#BlogTour-‘The End Of The World Survivors Club’ by Adrian J Walker

About the book..

In THE END OF THE WORLD RUNNING CLUB Edgar Hill ran 550 miles after an apocalypse to try and find his family.

He had it easy. 

This is his wife’s story.

Beth Hill has survived the apocalypse with a baby and toddler in tow. And what’s more she’s done it alone – without her husband’s help. He’s never been any help. But when disaster strikes and someone steals her kids, she knows what she has to do.

The new world might be very different: no government, no law, no infrastructure and a whole lot more ocean than there used to be. But one thing hasn’t changed – the lengths a mother will go to save her family…

My enormous thanks to Anne Cater of  Random Things blog tours for the tour invite and Ebury for my gifted review copy of the book!

Following directly on from ‘‘The End of The World Running Club’, which is the story of Ed, a man whose apathy needs an apocalypse to jerk him into the same reality the rest of us inhabit. This time, it is Beth whose story is front and center. As she says, she had to survive the apocalypse with 2 children in tow, no matter how hard he may have found it, it was just the same old , same old to her. When she and Ed are parted right at the beginning, she says –

”But heartbreak wasn’t all I felt. I felt relief as well.Relief that I wouldn’t have to return to that life with him,full of its frustrations and disappointments.

Relief that I only had to carry two children, not three.”

If you haven’t read ‘EOTWRC’ (to shorten it), it doesn’t matter as all you need to know is right there at the beginning. The world has ended, Beth, her children Alice and Arthur, are leaving the shore of Britain for Cape Town,with Ed promising to find them.

‘TEOTWSC'(shortening once more) is how Beth refers to herself, offering her persepctive on events that have led this far-Adrian J Walker completely nails the expectations on mum’s to have their shit together and when you don’t, you can exist either as someone that those who do feel superior to, forever in their shadows, or be your own independent team of one- Beth chooses option 2, rejecting the smugly moral mothers, I think that she and I would get along like a house on fire, speaking as a parent who counts it as a victory to do the school pick up with zero interation .

Leaving behind all they know is absolutely terrifying, and she has the added complications of trying to keep her children alive and safe. But even at the end of the world there are complete tosspots and her attempts to offer her services to fix the boat (why would a woman know software patches *massive eyeroll*)or save her friend from being chucked overboard (seasickness being mistaken for carrying a virus) are swiftly brushed aside.

”People are idiots .Awkward bundles of conflicting desires with a single destination:death.It’s no wonder we never got anything done in the days of Kate Winslet.I mean,we thought we did, we thought we’ve made progress,byt we could have had the internet in the fifteenth century if we’d only stopped drowning witches for a second.”

Have I mentioned how much I love Beth? She may be flawed but her attitude is bloody awesome – her kids and her are the entire world and she will do anything to protect them. Fierce, proud, intelligent and funny, she narrates the post apocalyptic world straight to the reader in a forthright way that keeps you turning the pages(sorry if that sounds obvious, some first person narrators overload you with detail to the point you have to put the book down and have a tea break, a little stroll, a cake and a nap before diving back in again).

Writing from a female perspective is not easy, the shops are full of books where authors of both sexes try, and fail, to nail a female voice but I totally brought Beth’s narrative both as a person and as a mother. Adrian J Walker’s way of writing makes a 400 plus page novel feel like you breezed through a book half that size, the action moves quickly, the characters are developed at a speed commensurate with being introduced on a boat journey at the end of the world.When the book ends, you cry out a loud ‘Awww!’ at the universe,getting yourself a quizzical look from the dog lying on your feet, followed by swifty glance at the internet to see if a third book is being planned.

If there is not a third, the two that he has written make great companion pieces,’TEOTWSC’ is another brilliant piece of dystopian fiction that doesn’t gloss over the very real concerns of the people who have survived an asteroid strike, AND a deadly virus yet are still not safe. Their attempts to get to a place where they can feel safe results in often difficult yet necessary decision making that keeps you on your toes. None of the plot is predictable or boring, it is very realistic whilst having a very human centre in Beth, and her reluctantly added members to her ‘Survivor’s Club’ .Turns out one really is the loneliest number, and by letting some of her more stubborn defences down, she really grows as a person. And do not get in her way when she is trying to get her children back

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys dystopian fiction such as ‘The Stand’ and ‘A Boy And His Dog At The End Of The World’

*As a bonus I learnt some great new swear words that I am looking forward to trying out!*

About the author..

Adrian J Walker was born in the bush suburbs of Sydney, Australia in the mid-’70s. After his father found a camper van in a ditch, he moved his family back to the UK, where Adrian was raised.

The End of the World Running Club is an international bestseller and was featured on Simon Mayo’s Radio 2 Book Club.

He lives in Aberdeen with his wife and two children

Links-http://www.adrianjwalker.com/

Twitter @adrianwalker

@EburyPublishing

@annecater