A review by ishmael
Dust: Before and After by S.E. Smith
3.0
The reader was solid, though I think his saying certain things in the same tone highlighted what I might've glossed over on a physical book. I felt like I needed to start a drinking game for every instance of "in a husky voice" with "in a quiet/soft voice" close second.
Apocalypse happened, some things got superpowers as a result, which is handy for the people but shitty for everyone who has to deal with super-powered animals. Super powers means eating a lot, which isn't easy in a wasteland. Said powers must also extend to great teeth, as sugar is extolled as awesome for powers and downed in quantity with nary a toothbrush in sight.
Intrepid teens meet survivalist tropes and there's some dick-waving and posturing, which is bleh, but eventually leads to an examination of the emotional messiness of a shitty family, which is more interesting.
Some bits felt like the made no sense in a post-apocalypse scenario--like trying to hide dead bodies from a kid who'd been surviving over a year; wouldn't they have run into enough corpses to be desensitized by then? I was ok with the instant love as two isolated teens meeting a viable love interest for the 1st time in a year made sense it'd accelerate feelings. Glad it narrowly avoided a love triangle.
Having a violent female incarnation of evil was interesting, until
The ending is anticlimatic and hokey.
For all its faults it was a decent read, but not one I'll follow up.
Apocalypse happened, some things got superpowers as a result, which is handy for the people but shitty for everyone who has to deal with super-powered animals. Super powers means eating a lot, which isn't easy in a wasteland. Said powers must also extend to great teeth, as sugar is extolled as awesome for powers and downed in quantity with nary a toothbrush in sight.
Intrepid teens meet survivalist tropes and there's some dick-waving and posturing, which is bleh, but eventually leads to an examination of the emotional messiness of a shitty family, which is more interesting.
Some bits felt like the made no sense in a post-apocalypse scenario--like trying to hide dead bodies from a kid who'd been surviving over a year; wouldn't they have run into enough corpses to be desensitized by then? I was ok with the instant love as two isolated teens meeting a viable love interest for the 1st time in a year made sense it'd accelerate feelings. Glad it narrowly avoided a love triangle.
Having a violent female incarnation of evil was interesting, until
Spoiler
it turned out her new motivation was wanting to bang the male lead. Ugh. Making her the only overtly mentioned dark-skinned character is definitely problematic when she's literally called she-devil and started out as a dog.The ending is anticlimatic and hokey.
Spoiler
Instead of a final showdown, they posture and might as well shout IN THE SEQUEL, IT'S WEREWOLVES VS VAMPIRES! Super goofy.For all its faults it was a decent read, but not one I'll follow up.