of entertaining depictions of the outbreak itself. Don't read it if you intend to finish it within a day or two - the pacing prevents the reader from enjoying the novel in such a short time frame.
beledit's review against another edition
3.0
Well this was a surprise. I was expecting dross but it's quite a page-turner. Not brilliantly written and the characters are cardboard cutouts, but you do engage with the story. Recommended for fans of the PA genre. Every time I hear someone cough my heart misses a beat. On finishing it I immediately started reading the sequel.
thereadingknitter's review
5.0
Oh my gosh this book sucked you in, made you laugh and then made you cry. Definitely didn't see the twist dealing with Dylan coming but it was a tear jerker for sure. Eerily reminded me of Covid at first when the country shut down. Scary. For sure reading the second book and other books by this author!
thereadingknitter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
5.0
Oh my gosh this book sucked you in, made you laugh and then made you cry. Definitely didn't see the twist dealing with Dylan coming but it was a tear jerker for sure. Eerily reminded me of Covid at first when the country shut down. Scary. For sure reading the second book and other books by this author!
ctorretta's review
5.0
Favorite Quote:
“While you’re off trotting around being Robin the Boy Wonder…”
“Why can’t I be Batman?”
While this is an apocalyptic book with quite a scary cover this was not quite as scary as I anticipated. Actually, quite the opposite. I found myself laughing throughout a lot of it.
This is very much like a Walking Dead scenario. The characters have to deal with this end of the world scenario and try to hold onto their humanity while continuing to love and live. That’s pretty tough when people are trying to kill you and even worse when there’s a flu out there that no one can see, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.
The storyline was laid out beautifully. The scene set in a small town that was devoid of the flu. The major plot is them trying to survive just three weeks until the flu should finally die out.
I absolutely love the characters. They made the story from page one for me. Mick is always freaking hilarious. I mean there isn’t probably one chapter that went by that made me NOT laugh my ass off. And then there’s his girl (or what he hopes to be his girl) Dillon and her kids. These main characters set the stage for not an apocalyptic book, but really for a sort of romance! Took me off guard a bit since I was expecting death and mayhem, but it was just so much fun!
Every minute I wasn’t laughing, I was crying… I felt like saying there is no crying in horror but this really isn’t a horror damn it!
As an audiobook I think I got even more into this than I may have if I were reading a physical book. The interaction between the characters was just amazing. Plus being able to hear the sarcasm in the character’s voices was just awesome. I may have otherwise thought that Dillon and Mick were actually upset with each other. Especially since their relationship is interesting.
In short:
Fabulous listen! Already downloading book 2, The healing!
“While you’re off trotting around being Robin the Boy Wonder…”
“Why can’t I be Batman?”
While this is an apocalyptic book with quite a scary cover this was not quite as scary as I anticipated. Actually, quite the opposite. I found myself laughing throughout a lot of it.
This is very much like a Walking Dead scenario. The characters have to deal with this end of the world scenario and try to hold onto their humanity while continuing to love and live. That’s pretty tough when people are trying to kill you and even worse when there’s a flu out there that no one can see, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.
The storyline was laid out beautifully. The scene set in a small town that was devoid of the flu. The major plot is them trying to survive just three weeks until the flu should finally die out.
I absolutely love the characters. They made the story from page one for me. Mick is always freaking hilarious. I mean there isn’t probably one chapter that went by that made me NOT laugh my ass off. And then there’s his girl (or what he hopes to be his girl) Dillon and her kids. These main characters set the stage for not an apocalyptic book, but really for a sort of romance! Took me off guard a bit since I was expecting death and mayhem, but it was just so much fun!
Every minute I wasn’t laughing, I was crying… I felt like saying there is no crying in horror but this really isn’t a horror damn it!
As an audiobook I think I got even more into this than I may have if I were reading a physical book. The interaction between the characters was just amazing. Plus being able to hear the sarcasm in the character’s voices was just awesome. I may have otherwise thought that Dillon and Mick were actually upset with each other. Especially since their relationship is interesting.
In short:
Fabulous listen! Already downloading book 2, The healing!
miznanner's review
4.0
An oddly enjoyable read.....
....because it does seem odd to enjoy a novel about a deadly outbreak! That said: this was a Book Bub pick that I do not at all regret. Well written, fairly well plotted, funny, likable (and believable) characters, realistic depictions of what could conceivably happen all in an easy to read package. I finished it in one sitting and because I liked the characters so much, will buy the sequel (and possibly others by the author). Definitely a "Sunday afternoon by the fireplace" kind of book.
....because it does seem odd to enjoy a novel about a deadly outbreak! That said: this was a Book Bub pick that I do not at all regret. Well written, fairly well plotted, funny, likable (and believable) characters, realistic depictions of what could conceivably happen all in an easy to read package. I finished it in one sitting and because I liked the characters so much, will buy the sequel (and possibly others by the author). Definitely a "Sunday afternoon by the fireplace" kind of book.
xterminal's review against another edition
3.0
Jacqueline Druga-Johnston, The Flu (LBF Books, 2006)
review tagline: Strength Was Not Had
NOTE: I had had this recommended to me by a number of people whose word I trust almost implicitly. I had coincidentally picked up a copy of the 2006 first printing at a library book sale about a year before; those who were pimping it recently were talking about the 2013 third edition from Permuted Press. It is possible that some of the things I talk about below got, as it were, fixed in post.
Have you heard of The Room, Tommy Wiseau's 2003 movie so legendarily awful that it has been having Rocky Horror Picture Show-style midnight screenings around the country for the past few years? There are many ways in which The Flu is reminiscent of The Room. You won't believe what you're reading, and yet somehow you won't be able to put it down, either. Unlike The Room, this is because Druga-Johnston's jaw-dropping lack of writing and logic skills mask a number of, well, downright fantastic things about The Flu.
We open in a remote Alaskan research station. By the time our Patient Zero, a local trader, reaches the base, the entire research team has been wiped out. He heads back to civilization, carrying the disease, and things happen from there. Eventually, the entire country is infected...with the exception of the small town of Lodi, Ohio. (Full disclosure: I live in the very northeast corner of Medina County, Ohio. Lodi is in the very southwest corner.) Thanks to some forward thinking by town sheriff Mick Owens, the flu was kept out of town early, and as the rest of the country dies, Lodi becomes a beacon of hope for the flu's few survivors...and a target for the desperate and the lawless.
Let me give you an example of the books Room-iness. At one point, a character says that the global population in 1800 was one billion, and the global population today is six billion. He then goes on to conclude that if the flu has a death toll of seventy-five percent, that will bring the population back to 1800 levels. I had to stop for a few minutes after that one and walk away. That's the level of dialogue writing found throughout the book. Prepare to be extremely annoyed by some of the characters' dialogue quirks; they can get on your nerves pretty quick. But here's the really frustrating thing: Druga-Johnston is using a lot of that stuff that just seems annoying at the beginning to build her characters. (Okay, she could have probably found better ways to do it, but still.) Some of those characters really shine; Bloom and Harden, a couple of hapless government hacks who gets trapped in Los Angeles when the flu breaks there, are wonderful, and then Druga-Johnston lets loose in the final few chapters and you can see what all that character-building was moving to, it's extremely effective. She is also very good at plotting, and almost as good at pacing; there's nothing here you won't see coming from at least fifty yards out, but it's all put together quite well if you're willing to look past some ridiculous science (just put it down to poetic license).
Frustrating, but the good parts of it are good enough to recommend this as long as you have a strong stomach for cheese and can let odd mathematical calculations roll off your back without too much thought. ** ½
review tagline: Strength Was Not Had
NOTE: I had had this recommended to me by a number of people whose word I trust almost implicitly. I had coincidentally picked up a copy of the 2006 first printing at a library book sale about a year before; those who were pimping it recently were talking about the 2013 third edition from Permuted Press. It is possible that some of the things I talk about below got, as it were, fixed in post.
Have you heard of The Room, Tommy Wiseau's 2003 movie so legendarily awful that it has been having Rocky Horror Picture Show-style midnight screenings around the country for the past few years? There are many ways in which The Flu is reminiscent of The Room. You won't believe what you're reading, and yet somehow you won't be able to put it down, either. Unlike The Room, this is because Druga-Johnston's jaw-dropping lack of writing and logic skills mask a number of, well, downright fantastic things about The Flu.
We open in a remote Alaskan research station. By the time our Patient Zero, a local trader, reaches the base, the entire research team has been wiped out. He heads back to civilization, carrying the disease, and things happen from there. Eventually, the entire country is infected...with the exception of the small town of Lodi, Ohio. (Full disclosure: I live in the very northeast corner of Medina County, Ohio. Lodi is in the very southwest corner.) Thanks to some forward thinking by town sheriff Mick Owens, the flu was kept out of town early, and as the rest of the country dies, Lodi becomes a beacon of hope for the flu's few survivors...and a target for the desperate and the lawless.
Let me give you an example of the books Room-iness. At one point, a character says that the global population in 1800 was one billion, and the global population today is six billion. He then goes on to conclude that if the flu has a death toll of seventy-five percent, that will bring the population back to 1800 levels. I had to stop for a few minutes after that one and walk away. That's the level of dialogue writing found throughout the book. Prepare to be extremely annoyed by some of the characters' dialogue quirks; they can get on your nerves pretty quick. But here's the really frustrating thing: Druga-Johnston is using a lot of that stuff that just seems annoying at the beginning to build her characters. (Okay, she could have probably found better ways to do it, but still.) Some of those characters really shine; Bloom and Harden, a couple of hapless government hacks who gets trapped in Los Angeles when the flu breaks there, are wonderful, and then Druga-Johnston lets loose in the final few chapters and you can see what all that character-building was moving to, it's extremely effective. She is also very good at plotting, and almost as good at pacing; there's nothing here you won't see coming from at least fifty yards out, but it's all put together quite well if you're willing to look past some ridiculous science (just put it down to poetic license).
Frustrating, but the good parts of it are good enough to recommend this as long as you have a strong stomach for cheese and can let odd mathematical calculations roll off your back without too much thought. ** ½
vokram's review against another edition
2.0
The Flu by Jacqueline Druga 2/5
This book started well. It followed the standard trope of a worldwide epidemic, something that I enjoy very much. I’m sorry to say that the minute (spoiler) Mick started surrounding the town using bikers, as if somehow, they weren’t sick, and that there were even as many bikers as he needed left alive- suddenly strained the bounds of belief. It didn’t follow from the preceding events. I had to bail at 60% or so. Too bad.
This book started well. It followed the standard trope of a worldwide epidemic, something that I enjoy very much. I’m sorry to say that the minute (spoiler) Mick started surrounding the town using bikers, as if somehow, they weren’t sick, and that there were even as many bikers as he needed left alive- suddenly strained the bounds of belief. It didn’t follow from the preceding events. I had to bail at 60% or so. Too bad.
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