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2.97 AVERAGE
2.97 AVERAGE
I have to admit...I was a bit disappointed in this story. I really wanted to like it but I found the characters were flat and not very likable. I kept thinking I was reading the 2nd book in a series because there was no information about what had happened and really who these people were. It was hard to hold my interest.
Merged review:
I have to admit...I was a bit disappointed in this story. I really wanted to like it but I found the characters were flat and not very likable. I kept thinking I was reading the 2nd book in a series because there was no information about what had happened and really who these people were. It was hard to hold my interest.
Merged review:
I have to admit...I was a bit disappointed in this story. I really wanted to like it but I found the characters were flat and not very likable. I kept thinking I was reading the 2nd book in a series because there was no information about what had happened and really who these people were. It was hard to hold my interest.
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Kyle, Sara and Tim are on the run. They don't know where they are going exactly, but they have survived 13 years already and they plan to keep going. When their last hideout is destroyed they have to run again, taking a little girl, the sole survivor of a bunch of scientists, with them. And if all of that wasn't hard enough already, Kyle suffers from unexplained blackouts and terrible headaches and there is a monster with unimaginable power after them.
This post-apocalyptic world is filled with monsters and a few remaining humans struggling for survival. We get thrown right into the story where Kyle, Sara and Tim are hiding for the night. It is definitely an action-filled book and there is always something happening. Those poor characters could never catch a break.
Kyle is the leader of the team, but recently he's become less reliable due to unexplained flashbacks during which he looses a lot of time and could endanger all their lives. He used to travel with his girlfriend and his best friend. After their deaths he nearly went mad with grief before finding Sara. He now wants to protect his friends.
Sara suffered trough a traumatic childhood full of abuse at the hands of her church because she kissed a girl (both are only mentioned in passing and as there are no other girls Sara's age there is no romance at all in this novel). She witnessed her mum's and sister's death in a car accident when her powers appeared. She is one of the rare scanners, able to sense all monsters. This however makes her vulnerable to the most evil monster of all.
Tim's family died during the first apocalyptic week and he has been traveling alone since then until he met Kyle and Sara. Despite his young age he is quite good with a gun, but Kyle's continuous nagging makes him incredible angry.
Kaylee is a little girl whose mother was a scientist. But when they had to leave their Bunker and go out in the open all of them were killed. She is rescued by Kyle, Sara and Tim and together they try to travel to another place that might exist and might be safe.
The setting was quite interesting, but the world building was lacking. While we were told what happened at the beginning of the apocalypse it only happened in very short flashbacks and there was no real explanation for anything, not where the monsters came from nor where Sara got her powers.
It was also quite confusing to read, especially since Kyle's flashbacks kept throwing me back in time and for a long time it's not really explained who the people in the flashbacks are, which I found annoying. The chapters were split between Kyle and Sara. Kyle's chapters offered me a great insight in his character, but Sara's chapters dealt more often with her ability as a scanner and her receiving other people's feelings or reading their dreams. Because of that I could never really connect to Sara. There is also no real voice for Kaylee, which was especially disappointing as I thought since she was on the cover, she would play a more important role.
The ending gives a bit of hope but leaves a lot of things open, which kinda made sense, but also left me feeling unsatisfied.
So all in all it was a nice book with a nice idea, but the world building was lacking a lot and the characters didn't really connect to me.
Why I read it: I wanted to read some more post-apocalyptic stories and the cover looked really nice.
Do I recommend it: It might be more fun for younger audiences? But no, not really.
Kyle, Sara and Tim are on the run. They don't know where they are going exactly, but they have survived 13 years already and they plan to keep going. When their last hideout is destroyed they have to run again, taking a little girl, the sole survivor of a bunch of scientists, with them. And if all of that wasn't hard enough already, Kyle suffers from unexplained blackouts and terrible headaches and there is a monster with unimaginable power after them.
This post-apocalyptic world is filled with monsters and a few remaining humans struggling for survival. We get thrown right into the story where Kyle, Sara and Tim are hiding for the night. It is definitely an action-filled book and there is always something happening. Those poor characters could never catch a break.
Kyle is the leader of the team, but recently he's become less reliable due to unexplained flashbacks during which he looses a lot of time and could endanger all their lives. He used to travel with his girlfriend and his best friend. After their deaths he nearly went mad with grief before finding Sara. He now wants to protect his friends.
Sara suffered trough a traumatic childhood full of abuse at the hands of her church because she kissed a girl (both are only mentioned in passing and as there are no other girls Sara's age there is no romance at all in this novel). She witnessed her mum's and sister's death in a car accident when her powers appeared. She is one of the rare scanners, able to sense all monsters. This however makes her vulnerable to the most evil monster of all.
Tim's family died during the first apocalyptic week and he has been traveling alone since then until he met Kyle and Sara. Despite his young age he is quite good with a gun, but Kyle's continuous nagging makes him incredible angry.
Kaylee is a little girl whose mother was a scientist. But when they had to leave their Bunker and go out in the open all of them were killed. She is rescued by Kyle, Sara and Tim and together they try to travel to another place that might exist and might be safe.
The setting was quite interesting, but the world building was lacking. While we were told what happened at the beginning of the apocalypse it only happened in very short flashbacks and there was no real explanation for anything, not where the monsters came from nor where Sara got her powers.
It was also quite confusing to read, especially since Kyle's flashbacks kept throwing me back in time and for a long time it's not really explained who the people in the flashbacks are, which I found annoying. The chapters were split between Kyle and Sara. Kyle's chapters offered me a great insight in his character, but Sara's chapters dealt more often with her ability as a scanner and her receiving other people's feelings or reading their dreams. Because of that I could never really connect to Sara. There is also no real voice for Kaylee, which was especially disappointing as I thought since she was on the cover, she would play a more important role.
The ending gives a bit of hope but leaves a lot of things open, which kinda made sense, but also left me feeling unsatisfied.
So all in all it was a nice book with a nice idea, but the world building was lacking a lot and the characters didn't really connect to me.
Why I read it: I wanted to read some more post-apocalyptic stories and the cover looked really nice.
Do I recommend it: It might be more fun for younger audiences? But no, not really.
I really enjoyed this book. It was an interesting take on the dystopian novel, mixing in a little horror with the strange creatures. I will definitely be adding this to my collection!
When the world as we knew it has come to an end, the struggle to survive takes on new heights in Al Barrera's All That Remains.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Thirteen years after the demise of the world as it once was, Kyle, Sara, and Tim are out from their community looking for more essential supplies when they encounter some of the creatures that destroyed their world. In trying to escape from them them with their lives, they are pulled from their single-minded mission when they hear the cries of a young girl, Kaylee, whom they rescue from the carnage surrounding her. Kaylee's mother was working for the government on something that could save humanity. While battling their various inner struggles, this group of survivors are trying to find the safe place in Tennessee where they might find salvation.
As a fairly standard apocalyptic story, the trajectory of the narrative was easy to follow; however, it seems to have used a lot of established zombie-esque, apocalyptic narrative tropes along with some intriguing supernatural elements (that weren't fully addressed) to construct this story, depriving it of much originality. I found that this text could use some more editing attention as there were some progression issues along with standard grammatical issues - for example, there was a moment when the trio of survivors are asking Kaylee about some men, where she said only "men" and the adult asked her about the "bad men;" this jarred me out of the text to wonder how the guys knew they were bad without her saying so. There's a lot of action taking place throughout the story, but there isn't an adequate amount of explanation of how the world came to be in its current state and the creatures that made it that way.
Overall, I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Thirteen years after the demise of the world as it once was, Kyle, Sara, and Tim are out from their community looking for more essential supplies when they encounter some of the creatures that destroyed their world. In trying to escape from them them with their lives, they are pulled from their single-minded mission when they hear the cries of a young girl, Kaylee, whom they rescue from the carnage surrounding her. Kaylee's mother was working for the government on something that could save humanity. While battling their various inner struggles, this group of survivors are trying to find the safe place in Tennessee where they might find salvation.
As a fairly standard apocalyptic story, the trajectory of the narrative was easy to follow; however, it seems to have used a lot of established zombie-esque, apocalyptic narrative tropes along with some intriguing supernatural elements (that weren't fully addressed) to construct this story, depriving it of much originality. I found that this text could use some more editing attention as there were some progression issues along with standard grammatical issues - for example, there was a moment when the trio of survivors are asking Kaylee about some men, where she said only "men" and the adult asked her about the "bad men;" this jarred me out of the text to wonder how the guys knew they were bad without her saying so. There's a lot of action taking place throughout the story, but there isn't an adequate amount of explanation of how the world came to be in its current state and the creatures that made it that way.
Overall, I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars.
post-apocalyptic, zombies, aliens. fast-paced, page turner. no hope for any of the few survivors but they keep struggling on. it was wow for me.
Covers can make or break books for some people. A lousy cover can mean some readers decide to never look twice, we have all been there. That being said, I have hardly ever picked up a book quite as fast as I did with this novel. The cover alone screams, darkness, fragility and a loss of innocence
and brings the images of monsters to mind. I began reading with fairly high hopes for Al Barrera’s book. A critical thing I realized while reading was the set up of the work.While written in third person, the chapters of the work alternate between focus characters (namely Kyle and Sarah) and offer full insight to thoughts and actions. We are first met with Kyle, Sarah, and Tim.
Kyle is a reluctant, slightly older leader. A survivor who has lost many people and no longer wishes to experience any losses, he is cynical, grim, short tempered and often overcome with memories. With a standoffish personality, I found myself wishing Kyle would just die. This is funny in hindsight, but frustrating when reading. While his interrupting memories and flashbacks were key to his past they were written in a jarring fashion, imitating how memories can actually overcome someone, but this made the work incredibly hard to read when scenes rapidly change with no warning every few paragraphs.
An incredibly flat character most of the time was the younger male, Tim. We are led to believe Tim is whiny and immature, just barely past the stage of teenager, and at first there is actually not much to know about him until more than halfway through the novel we discover a small part of his past. Often he serves as a tool to anger Kyle repeatedly and they continuously clash. Their relationship appeared similar to a father and son going head to head before eventually coming to understand one another or a situation in which an aged leader is losing his power and a younger, potentially stronger leader prepares to replace him. However, more often than not, it just looked like two men clashing over egos and age and it quickly grew stale and stereotypical. In the midst of their testosterone was a voice of reason keeping both men in check when conflicts arose: Sarah.
Sarah is the only adult female character, not to mention an LGBTQ+ character. She is also a “scanner,” someone who feels energies and memories like imprints left on belongings and in buildings, scraps of the past, however she can also utilize this talent to locate things in the present or raid the memories of the living. I loved the idea of these abilities, but the details are slow going for a large chunk of the novel and I felt somewhat underwhelmed. We never experience the potency of these skills until almost two thirds of the way through the novel, though they are used occasionally to gather information from Kaylee.
Kaylee is the young girl who is found on a scavenging trip. She is alone and crying, having survived a massacre. She serves as a catalyst for the plot, but also a tool to find information needed for the end goal. I felt without Kaylee the novel would never proceed because there would be nothing but three people wandering in a wasteland and arguing amongst themselves.
Atmosphere and setting are immediately introduced and with very little dialogue, only internal monologues, the reader discovers just how much life has changed and how dire the situation is. The world has become but the bones of what it once was, buildings destroyed and nature overcome by and unknown entity called “the blight” while monsters roam freely and humans have become the prey. Vague references of what happened to the world appear throughout the work, brought forth by the thoughts of Sarah and Kyle, but there is almost nothing one would call an origin story of the destruction. Barrera presents us with nothing but wreckage and aftermath which we are supposed to swallow without question; while this may be representative of the title and the new truth the characters have come to know: there is no need to look back at what happened, all that remains is what you must face, I found this to be incredibly frustrating. As an avid fantasy and sci-fi reader I love for a world to be created in entirety for me to grasp onto and fall into a story. All That Remains leave many unanswered questions and with a slow plot my mind continuously drifted to what I wished was being discussed rather than what was actually written on the page.
Despite a fairly well created world, the plot and characters were lacking. Many scenes reminded me of zombie fiction I have encountered before. From some locations, goals, and character types there were concepts that have occurred before. There was little development for most of the story, and what few strong characters existed were underutilized; it felt poorly executed and as though only some parts of the story received the author’s full attention. While Barrera writes action well, there was little focus on building anticipation, rather the reader is thrown into immediate anxiety and heightened emotion haphazardly and randomly. The last third of the book held a majority of action, changing environments and a sense of conflict that made it highly enjoyable. However, my enjoyment was dampened by scenes featuring men attacking Sarah. The scenes consisted of incredibly sexist and vile language and incredible violence, something that I did not deem needed to create a potentially incredible moment of psychological thrills and terror. It reminded me of low level exploitation horror movies and I debated multiple times if this book was worth finishing because of how much it detracted from the reading experience.
Overall, I would give this book is 2 stars. 1 star for the created world, overrun and wild with perils and action and 1 star for Sarah, the most interesting character with incredible abilities and untapped strength. I am left thinking this book is what comes from throwing I Am Legend and The Walking Dead into a mixing pot before adding a dash of psychic alien creatures with vampire-like silver allergies. The concept holds promise but is too much to execute in one book. So many things occurred in the work that none of them felt fully described and scenes lacked the elaboration I love in sci-fi and fantasy fiction. Despite this, by the end of the novel we are left with a concrete future conflict and I believe a sequel could be much better, especially if it focuses on Sarah because there is much potential for an amazing and immersive experience.
Find more reviews here.
and brings the images of monsters to mind. I began reading with fairly high hopes for Al Barrera’s book. A critical thing I realized while reading was the set up of the work.While written in third person, the chapters of the work alternate between focus characters (namely Kyle and Sarah) and offer full insight to thoughts and actions. We are first met with Kyle, Sarah, and Tim.
Kyle is a reluctant, slightly older leader. A survivor who has lost many people and no longer wishes to experience any losses, he is cynical, grim, short tempered and often overcome with memories. With a standoffish personality, I found myself wishing Kyle would just die. This is funny in hindsight, but frustrating when reading. While his interrupting memories and flashbacks were key to his past they were written in a jarring fashion, imitating how memories can actually overcome someone, but this made the work incredibly hard to read when scenes rapidly change with no warning every few paragraphs.
An incredibly flat character most of the time was the younger male, Tim. We are led to believe Tim is whiny and immature, just barely past the stage of teenager, and at first there is actually not much to know about him until more than halfway through the novel we discover a small part of his past. Often he serves as a tool to anger Kyle repeatedly and they continuously clash. Their relationship appeared similar to a father and son going head to head before eventually coming to understand one another or a situation in which an aged leader is losing his power and a younger, potentially stronger leader prepares to replace him. However, more often than not, it just looked like two men clashing over egos and age and it quickly grew stale and stereotypical. In the midst of their testosterone was a voice of reason keeping both men in check when conflicts arose: Sarah.
Sarah is the only adult female character, not to mention an LGBTQ+ character. She is also a “scanner,” someone who feels energies and memories like imprints left on belongings and in buildings, scraps of the past, however she can also utilize this talent to locate things in the present or raid the memories of the living. I loved the idea of these abilities, but the details are slow going for a large chunk of the novel and I felt somewhat underwhelmed. We never experience the potency of these skills until almost two thirds of the way through the novel, though they are used occasionally to gather information from Kaylee.
Kaylee is the young girl who is found on a scavenging trip. She is alone and crying, having survived a massacre. She serves as a catalyst for the plot, but also a tool to find information needed for the end goal. I felt without Kaylee the novel would never proceed because there would be nothing but three people wandering in a wasteland and arguing amongst themselves.
Atmosphere and setting are immediately introduced and with very little dialogue, only internal monologues, the reader discovers just how much life has changed and how dire the situation is. The world has become but the bones of what it once was, buildings destroyed and nature overcome by and unknown entity called “the blight” while monsters roam freely and humans have become the prey. Vague references of what happened to the world appear throughout the work, brought forth by the thoughts of Sarah and Kyle, but there is almost nothing one would call an origin story of the destruction. Barrera presents us with nothing but wreckage and aftermath which we are supposed to swallow without question; while this may be representative of the title and the new truth the characters have come to know: there is no need to look back at what happened, all that remains is what you must face, I found this to be incredibly frustrating. As an avid fantasy and sci-fi reader I love for a world to be created in entirety for me to grasp onto and fall into a story. All That Remains leave many unanswered questions and with a slow plot my mind continuously drifted to what I wished was being discussed rather than what was actually written on the page.
Despite a fairly well created world, the plot and characters were lacking. Many scenes reminded me of zombie fiction I have encountered before. From some locations, goals, and character types there were concepts that have occurred before. There was little development for most of the story, and what few strong characters existed were underutilized; it felt poorly executed and as though only some parts of the story received the author’s full attention. While Barrera writes action well, there was little focus on building anticipation, rather the reader is thrown into immediate anxiety and heightened emotion haphazardly and randomly. The last third of the book held a majority of action, changing environments and a sense of conflict that made it highly enjoyable. However, my enjoyment was dampened by scenes featuring men attacking Sarah. The scenes consisted of incredibly sexist and vile language and incredible violence, something that I did not deem needed to create a potentially incredible moment of psychological thrills and terror. It reminded me of low level exploitation horror movies and I debated multiple times if this book was worth finishing because of how much it detracted from the reading experience.
Overall, I would give this book is 2 stars. 1 star for the created world, overrun and wild with perils and action and 1 star for Sarah, the most interesting character with incredible abilities and untapped strength. I am left thinking this book is what comes from throwing I Am Legend and The Walking Dead into a mixing pot before adding a dash of psychic alien creatures with vampire-like silver allergies. The concept holds promise but is too much to execute in one book. So many things occurred in the work that none of them felt fully described and scenes lacked the elaboration I love in sci-fi and fantasy fiction. Despite this, by the end of the novel we are left with a concrete future conflict and I believe a sequel could be much better, especially if it focuses on Sarah because there is much potential for an amazing and immersive experience.
Find more reviews here.
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. – Revelation Chapter 13
When we open a book with a quote from Revelations you know some stuff is going down! I needed a book to qualify as horror for my Fall Bookish Bingo card. Understand, I don’t usually read horror, however, I do read post-apocalyptic stories. This one came under both categories, so I figured, what the heck. Let’s try it out. Might be fun. Might scare the holy heck out of me, but let’s give it a go.
It’s not quite as intensely horror filled as I first imagined. Granted, that could also be because I’ve read a lot of these types of books and I’m a little jaded. As for the story, something terrible has happened on earth. A devastating illness? An alien life-form? Monsters appearing? Zombies walking the earth? How about all of the above. Most of humankind has gone the way of the dodo. Enter a band of survivors, trying to make their way through a horror filled landscape. It’s pretty clear that they aren’t going to make it. How can they? The author does a good job with the mood building. You can see the fog and mist creeping up, monster hiding in tall grass, something waiting to jump out at them at every turn. It makes for good post-apocalypse world building. Interestingly, the thing I liked most about the book was it’s diversity. Bravo, Mr. Barrera! He’s created a compelling story with no love triangle, what a relief! There is also an African American hero and a lesbian heroine protecting a young man and a little girl. It’s nice to see something different in a genre that, unfortunately, tends to be a little formulaic. If you’re a fan of horror or post-apocalyptic adventure I think this is a good page turner.
Song for this book: Zombie – The Cranberries
When we open a book with a quote from Revelations you know some stuff is going down! I needed a book to qualify as horror for my Fall Bookish Bingo card. Understand, I don’t usually read horror, however, I do read post-apocalyptic stories. This one came under both categories, so I figured, what the heck. Let’s try it out. Might be fun. Might scare the holy heck out of me, but let’s give it a go.
It’s not quite as intensely horror filled as I first imagined. Granted, that could also be because I’ve read a lot of these types of books and I’m a little jaded. As for the story, something terrible has happened on earth. A devastating illness? An alien life-form? Monsters appearing? Zombies walking the earth? How about all of the above. Most of humankind has gone the way of the dodo. Enter a band of survivors, trying to make their way through a horror filled landscape. It’s pretty clear that they aren’t going to make it. How can they? The author does a good job with the mood building. You can see the fog and mist creeping up, monster hiding in tall grass, something waiting to jump out at them at every turn. It makes for good post-apocalypse world building. Interestingly, the thing I liked most about the book was it’s diversity. Bravo, Mr. Barrera! He’s created a compelling story with no love triangle, what a relief! There is also an African American hero and a lesbian heroine protecting a young man and a little girl. It’s nice to see something different in a genre that, unfortunately, tends to be a little formulaic. If you’re a fan of horror or post-apocalyptic adventure I think this is a good page turner.
Song for this book: Zombie – The Cranberries
I received this from Netgalley for an honest review....
This was a good book, not exceptional but good. Let me tell you why...
This book was exciting, action packed, fast paced and had a 5 star story. But, what it had in action and story, it lacked in character development. I felt none of the sadness at the last page that I would normally feel at the end of a really good book. The 'loosing a friend' feeling you get when a story ends. I like to know all about the protagonists so that I can hate them or fall in love but at the end of this book I felt like I didn't really know them at all. I had not connected with them or their stories.
All in all, I would recommend this for a quick, exciting read!
This was a good book, not exceptional but good. Let me tell you why...
This book was exciting, action packed, fast paced and had a 5 star story. But, what it had in action and story, it lacked in character development. I felt none of the sadness at the last page that I would normally feel at the end of a really good book. The 'loosing a friend' feeling you get when a story ends. I like to know all about the protagonists so that I can hate them or fall in love but at the end of this book I felt like I didn't really know them at all. I had not connected with them or their stories.
All in all, I would recommend this for a quick, exciting read!
I have to admit...I was a bit disappointed in this story. I really wanted to like it but I found the characters were flat and not very likable. I kept thinking I was reading the 2nd book in a series because there was no information about what had happened and really who these people were. It was hard to hold my interest.
All That Remains is definitely a slow burn. It could fall under the “zombie”, “post-apocalyptic” story categories, but has a few unexpected twists to set it slightly apart from the rest. Though the cause of the “zombie apocalypse” is not plainly laid out, one can entertain a few ideas and scenarios, which gives the story-line its appeal. Zombies are also not the only foes to be weary of.
The story begins with our heroes already surviving in the “blighted” world. We are thrown in to the fight against the “monsters” of this world, both physical and emotional. Within this fight, we meet a little girl with a secret, a symbol of hope. This little girl leads the heroes on the rest of their journey through this fight, with hope for an end. Along this journey we encounter several kinds of “monsters”, human, un-dead, and something in between. We learn of humans who have extraordinary abilities and come to understand that there are still things worse than trying to survive in this world.
Though I wouldn’t put this book at the top of my list, it is definitely worth reading. The story left a lot to be desired as far as an explanation to what caused the world to end and where all the different types of monsters came from, but that also adds a positive aspect that allows the reader to imagine for themselves. I would have liked for more clarification between memory flashbacks and internal thought, as well as an explanation for “scanners”, but, other than that, the story and characters were well written and the ending left me wanting to know “what happens next?”
Thank you to Net Galley for providing this e-book in exchange for my honest review.
The story begins with our heroes already surviving in the “blighted” world. We are thrown in to the fight against the “monsters” of this world, both physical and emotional. Within this fight, we meet a little girl with a secret, a symbol of hope. This little girl leads the heroes on the rest of their journey through this fight, with hope for an end. Along this journey we encounter several kinds of “monsters”, human, un-dead, and something in between. We learn of humans who have extraordinary abilities and come to understand that there are still things worse than trying to survive in this world.
Though I wouldn’t put this book at the top of my list, it is definitely worth reading. The story left a lot to be desired as far as an explanation to what caused the world to end and where all the different types of monsters came from, but that also adds a positive aspect that allows the reader to imagine for themselves. I would have liked for more clarification between memory flashbacks and internal thought, as well as an explanation for “scanners”, but, other than that, the story and characters were well written and the ending left me wanting to know “what happens next?”
Thank you to Net Galley for providing this e-book in exchange for my honest review.