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How to Survive Everything
My name is Haley Cooper Crowe and I am in lockdown in a remote location I can't tell you about.
Children of divorce, Haley and Ben live with their mother. But their dad believes there's a new, much deadlier pandemic coming and is determined to keep them alive. He wants to take them to his prepper hideaway where they will be safe from other people. NOW. But there's no way their mother will go along with his plan. Saving them requires extreme measures.
Kidnapped by their father and confined to his compound far off the grid, Haley and Ben have no contact with the outside world. How can they save their mother? Will they make it out alive? Is the threat real--or is this all just a dark fantasy brought on by their conspiracy obsessed father's warped imagination?
Propulsive and chilling in its realism, How to Survive Everything is the story of a world imploding; a teenage girl's record for negotiating the collapse of everything she knows--including her family and sanity.
Children of divorce, Haley and Ben live with their mother. But their dad believes there's a new, much deadlier pandemic coming and is determined to keep them alive. He wants to take them to his prepper hideaway where they will be safe from other people. NOW. But there's no way their mother will go along with his plan. Saving them requires extreme measures.
Kidnapped by their father and confined to his compound far off the grid, Haley and Ben have no contact with the outside world. How can they save their mother? Will they make it out alive? Is the threat real--or is this all just a dark fantasy brought on by their conspiracy obsessed father's warped imagination?
Propulsive and chilling in its realism, How to Survive Everything is the story of a world imploding; a teenage girl's record for negotiating the collapse of everything she knows--including her family and sanity.
368 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2021
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August 26, 2021
I'm going to something I rarely do and post a review that includes spoilers, because my chief criticism of How To Survive Everything is so inextricably linked with its ending that it wouldn't be fair if I didn't mention it. If you don't want to know how this book ends, don't read past paragraph three.
The narrator of How To Survive Everything is Haley, the 15-year-old daughter of divorced parents. She has a much younger brother, Ben, who has ADHD. Her mother, Justine, is brisk, capable and immaculate while her father Ed, a former journalist, likes building Heath Robinson contraptions, outdoor survival activities and various other things Justine doesn't approve of. Haley is a typical teenage girl, glued to her phone and embarrassed by her parents, but she seems to have a significant anxiety problem, most often triggered by being asked to make a choice - apparently a consequence of the acrimonious family split during which Haley believed she was being asked to choose between her parents.
The story is set a few years after the Covid-19 pandemic (I assume Morrison wrote it during the 2020 lockdown). Ed's investigative journalism has convinced him there's another, much worse pandemic on the way that will cause complete societal collapse, and he's been setting up a small community of preppers: an environmental activist called Meg, her teenage son Danny, an ex-squaddie called Ray, and the mysterious Kade, an aggressive, shaven-headed woman who seems to have some form of paranoid disorder. The novel begins with Ed essentially abducting Haley and Ben to the compound he's set up, complete with infection control measures, border fences and guns, with the intention of saving them from the pandemic. But when Haley manages to make contact with her mother, Ed decides he'll have to abduct Justine too.
Justine tells Haley what most readers will have thought blindingly obvious from the start: Ed has a long history of serious mental illness and has stopped taking his medication and attending psychiatric appointments. His paranoid delusions and obsession with conspiracy theories is, in fact, the reason his access to Haley and Ben has always been so closely controlled. Over the years he's attempted suicide, been sectioned and been addicted to drugs. It was through Narcotics Anonymous that he met Meg and Ray.
Haley sets about supporting her mother's escape plan - but then suddenly, just as Ed has predicted, the National Grid goes down. Shortly afterwards Ed returns from an expedition to the outside world with horrific injuries. And suddenly, it seems that Ed isn't actually mad at all.
Throughout the book, Haley veers between extremes, from preferring one parent and preferring the other, believing in the pandemic and not believing in it, to hating Meg's son Danny and being passionately attracted to him, and although this reflects her debilitating difficulty in making decisions, it makes for a tiresomely repetitive read, and it doesn't help that Haley felt like a middle-aged man's caricature of a teenage girl with stereotypical interests and language. I found her curiously naive for a 15-year-old and I don't believe for a moment she would failed to realise - for years - that her father was mentally ill.
But this is where the biggest spoilers are about to appear, because my biggest problem by far with this book is this: after some horrifically traumatic moments (without access to medical care, it becomes necessary for Haley, Meg and Justine to perform an amputation), and after even Justine has accepted the reality of the pandemic and started to play an active role in the running of the compound, Haley discovers the real truth of the National Grid failure and her father's injuries and realises there's actually no pandemic at all. But seeing her parents apparently getting along and her brother burning off his excess energy and no longer faced with the constant choices that plague her in the outside world, she says nothing.
This would be an interesting twist if the book ended right there. It would be a damning indictment of the toxic impact of an acrimonious divorce on a child and of the overwhelming connectivity and abundance we're faced in a modern world, and a thought-provoking satirical outcome.
But the book does not end there. What actually happens is that, after months of living as if there is an apocalyptic plague raging... an apocalyptic plague actually does happen. Ed, albeit by coincidence, was right all along.
This, then, is my colossal issue with this book: a paranoid, delusional father who abducts his own children with the intention of separating from their mother forever, acts like a cult leader, advocates shooting people on sight, abducts, imprisons and abuses his former wife and generally behaves like the worst sort of selfish Fathers 4 Justice dickhead is someone we're suddenly supposed to sympathise with and believe.
Justine is a smart and resourceful woman in a successful job who has brought up Haley and Ben alone, and while of course she has her faults, I hated the way she was portrayed as a stereotypical cold, slightly bullying career-woman like something from bad 1980s TV drama. It's Haley narrating the story, and yet her descriptions of her mother read like something a bitter divorced husband would write in his revenge fantasy after his ex-wife gets the house. Ed takes away Justine's children, abducts her, restrains her, has her doused in bleach in case she's infected and imprisons her in a shed and yet his former wife a) starts to like him again, b) agrees to devote her days to domestic chores and c) does away with her designer clothes and makeup, which because they're feminine we're supposed to think are shallow and silly rather than just, you know, a nice thing she likes.
It seems pretty clear that the new world the group will be building once the rest of the population has been wiped out is going to be yet another patriarchy, then. And it also seems we're supposed to be on board with it.
I'm writing this review in year two of the Covid-19 pandemic, just as we're trying to return to some sort of normality amid rising infection rates. For the past 18 months, dangerous idiots have been spreading misinformation and scare stories and ranting about the 'bias [sic] MSM' while sharing links to YouTube videos made by angry men who live in their mum's basements and hate women. Conspiracy theories - Covid is a hoax; Covid was deliberately created for population control; vaccines will kill us; it's all down to 5G; society is collapsing so start stockpiling food and buy a gun - are dangerous, paranoid nonsense and are actively damaging the pandemic response and causing unnecessary deaths.
So is this the right time to publish a novel in which the key message is 'Hey, that unstable, paranoid bloke who abducts his kids from their mum, imprisons his ex-wife, starts a doomsday cult and plays with guns? He's the kind of guy you should listen to. He's the real visionary here!'?
No. No it is not. And that's my final word on the matter.
The narrator of How To Survive Everything is Haley, the 15-year-old daughter of divorced parents. She has a much younger brother, Ben, who has ADHD. Her mother, Justine, is brisk, capable and immaculate while her father Ed, a former journalist, likes building Heath Robinson contraptions, outdoor survival activities and various other things Justine doesn't approve of. Haley is a typical teenage girl, glued to her phone and embarrassed by her parents, but she seems to have a significant anxiety problem, most often triggered by being asked to make a choice - apparently a consequence of the acrimonious family split during which Haley believed she was being asked to choose between her parents.
The story is set a few years after the Covid-19 pandemic (I assume Morrison wrote it during the 2020 lockdown). Ed's investigative journalism has convinced him there's another, much worse pandemic on the way that will cause complete societal collapse, and he's been setting up a small community of preppers: an environmental activist called Meg, her teenage son Danny, an ex-squaddie called Ray, and the mysterious Kade, an aggressive, shaven-headed woman who seems to have some form of paranoid disorder. The novel begins with Ed essentially abducting Haley and Ben to the compound he's set up, complete with infection control measures, border fences and guns, with the intention of saving them from the pandemic. But when Haley manages to make contact with her mother, Ed decides he'll have to abduct Justine too.
Justine tells Haley what most readers will have thought blindingly obvious from the start: Ed has a long history of serious mental illness and has stopped taking his medication and attending psychiatric appointments. His paranoid delusions and obsession with conspiracy theories is, in fact, the reason his access to Haley and Ben has always been so closely controlled. Over the years he's attempted suicide, been sectioned and been addicted to drugs. It was through Narcotics Anonymous that he met Meg and Ray.
Haley sets about supporting her mother's escape plan - but then suddenly, just as Ed has predicted, the National Grid goes down. Shortly afterwards Ed returns from an expedition to the outside world with horrific injuries. And suddenly, it seems that Ed isn't actually mad at all.
Throughout the book, Haley veers between extremes, from preferring one parent and preferring the other, believing in the pandemic and not believing in it, to hating Meg's son Danny and being passionately attracted to him, and although this reflects her debilitating difficulty in making decisions, it makes for a tiresomely repetitive read, and it doesn't help that Haley felt like a middle-aged man's caricature of a teenage girl with stereotypical interests and language. I found her curiously naive for a 15-year-old and I don't believe for a moment she would failed to realise - for years - that her father was mentally ill.
But this is where the biggest spoilers are about to appear, because my biggest problem by far with this book is this: after some horrifically traumatic moments (without access to medical care, it becomes necessary for Haley, Meg and Justine to perform an amputation), and after even Justine has accepted the reality of the pandemic and started to play an active role in the running of the compound, Haley discovers the real truth of the National Grid failure and her father's injuries and realises there's actually no pandemic at all. But seeing her parents apparently getting along and her brother burning off his excess energy and no longer faced with the constant choices that plague her in the outside world, she says nothing.
This would be an interesting twist if the book ended right there. It would be a damning indictment of the toxic impact of an acrimonious divorce on a child and of the overwhelming connectivity and abundance we're faced in a modern world, and a thought-provoking satirical outcome.
But the book does not end there. What actually happens is that, after months of living as if there is an apocalyptic plague raging... an apocalyptic plague actually does happen. Ed, albeit by coincidence, was right all along.
This, then, is my colossal issue with this book: a paranoid, delusional father who abducts his own children with the intention of separating from their mother forever, acts like a cult leader, advocates shooting people on sight, abducts, imprisons and abuses his former wife and generally behaves like the worst sort of selfish Fathers 4 Justice dickhead is someone we're suddenly supposed to sympathise with and believe.
Justine is a smart and resourceful woman in a successful job who has brought up Haley and Ben alone, and while of course she has her faults, I hated the way she was portrayed as a stereotypical cold, slightly bullying career-woman like something from bad 1980s TV drama. It's Haley narrating the story, and yet her descriptions of her mother read like something a bitter divorced husband would write in his revenge fantasy after his ex-wife gets the house. Ed takes away Justine's children, abducts her, restrains her, has her doused in bleach in case she's infected and imprisons her in a shed and yet his former wife a) starts to like him again, b) agrees to devote her days to domestic chores and c) does away with her designer clothes and makeup, which because they're feminine we're supposed to think are shallow and silly rather than just, you know, a nice thing she likes.
It seems pretty clear that the new world the group will be building once the rest of the population has been wiped out is going to be yet another patriarchy, then. And it also seems we're supposed to be on board with it.
I'm writing this review in year two of the Covid-19 pandemic, just as we're trying to return to some sort of normality amid rising infection rates. For the past 18 months, dangerous idiots have been spreading misinformation and scare stories and ranting about the 'bias [sic] MSM' while sharing links to YouTube videos made by angry men who live in their mum's basements and hate women. Conspiracy theories - Covid is a hoax; Covid was deliberately created for population control; vaccines will kill us; it's all down to 5G; society is collapsing so start stockpiling food and buy a gun - are dangerous, paranoid nonsense and are actively damaging the pandemic response and causing unnecessary deaths.
So is this the right time to publish a novel in which the key message is 'Hey, that unstable, paranoid bloke who abducts his kids from their mum, imprisons his ex-wife, starts a doomsday cult and plays with guns? He's the kind of guy you should listen to. He's the real visionary here!'?
No. No it is not. And that's my final word on the matter.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2022
My thanks to the author, Ewan Morrison, and to Harper Perennial Publishers for an Uncorrected Proof of this novel.
This is an enjoyable but also spine-tingling story of apocalyptic fears and what can, could, would, might happen. The author has certainly tapped into the realities of our world and how close to the brink we might be. It is unsettling and yet addictive. The characters are people we know, flawed and not. Highly recommend.
This is an enjoyable but also spine-tingling story of apocalyptic fears and what can, could, would, might happen. The author has certainly tapped into the realities of our world and how close to the brink we might be. It is unsettling and yet addictive. The characters are people we know, flawed and not. Highly recommend.
July 17, 2021
In the last novel I read by Ewan Morrison, Nina X, the central character was a young woman who had been brought up from birth within a cult, and who had been completely isolated from the outside world. He has chosen a not dissimilar theme on this occasion. This novel is set a few years into the future and begins with the early stages of a new worldwide pandemic, with a virus that is much more deadly than COVID-19. On this occasion the main character is fifteen-year-old Haley Crowe, whose parents are divorced. She and her younger brother are abducted by their father, Ed, who tells them they are going on a “surprise adventure”. He though is a doomsday prepper who takes his children to an abandoned farm in the north of Scotland, that Ed and 4 followers have turned into a fortified retreat, and where they have stockpiled years of supplies with a view to surviving the anticipated collapse of civilisation.
I had to slightly suspend my disbelief with the setting. The farm is said to be 30 miles from the nearest village, which is believable in itself, but as I live in the region I know that word would soon get around about the sort of setup described, and the authorities wouldn’t be long in snooping around. I decided not to make too much of an issue with that and just enjoy the novel, and after a slightly slow start I did enjoy it. Haley proves to be a somewhat disruptive influence within the camp. Her parents divorced because Haley’s mother thought her father had become a paranoid conspiracy theorist, and because the camp is so isolated, Haley doesn’t actually know what is going on in the outside world. There are some signs of the collapse that Ed warned of, but Ed is also evasive whenever Haley asks him questions about what is happening beyond the compound. The author keeps us guessing right through the book, and he does this very well. I also liked the way Haley was torn in her loyalties to her parents, both of whom have some “issues”.
There’s a political message in the novel, about consumerism, the level of waste in modern society etc. I suppose that if a novel features a group of survivalists, then those ideas are bound to feature. Personally, I prefer literature where the political messages are understated, and the author just about keeps on the right side of that line. In terms of tension the novel works really well, especially in the last 50 pages. At that point I couldn’t stop reading until I got to the end. There’s one important scene in the middle of the book that I thought was a bit overdone.
How To Survive Everything is a worthwhile read. An exciting thriller that also touches on the nature of modern society as well as on themes such as family and group loyalty.
I had to slightly suspend my disbelief with the setting. The farm is said to be 30 miles from the nearest village, which is believable in itself, but as I live in the region I know that word would soon get around about the sort of setup described, and the authorities wouldn’t be long in snooping around. I decided not to make too much of an issue with that and just enjoy the novel, and after a slightly slow start I did enjoy it. Haley proves to be a somewhat disruptive influence within the camp. Her parents divorced because Haley’s mother thought her father had become a paranoid conspiracy theorist, and because the camp is so isolated, Haley doesn’t actually know what is going on in the outside world. There are some signs of the collapse that Ed warned of, but Ed is also evasive whenever Haley asks him questions about what is happening beyond the compound. The author keeps us guessing right through the book, and he does this very well. I also liked the way Haley was torn in her loyalties to her parents, both of whom have some “issues”.
There’s a political message in the novel, about consumerism, the level of waste in modern society etc. I suppose that if a novel features a group of survivalists, then those ideas are bound to feature. Personally, I prefer literature where the political messages are understated, and the author just about keeps on the right side of that line. In terms of tension the novel works really well, especially in the last 50 pages. At that point I couldn’t stop reading until I got to the end. There’s one important scene in the middle of the book that I thought was a bit overdone.
How To Survive Everything is a worthwhile read. An exciting thriller that also touches on the nature of modern society as well as on themes such as family and group loyalty.
dnf
May 15, 2023This was a no go for me once the main character said someone gave her “the moisties".
November 5, 2022
Special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: November 15, 2022
Ewan Morrison is a Scottish author, and his newest work “How to Survive Everything” is an impactful novel on adolescence, mental illness and the surviving the end of the world.
Haley and Ben Cooper-Crowe are living with their mother as a result of a contentious and bitter divorce between their parents. Their father believes that they are on the verge of a deadly, life-altering global pandemic, far worse than Covid, and has built a survivalist commune in a remote location, along with some loyal followers. During a visit with their father, Haley and Ben are kidnapped and taken to live at this compound, their father desperate to save them from the outside world. Soon, their mother is captured to live with them, but she insists the outside world is completely unaffected and just as Haley left it, and her ex-husband and Haley’s father is mentally unstable. Both Haley’s mother and father are able to provide proof to their contrary opinions and Haley is forced to do the one thing that terrifies her- choose sides between her parents, in a situation where her choice may mean literal life-or-death.
The story is told completely from Haley’s perspective, as she writes her experiences down in a sort of “survival manual”. Haley is courageous and naïve, but completely likable and easy to root for. As a reader, I, too was as conflicted as Haley as Morrison has a way of making both parents, at separate times, seem completely sane and reasonable, marking the other parent as the opposite. I was unsure throughout the novel’s entirety who was actually telling the truth, and that factor formed a quick rapport and connection with Haley and her young brother, Ben.
“Survive Everything” is graphic in parts (for example, when it becomes necessary to amputate Haley’s father’s leg) and scientific in parts (when Haley breaks down how to connect a cell phone to a disabled telecommunications system or how to hotwire a radio) but as the format of the novel is a survival how-to guide, this information would be vital to Haley’s potential readers, and Morrison has to keep to this script.
Morrison’s story is creative, amplifying the “global pandemic” scenario to a now-not-so-unbelievable degree, with believable, relatable characters and an unsettling ending. It is a riveting novel that kept me on the edge of my seat from page one and will change the way you look at the post-pandemic world around you.
Expected publication date: November 15, 2022
Ewan Morrison is a Scottish author, and his newest work “How to Survive Everything” is an impactful novel on adolescence, mental illness and the surviving the end of the world.
Haley and Ben Cooper-Crowe are living with their mother as a result of a contentious and bitter divorce between their parents. Their father believes that they are on the verge of a deadly, life-altering global pandemic, far worse than Covid, and has built a survivalist commune in a remote location, along with some loyal followers. During a visit with their father, Haley and Ben are kidnapped and taken to live at this compound, their father desperate to save them from the outside world. Soon, their mother is captured to live with them, but she insists the outside world is completely unaffected and just as Haley left it, and her ex-husband and Haley’s father is mentally unstable. Both Haley’s mother and father are able to provide proof to their contrary opinions and Haley is forced to do the one thing that terrifies her- choose sides between her parents, in a situation where her choice may mean literal life-or-death.
The story is told completely from Haley’s perspective, as she writes her experiences down in a sort of “survival manual”. Haley is courageous and naïve, but completely likable and easy to root for. As a reader, I, too was as conflicted as Haley as Morrison has a way of making both parents, at separate times, seem completely sane and reasonable, marking the other parent as the opposite. I was unsure throughout the novel’s entirety who was actually telling the truth, and that factor formed a quick rapport and connection with Haley and her young brother, Ben.
“Survive Everything” is graphic in parts (for example, when it becomes necessary to amputate Haley’s father’s leg) and scientific in parts (when Haley breaks down how to connect a cell phone to a disabled telecommunications system or how to hotwire a radio) but as the format of the novel is a survival how-to guide, this information would be vital to Haley’s potential readers, and Morrison has to keep to this script.
Morrison’s story is creative, amplifying the “global pandemic” scenario to a now-not-so-unbelievable degree, with believable, relatable characters and an unsettling ending. It is a riveting novel that kept me on the edge of my seat from page one and will change the way you look at the post-pandemic world around you.
November 14, 2022
Before I begin this review, I have to admit that I cannot stand YA books. This book was listed on NetGalley under Mystery & Thrillers, and General Fiction (Adult). Then when I went to Goodreads to mark that I started reading it, they had it in categories like Thriller, Dystopia, and YOUNG ADULT. Arghhh…I think they’re both a bit wrong. I’d categorize this as a YA dystopian, dark comedy horror/thriller. Despite the narration of the first-person protagonist sounding even younger than her age of 15, I ended up really enjoying this book!
As we know from the synopsis, Haley and her little brother, Ben, have been kidnapped while on a rare custody visit with their father. Their dad is a doomsday prepper, and for years has been secretly building a safe place to hide from a great pandemic - and that’s exactly where he’s now imprisoning his children.
Their dad, Ed, is so extreme in his end-of-the-world views that he lost everything, including his wife and family. When reports of a new virus spreading in Asia came out, he put his plan in motion, kidnapped his kids, and took them to this safe place. The place is equipped with food, water, weapons, medical supplies, a bit of electricity - along with many videos, books and even survival guides written by Ed himself.
This book, as I mentioned, is written from Haley’s perspective, and is interspersed with plenty of survival guide material. The first half I would actually label as cute, and while I never did end up loving Haley (or any of the characters), her thoughts were often humorous. There were a lot of disturbing things in it, and a couple of annoying things, but there were also some side stories that yeah, were cute.
Normally, being “cute” in horror/thriller books makes me gag, but I have to give kudos to the author for not only making it bearable, but very enjoyable. This never got slow, the ending was great and I thought the whole thing was very creative. With chapters titled “How To Deal With Mother” and “Home Surgery For Beginners”, the whole survival guide aspect was really fun. I’m giving this a 4.5; normally anything even remotely young-adult feeling annoys me, but this one delighted me!
(Thank you to Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, Ewan Morrison, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)
As we know from the synopsis, Haley and her little brother, Ben, have been kidnapped while on a rare custody visit with their father. Their dad is a doomsday prepper, and for years has been secretly building a safe place to hide from a great pandemic - and that’s exactly where he’s now imprisoning his children.
Their dad, Ed, is so extreme in his end-of-the-world views that he lost everything, including his wife and family. When reports of a new virus spreading in Asia came out, he put his plan in motion, kidnapped his kids, and took them to this safe place. The place is equipped with food, water, weapons, medical supplies, a bit of electricity - along with many videos, books and even survival guides written by Ed himself.
This book, as I mentioned, is written from Haley’s perspective, and is interspersed with plenty of survival guide material. The first half I would actually label as cute, and while I never did end up loving Haley (or any of the characters), her thoughts were often humorous. There were a lot of disturbing things in it, and a couple of annoying things, but there were also some side stories that yeah, were cute.
Normally, being “cute” in horror/thriller books makes me gag, but I have to give kudos to the author for not only making it bearable, but very enjoyable. This never got slow, the ending was great and I thought the whole thing was very creative. With chapters titled “How To Deal With Mother” and “Home Surgery For Beginners”, the whole survival guide aspect was really fun. I’m giving this a 4.5; normally anything even remotely young-adult feeling annoys me, but this one delighted me!
(Thank you to Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, Ewan Morrison, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)
January 30, 2023
No spoilers from me, but I did guess a lot of the twists, hoped I was wrong about some of them. I kept hoping I would find something authentic or at least surprising. Entertaining? Nothing improved my opinion.
You will know this is a pandemic novel from the back cover, so that's not a spoiler, but truly, this seemed like every unfunny zombie apocalypse novel I've ever come across. The pandemic that provides the excuse for a deranged father to abduct his children is from a lab in China, and I rolled my eyes. The 15-year-old girl narrative voice set my teeth on edge. The author clearly intends her to be amusing, but the main character's annoying voice, the weak attempt to express the views of a teenaged girl absolutely does not work for me; it is offensive in how off it is. (I was a high school teacher for forty years and I know teenage girls.) One more paragraph beginning with "You see" would have driven me right off a cliff. One more clearly male viewpoint... And the misogyny... and the repetition of how she should have seen it coming every page... All set up as a series of bolded instructions, and this inauthentic cuteness goes on throughout the book.
So no, this is not a good novel for me. Even if it's intended to be YA (and no indication, thank goodness that it is), no excuse. Others seem to love it. I will stop here.
I regret that Harper Perennial wasted an uncorrected proof on me. [No joke about "uncorrected" because this is a late draft, not a finished manuscript—many errors, and I recognize that doubling of verbs where the author changed his mind and failed to read it over and take out one or the other. I've done that myself.]
You will know this is a pandemic novel from the back cover, so that's not a spoiler, but truly, this seemed like every unfunny zombie apocalypse novel I've ever come across. The pandemic that provides the excuse for a deranged father to abduct his children is from a lab in China, and I rolled my eyes. The 15-year-old girl narrative voice set my teeth on edge. The author clearly intends her to be amusing, but the main character's annoying voice, the weak attempt to express the views of a teenaged girl absolutely does not work for me; it is offensive in how off it is. (I was a high school teacher for forty years and I know teenage girls.) One more paragraph beginning with "You see" would have driven me right off a cliff. One more clearly male viewpoint... And the misogyny... and the repetition of how she should have seen it coming every page... All set up as a series of bolded instructions, and this inauthentic cuteness goes on throughout the book.
So no, this is not a good novel for me. Even if it's intended to be YA (and no indication, thank goodness that it is), no excuse. Others seem to love it. I will stop here.
I regret that Harper Perennial wasted an uncorrected proof on me. [No joke about "uncorrected" because this is a late draft, not a finished manuscript—many errors, and I recognize that doubling of verbs where the author changed his mind and failed to read it over and take out one or the other. I've done that myself.]
December 22, 2022
Another narrative from men writing female characters badly. This whole book is problematic and I’m going to guess the author either has recently gone through a divorce or is the child of divorce and whichever is correct, did not go his way.
Read
March 14, 2023I didn't make it very far into this one. It had an interesting premise: a girl trying to survive the 'care' of her possibly unhinged prepper father in what may or may not be an actual world ending pandemic.
But the author attempts to write in the voice of a scattered, immature (and apparently constantly horny) teenage girl, and the results are less witty than, well, creepy. Like when she refers to a crush as someone who gives her the "major moisties", or imagines her mother preparing the "pink love pole" of her lover -- I don't think I could have that dialogue living in my head for 350+ pages
Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against sexuality on page, I love a good amount of violence, horror, disaster and dread. I don't even mind if the dog dies. But reading a middle aged guy try to write like a horny impetuous teenage girl? I'm sure it can be done, and maybe if I stuck with it he'd pull it off. But I took a pass.
But the author attempts to write in the voice of a scattered, immature (and apparently constantly horny) teenage girl, and the results are less witty than, well, creepy. Like when she refers to a crush as someone who gives her the "major moisties", or imagines her mother preparing the "pink love pole" of her lover -- I don't think I could have that dialogue living in my head for 350+ pages
Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against sexuality on page, I love a good amount of violence, horror, disaster and dread. I don't even mind if the dog dies. But reading a middle aged guy try to write like a horny impetuous teenage girl? I'm sure it can be done, and maybe if I stuck with it he'd pull it off. But I took a pass.
March 7, 2021
Set a few years after the Covid pandemic Haley and her brother Ben are abducted by their father and spirited away to his prepper compound. Children of divorced parents their mother fills their heads with concern about their father’s mental health. The father being an ex investigative journalist who had previously worked on a classified global health committee has knowledge of a virus CHF-4, classed as one of the most infectious lethal pathogens on the planet.
Now this is where the author has been incredibly clever, is the father having a mental breakdown or does he know something the rest don’t? Is the mother in denial or is she shielding the children from their father’s crazy ideas? The narrator being fifteen year old Haley means you are privy to both perspectives as she feels obliged to believe both as they are her parents. It’s difficult enough for children to be in the position of warring parents but when your life could depend on it makes it all the more heart wrenching.
I’m not normally a fan of teenage girls as narrators but Haley reminded me of how I was as a teenager. Smart mouthed, rebellious, questioning and fiercely stubborn. I related and understood her straight away and that made it incredibly easy to be inside her head.
Told in the form of a survival guide journal written by Haley you learn that the father has not only been prepping for the coming pandemic he’s also been prepping the children years in advance. Taking them on ‘vaventures’ on his weekends to have the kids, he has been covertly teaching them survival skills.
The current pandemic makes this book feel scarily foreboding and not knowing what is going on outside the compound fencing filled me with tension. This book got into my head, under my skin and chilled me with how much trust we put into people to tell us the truth.
Now this is where the author has been incredibly clever, is the father having a mental breakdown or does he know something the rest don’t? Is the mother in denial or is she shielding the children from their father’s crazy ideas? The narrator being fifteen year old Haley means you are privy to both perspectives as she feels obliged to believe both as they are her parents. It’s difficult enough for children to be in the position of warring parents but when your life could depend on it makes it all the more heart wrenching.
I’m not normally a fan of teenage girls as narrators but Haley reminded me of how I was as a teenager. Smart mouthed, rebellious, questioning and fiercely stubborn. I related and understood her straight away and that made it incredibly easy to be inside her head.
Told in the form of a survival guide journal written by Haley you learn that the father has not only been prepping for the coming pandemic he’s also been prepping the children years in advance. Taking them on ‘vaventures’ on his weekends to have the kids, he has been covertly teaching them survival skills.
The current pandemic makes this book feel scarily foreboding and not knowing what is going on outside the compound fencing filled me with tension. This book got into my head, under my skin and chilled me with how much trust we put into people to tell us the truth.
November 16, 2022
2.5⭐️
This is a YA story told from a 15 year old girls POV and while it felt accurate to her age, the slang and overly dramatic thoughts made it a frustrating read for me. I loved the premise of the survival guide and think with another POV it might have worked better, but it was just far too long spent in her thoughts. It had some odd juxtaposition- she calls her mom Mother and had strict rules from her mom, but cussed at both of her parents constantly with no problems. There was a romance that felt unnecessary that also wasn’t my fav.
The tried this on audio and while the narrator was good, she was perhaps too good bc the annoying teenage angst was magnified on audio 😂 I’m also not a fan of young kid voices and the 6 year old brother is prominently featured. This was just not the book for me, but younger readers might enjoy this one.
This is a YA story told from a 15 year old girls POV and while it felt accurate to her age, the slang and overly dramatic thoughts made it a frustrating read for me. I loved the premise of the survival guide and think with another POV it might have worked better, but it was just far too long spent in her thoughts. It had some odd juxtaposition- she calls her mom Mother and had strict rules from her mom, but cussed at both of her parents constantly with no problems. There was a romance that felt unnecessary that also wasn’t my fav.
The tried this on audio and while the narrator was good, she was perhaps too good bc the annoying teenage angst was magnified on audio 😂 I’m also not a fan of young kid voices and the 6 year old brother is prominently featured. This was just not the book for me, but younger readers might enjoy this one.
March 2, 2021
Acclaimed Scottish writer Ewan Morrison sets his latest book, How To Survive Everything, in a pandemic world. Sound familiar? Here though, we witness it through the eyes of young Haley, fifteen years old when she and brother Ben are first spirited away to a secret hideaway carefully prepared by their seemingly paranoid father, Ed, for them to survive the world disaster he sees coming. It’s here they eke out their days, in the company of others, including hippy Meg and her son, Danny, who’s a couple of years older than Haley.
It is Haley who makes this novel work so successfully, her voice acutely realised and perfectly pitched. Haley is in many ways a typical teenager, dealing with the angst that comes with her age but also the pain of her parents’ quite bitter divorce. Funny, smart, observant and questioning, she’s the perfect protagonist, dealing with – I was going to write the unimaginable– well, dealing with a changing world, in much confined circumstances, and living by new rules and instructions on how to live. How she deals with this, her reactions and actions, inform what is a very good book indeed.
Early on, we’re treated to a breakdown of How to abduct your children, which is both poignant, heart-rending and hilarious. It includes Ed preparing Haley and Ben for the end of the world essentially by taking them on a series of ‘Vaventures’, little outings involving such treats as turning all the power out and eating ‘blackout breakfast’ at 4am in candlelight, scavenging for branches on a snowy hill to build a bivouac and tricking them into helping with the final steps of their own abduction. Through Haley we see the humour and the absurdity of these situations, and then also the realisation that this is her new normal, a strange, perplexing and frightening world she now has to learn to navigate.
This is a beautiful book in many ways, certainly one that makes one think. Yes, it’s a pandemic novel – but it’s also an exploration of love in all its guises, emerging, enduring, failed, set against an all too real dystopian setting, full of broken people trying to endure. Highly recommended.
See: https://www.theliteraryshed.co.uk/rea...
This review was published as part of the publisher book tour. Many thanks to Saraband for a review copy. All opinions are our own. All rights reserved.
It is Haley who makes this novel work so successfully, her voice acutely realised and perfectly pitched. Haley is in many ways a typical teenager, dealing with the angst that comes with her age but also the pain of her parents’ quite bitter divorce. Funny, smart, observant and questioning, she’s the perfect protagonist, dealing with – I was going to write the unimaginable– well, dealing with a changing world, in much confined circumstances, and living by new rules and instructions on how to live. How she deals with this, her reactions and actions, inform what is a very good book indeed.
Early on, we’re treated to a breakdown of How to abduct your children, which is both poignant, heart-rending and hilarious. It includes Ed preparing Haley and Ben for the end of the world essentially by taking them on a series of ‘Vaventures’, little outings involving such treats as turning all the power out and eating ‘blackout breakfast’ at 4am in candlelight, scavenging for branches on a snowy hill to build a bivouac and tricking them into helping with the final steps of their own abduction. Through Haley we see the humour and the absurdity of these situations, and then also the realisation that this is her new normal, a strange, perplexing and frightening world she now has to learn to navigate.
This is a beautiful book in many ways, certainly one that makes one think. Yes, it’s a pandemic novel – but it’s also an exploration of love in all its guises, emerging, enduring, failed, set against an all too real dystopian setting, full of broken people trying to endure. Highly recommended.
See: https://www.theliteraryshed.co.uk/rea...
This review was published as part of the publisher book tour. Many thanks to Saraband for a review copy. All opinions are our own. All rights reserved.
October 15, 2021
I put off reading this book because I was off on a couple of long train journeys and lots of hanging about, and it was an unknown quantity...
I was wrong to do so.
This book puts you through the wringer. First you get annoyed with the dad, then you get to hate the mum and then... well, no spoilers from me!
All of us have been through the dark times of Covid and lockdown, of social distancing and wearing masks... or at least I hope all of us here are sensible and caring individuals. If you aren't then I hope you suffered, because I know/knew people who did suffer, and some who still are!
There will be another pandemic and it is possible that it will be worse... so here is the manual for you... except...
where do you get the time and the money to create a safe place for yourself and yours?
The story puts you in the shoes of a modern teenage girl chained to all the seductions of contemporary life; smart phone, social network, the opposite sex, shops, teenage angst and embarrassing parents. It does it very well, so that, at one point, I thought it would make a good Young Adult book, but in the end I decided it's good for everyone... except teenagers. Her father decides the end is nigh and "kidnaps" her and her younger brother, taking them to a safe place in the middle of nowhere... and things get complicated.
This is an excellent read... excellent.
... apart from (but no spoilers from me!)...
I was wrong to do so.
This book puts you through the wringer. First you get annoyed with the dad, then you get to hate the mum and then... well, no spoilers from me!
All of us have been through the dark times of Covid and lockdown, of social distancing and wearing masks... or at least I hope all of us here are sensible and caring individuals. If you aren't then I hope you suffered, because I know/knew people who did suffer, and some who still are!
There will be another pandemic and it is possible that it will be worse... so here is the manual for you... except...
where do you get the time and the money to create a safe place for yourself and yours?
The story puts you in the shoes of a modern teenage girl chained to all the seductions of contemporary life; smart phone, social network, the opposite sex, shops, teenage angst and embarrassing parents. It does it very well, so that, at one point, I thought it would make a good Young Adult book, but in the end I decided it's good for everyone... except teenagers. Her father decides the end is nigh and "kidnaps" her and her younger brother, taking them to a safe place in the middle of nowhere... and things get complicated.
This is an excellent read... excellent.
... apart from (but no spoilers from me!)...
November 23, 2022
This was a real mixed bag. A lot of times, 3 stars indicates some form of indifference from me. Here, there was a lot I liked, but also some stuff I really disliked.
The plot of the novel opens with a doomsday prepper dad basically abducting his two children, Haley, 15, and Ben, 6, to save them from a pandemic that's just about to wipe out civilization. Or, is it? Haley is our first person narrator, and we experience her suspicion of her father through her eyes. But I can't say any more, because this novel has a lot of twists and turns, and I don't want to spoil them. But, those twists are well done, with several developments that caught me by surprise.
On the other hand, the audiobook of the novel is nearly 14 hours long, and the length felt rather indulgent. And there was something super weird about the audiobook. As you listen, it becomes increasingly obvious that this novel is set in Northern England. It's the vocabulary, the dialogue, references to places, etc. And, oh yeah, the original title was, How to Survive Everything in England. (D'oh!). But the audiobook is recorded with broad, aggressively American accents. What's that about?
I could compliment the interesting ending, or complain about how annoying the little brother is. But let's leave it at a mixed bag. I am glad to have read it, as there was more than enough to have kept my attention.
The plot of the novel opens with a doomsday prepper dad basically abducting his two children, Haley, 15, and Ben, 6, to save them from a pandemic that's just about to wipe out civilization. Or, is it? Haley is our first person narrator, and we experience her suspicion of her father through her eyes. But I can't say any more, because this novel has a lot of twists and turns, and I don't want to spoil them. But, those twists are well done, with several developments that caught me by surprise.
On the other hand, the audiobook of the novel is nearly 14 hours long, and the length felt rather indulgent. And there was something super weird about the audiobook. As you listen, it becomes increasingly obvious that this novel is set in Northern England. It's the vocabulary, the dialogue, references to places, etc. And, oh yeah, the original title was, How to Survive Everything in England. (D'oh!). But the audiobook is recorded with broad, aggressively American accents. What's that about?
I could compliment the interesting ending, or complain about how annoying the little brother is. But let's leave it at a mixed bag. I am glad to have read it, as there was more than enough to have kept my attention.
February 5, 2023
Good idea but not great writing or plot.
The women were constantly described by their breast size. At one point the main character says that a woman is a loud singer because she has large breasts. What?
The main character is a child and there are constant references to her breasts and nipples as well. Her character was written in a way that made her seem much, much younger than 15 in most instances--she has trouble knowing what was a dream or a memory, she can't understand dynamics between adults at all, she doesn't think critically about the situation she was in or her parents split five years earlier. Largely she reads like an 8 or 9-year-old girl makes it even more jarring to see these references page after page.
It was very contrived and most of the book felt like a stunted, sad teenage boy’s end-of-the-world fantasy—living off the land, walking in on a girl in the shower, bonding with a “manly” man but vilifying the mother and making the woman characters spend their time doing domestic tasks and catering to the men but strangely through the girl's point of view. Maybe the author thought it would make it less creepy? That was a failure.
More thoughts here.
The women were constantly described by their breast size. At one point the main character says that a woman is a loud singer because she has large breasts. What?
The main character is a child and there are constant references to her breasts and nipples as well. Her character was written in a way that made her seem much, much younger than 15 in most instances--she has trouble knowing what was a dream or a memory, she can't understand dynamics between adults at all, she doesn't think critically about the situation she was in or her parents split five years earlier. Largely she reads like an 8 or 9-year-old girl makes it even more jarring to see these references page after page.
It was very contrived and most of the book felt like a stunted, sad teenage boy’s end-of-the-world fantasy—living off the land, walking in on a girl in the shower, bonding with a “manly” man but vilifying the mother and making the woman characters spend their time doing domestic tasks and catering to the men but strangely through the girl's point of view. Maybe the author thought it would make it less creepy? That was a failure.
More thoughts here.
December 28, 2022
The premise of this book is fascinating, and had it been written better, I would likely have enjoyed it. The author fails to capture the narrative voice of a teen, and as a former teacher and former youth services librarian who has worked with teens for literal decades, I couldn't get over that. There's also a fair amount of fatphobia, most aimed at the narrator's younger brother (who is said to have an eating disorder).
There are plenty of other, better apocalyptic bunker books out there, folks.
There are plenty of other, better apocalyptic bunker books out there, folks.
November 29, 2022
Maybe rounded up 2.5 stars since I did end up finishing the entire book.
How to Survive Everything is a play book of rules one must follow in order to survive the apocalypse. Set a few years after the Covid-19 pandemic 15 year old Haley and her younger brother Ben are abducted by their father and held captive in a commune/bunker of sorts. With her parents divorced and her mother filling her head with questions of her dad's mental health, Haley is obviously scared and concerned.
The book is basically Haley trying to decipher if her father is correct and outside her concrete wall, is there truly mass destruction? Has martial law taken over? Are people killing for food and shelter? All the things that I am certain some of us wondered during the pandemic we just recently went through. How far will people go?
I thought the book had a fantastic premise. And after chatting with Steph and Brandy during our buddy read, I agree it would have been better to have had another point of view. Only bearing witness through a hormone filled 15 year old, was at times, tough. I felt as though I were reading her diary and frankly, it was annoying. The use of certain verbiage was just over the top.
I am not sure how I even finished as I considered stopping on several occasions. But I was curious as to how this would all play out and maybe the ending would save the entire book. I will tell you now, it did not. It just left me with more questions and shaking my head.
Many thanks to Harper Perennial for my Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for my honest review. This one is out now!
How to Survive Everything is a play book of rules one must follow in order to survive the apocalypse. Set a few years after the Covid-19 pandemic 15 year old Haley and her younger brother Ben are abducted by their father and held captive in a commune/bunker of sorts. With her parents divorced and her mother filling her head with questions of her dad's mental health, Haley is obviously scared and concerned.
The book is basically Haley trying to decipher if her father is correct and outside her concrete wall, is there truly mass destruction? Has martial law taken over? Are people killing for food and shelter? All the things that I am certain some of us wondered during the pandemic we just recently went through. How far will people go?
I thought the book had a fantastic premise. And after chatting with Steph and Brandy during our buddy read, I agree it would have been better to have had another point of view. Only bearing witness through a hormone filled 15 year old, was at times, tough. I felt as though I were reading her diary and frankly, it was annoying. The use of certain verbiage was just over the top.
I am not sure how I even finished as I considered stopping on several occasions. But I was curious as to how this would all play out and maybe the ending would save the entire book. I will tell you now, it did not. It just left me with more questions and shaking my head.
Many thanks to Harper Perennial for my Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for my honest review. This one is out now!
February 7, 2023
I'll be thinking about this book for a long time to come. It's so much more than what I thought it would be upon picking it up. Our protagonist is 15/16 and packed full of knowledge about the world due to her dad's conspiracies. Although I tagged this as dystopian it also feels like it could be reality for some already fed up with modern civilization and ready to commune away from all that is known. This is not a retelling of a modern day Diary of Anne Frank but golly the parallels are there throughout. This is not a light read, but instead quick of pace and makes you question what decisions you'd make in the same scenarios.
"I hope the world will pull itself back from the brink again, but one thing I've learned about humans is we keep making the same mistakes over and over, and that the stakes just get higher and higher.... Don't take the world for granted. Don't waste your life wishing it was better and blaming other people for your own s***. Face up to the worst thing that can happen and prepare for it. Learn how to survive practically everything. Love one another without fear." -pages 353-355
"I hope the world will pull itself back from the brink again, but one thing I've learned about humans is we keep making the same mistakes over and over, and that the stakes just get higher and higher.... Don't take the world for granted. Don't waste your life wishing it was better and blaming other people for your own s***. Face up to the worst thing that can happen and prepare for it. Learn how to survive practically everything. Love one another without fear." -pages 353-355
May 15, 2023
Another Apocalypse Book!
I'm really enjoying these, haha. This one was a bit more eccentric and yet still plausible. Enough to kind of freak me out over doomsday preppers and how extreme they can be. I'm not divorced, but my fiancé is, and now I'm nervous that his ex will steal the kid and hide him away! (Funny but really, not funny.)
Voice
I liked hearing from Haley, but I didn't like how some of her slang words or shortening of basic words were typed (example: cos instead of because). I understand it is a style of writing meant to convey the type of character our narrator is, but unless it is a diary entry, it is my personal belief that novels should use correct grammer and spelling for everything. It is more professional and makes for an overall better read.
3.5/5
I had a lot of fun with this one!
I'm really enjoying these, haha. This one was a bit more eccentric and yet still plausible. Enough to kind of freak me out over doomsday preppers and how extreme they can be. I'm not divorced, but my fiancé is, and now I'm nervous that his ex will steal the kid and hide him away! (Funny but really, not funny.)
Voice
I liked hearing from Haley, but I didn't like how some of her slang words or shortening of basic words were typed (example: cos instead of because). I understand it is a style of writing meant to convey the type of character our narrator is, but unless it is a diary entry, it is my personal belief that novels should use correct grammer and spelling for everything. It is more professional and makes for an overall better read.
3.5/5
I had a lot of fun with this one!
August 11, 2023
This book was amazing. It left you wondering what was real the entire time and had an awesome ending. loved it
March 6, 2021
Ewan Morrison is one of those authors who never disappoints. His stories are carefully constructed, thoughtful, humorous and have something to tell us about the world in which we live.
This story is narrated by Haley, a teenage girl divorceling, who has been kidnapped along with her brother Ben by Ed, her survivalist father, and dragged to a remote corner of northern Scotland to sit out a possible pandemic in a small community of like-minded survivalists. Ed quite clearly has mental health problems, but there is something about the way in which he explains the situation that has an internal logic of its own. Ewan Morrison creates a sneaking wish in the minds of his readers that Ed is right, and that all is for the best. This is important because in other apocalyptic stories of this kind, such as Terry Nation’s “Survivors” or Louise Welsh’s “Plague Time Trilogy”, the apocalypse has already happened. A plague has already happened, and a large section of the population has died. Ed and his friends believe that this is going to happen, which is why they have set up their wilderness retreat, and why Ed kidnaps his children.
The other members of the commune do not necessarily induce a sense of trust. There is Meg, the earth mother, but with deeply dark issues behind her façade. There is Ray, who can best be described as a real-life Action Man, needing someone else to point him in the right direction. There is Kade, and she is probably a psychopath. The only one who is unblemished is Meg’s son, Danny, who is a little older than Haley and who provides the romantic sub-plot.
There is only one other character to introduce and that is Justine. She is Ed’s ex-wife and the mother of Haley and Ben. To say that the divorce did not go well is a huge understatement, and when the kidnap takes place Justine sets off on a rescue mission. This is the motor for the plot, and you will need a strong stomach to get through the consequences of her actions, especially the amputation.
What becomes clear is that Justine is not sane either. Haley has to make a choice between her parents, which is something that she has been avoiding since they first set out on the path to divorce. She clearly resents being the prize of their combat. There is a huge question. Why does Haley have to make these choices? The answer, of course, is that all of us have to do this. We even make choices by avoiding the decision-making process.
This is book is superficially about the choices we have to make to survive a possible pandemic. It is about the choices we make in order to survive our parents, as Philip Larkin understood only too well. It is about the choices we make to survive relationships. It is about the choices needed to get through the circumstances in which we live. It is about how we survive the world in which we live. It is about how to survive everything.
This story is narrated by Haley, a teenage girl divorceling, who has been kidnapped along with her brother Ben by Ed, her survivalist father, and dragged to a remote corner of northern Scotland to sit out a possible pandemic in a small community of like-minded survivalists. Ed quite clearly has mental health problems, but there is something about the way in which he explains the situation that has an internal logic of its own. Ewan Morrison creates a sneaking wish in the minds of his readers that Ed is right, and that all is for the best. This is important because in other apocalyptic stories of this kind, such as Terry Nation’s “Survivors” or Louise Welsh’s “Plague Time Trilogy”, the apocalypse has already happened. A plague has already happened, and a large section of the population has died. Ed and his friends believe that this is going to happen, which is why they have set up their wilderness retreat, and why Ed kidnaps his children.
The other members of the commune do not necessarily induce a sense of trust. There is Meg, the earth mother, but with deeply dark issues behind her façade. There is Ray, who can best be described as a real-life Action Man, needing someone else to point him in the right direction. There is Kade, and she is probably a psychopath. The only one who is unblemished is Meg’s son, Danny, who is a little older than Haley and who provides the romantic sub-plot.
There is only one other character to introduce and that is Justine. She is Ed’s ex-wife and the mother of Haley and Ben. To say that the divorce did not go well is a huge understatement, and when the kidnap takes place Justine sets off on a rescue mission. This is the motor for the plot, and you will need a strong stomach to get through the consequences of her actions, especially the amputation.
What becomes clear is that Justine is not sane either. Haley has to make a choice between her parents, which is something that she has been avoiding since they first set out on the path to divorce. She clearly resents being the prize of their combat. There is a huge question. Why does Haley have to make these choices? The answer, of course, is that all of us have to do this. We even make choices by avoiding the decision-making process.
This is book is superficially about the choices we have to make to survive a possible pandemic. It is about the choices we make in order to survive our parents, as Philip Larkin understood only too well. It is about the choices we make to survive relationships. It is about the choices needed to get through the circumstances in which we live. It is about how we survive the world in which we live. It is about how to survive everything.
March 1, 2021
I read Ewan Morrison's Nina X at the very end of 2019 and it was one of my top books of that year. I was delighted to have the chance to read this, his latest novel. I think he's one of our best living authors, his voice is unique, his style is magnificent and his imagination knows no bounds.
Set during a worldwide pandemic in the near future, this is a startling and prescient novel that is particularly chilling given our present circumstances. I realise that there will be people who have no desire to read about the potential destruction of the world, or about the often selfish behaviours or our fellow mankind. However, I devoured this one. It is not just the story of the breakdown of the world as we know it, it is also an intelligently written study of family, and how the behaviour of adults can destroy their children.
Haley is an average fifteen-year-old girl, dealing with the breakdown of her parents relationship, whilst experiencing the teenage angst that is common to all girls of her age. She and her younger brother Ben live with their control-freak mother and have regular visits with their father. It's after one of these visits that life whirls totally out of control and Haley and Ben are abducted by their father and taken to a 'safe house' in the wilds of the countryside. Their father is a prepper and is convinced that the latest virus discovered in Asia will really end the world this time. Governments learned nothing from the 2020 COVID crisis and he and his followers are prepared. With a stockroom filled with everything from asthma inhalers to diamorphine, they are ready.
Morrison has created a small community of dysfunctional people who have hit rock bottom in life. These characters are frightening, yet vulnerable. Violent, yet sensitive. They need a leader, and direction, and preparing for the end of the world gives them a mission.
There are scenes within this novel that are stomach churning to read. There are no holds barred and Morrison does not shy away from painting a disturbing and sometimes bloody picture. However, there are some powerful messages within the story. The reader is never quite sure just what is happening outside of the metal fence that encases the safe house. There's a question mark that looms heavily over the narrative, with echoes of the fake news and propaganda that is prevalent in our society today.
How To Survive Everything is a terrifying and harrowing novel, yet is is also deeply touching. The life journey undertaken by Haley, her sudden realisation that the two people who she is supposed to trust the most are both damaged and damaging is so moving.
Most certainly a novel of our time. One that will stay with me, and haunt me.
Set during a worldwide pandemic in the near future, this is a startling and prescient novel that is particularly chilling given our present circumstances. I realise that there will be people who have no desire to read about the potential destruction of the world, or about the often selfish behaviours or our fellow mankind. However, I devoured this one. It is not just the story of the breakdown of the world as we know it, it is also an intelligently written study of family, and how the behaviour of adults can destroy their children.
Haley is an average fifteen-year-old girl, dealing with the breakdown of her parents relationship, whilst experiencing the teenage angst that is common to all girls of her age. She and her younger brother Ben live with their control-freak mother and have regular visits with their father. It's after one of these visits that life whirls totally out of control and Haley and Ben are abducted by their father and taken to a 'safe house' in the wilds of the countryside. Their father is a prepper and is convinced that the latest virus discovered in Asia will really end the world this time. Governments learned nothing from the 2020 COVID crisis and he and his followers are prepared. With a stockroom filled with everything from asthma inhalers to diamorphine, they are ready.
Morrison has created a small community of dysfunctional people who have hit rock bottom in life. These characters are frightening, yet vulnerable. Violent, yet sensitive. They need a leader, and direction, and preparing for the end of the world gives them a mission.
There are scenes within this novel that are stomach churning to read. There are no holds barred and Morrison does not shy away from painting a disturbing and sometimes bloody picture. However, there are some powerful messages within the story. The reader is never quite sure just what is happening outside of the metal fence that encases the safe house. There's a question mark that looms heavily over the narrative, with echoes of the fake news and propaganda that is prevalent in our society today.
How To Survive Everything is a terrifying and harrowing novel, yet is is also deeply touching. The life journey undertaken by Haley, her sudden realisation that the two people who she is supposed to trust the most are both damaged and damaging is so moving.
Most certainly a novel of our time. One that will stay with me, and haunt me.
August 17, 2022
This book surprised me in the best way. Based on the cover and description, I was expecting a rather shallow dystopian novel. However, what I got was a book that hooked me from the first and made me read compulsively at the end to see the outcome. How To Survive Everything is action-packed, but thoughtful at the same time. I found the characters to be very well drawn, especially the narrator, 16-year-old Haley. Haley has some growing up to do when she finds herself at the center of a new life orchestrated by her father, a survivalist. There are hard lessons to be learned and adjustments to be made in dealing not only with her family, but with the four other souls who buy into Ed Crowe’s vision of the world on the brink of collapse. It’s a time that is all too familiar…a ramped-up pandemic that is more serious than COVID-19. The book pulls no punches in portraying the stark, grim potential reality of life lived off-the-grid. Recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
April 14, 2025
Das Cover gefällt mir sehr gut. Mit den kleinen Motiven, dem grellen Rot und dem „Abnützungen“ durch die weißen Farbeffekte, sieht es richtig toll aus. Ich habe ein spannendes Jugendbuch über das Ende der Welt erwartet. Leider wurden meine Erwartungen nicht erfüllt.
Der Schreibstil des Autors war prinzipiell im Großen und Ganzen gut zu lesen. Leider hatte mich die Handlung und somit auch die Spannung recht schnell verloren, dadurch wurde das Buch für mich äußerst mühsam zu lesen. Ich musste mich wirklich oft zum Weiterlesen motivieren.
Leider waren mir auch alle Charaktere, inklusive unserer Hauptprotagonistin Haley nicht wirklich sympathisch. So konnten mich diese auch nicht wirklich ans Buch und die Handlung fesseln.
Ich finde, dass man aus der Grundidee so viel mehr hätte machen können. Die Idee hätte auf jeden Fall Potenzial für einen spannenden Jugendthriller gehabt. Leider habe ich viel mehr erwartet und wurde doch ziemlich enttäuscht. Ich vergebe für das Buch leider nur 2,5 von 5 Sterne.
Der Schreibstil des Autors war prinzipiell im Großen und Ganzen gut zu lesen. Leider hatte mich die Handlung und somit auch die Spannung recht schnell verloren, dadurch wurde das Buch für mich äußerst mühsam zu lesen. Ich musste mich wirklich oft zum Weiterlesen motivieren.
Leider waren mir auch alle Charaktere, inklusive unserer Hauptprotagonistin Haley nicht wirklich sympathisch. So konnten mich diese auch nicht wirklich ans Buch und die Handlung fesseln.
Ich finde, dass man aus der Grundidee so viel mehr hätte machen können. Die Idee hätte auf jeden Fall Potenzial für einen spannenden Jugendthriller gehabt. Leider habe ich viel mehr erwartet und wurde doch ziemlich enttäuscht. Ich vergebe für das Buch leider nur 2,5 von 5 Sterne.
February 5, 2023
I’ve been obsessed with the dystopian sub-genre of Societal Collapse since Stephen King’s the Stand and since I went to Survival School back in my student days. Of course the Pandemic has breathed new life into the genre - pun intended.
The author successfully takes the idea seriously while poking fun at it at the same time, rolling out all the tropes - conspiracy-laden preppers, ambitious high octane consumers, soccer moms, etc.
What makes the book distinct is the author’s amazing sense of humour and ability to make almost all the characters sympathetic and believable.
Just as me and my family are kept guessing if the collapse is real or a conspiracy theory, so is the protagonist and the reader, in a (mostly) delightful way.
The author successfully takes the idea seriously while poking fun at it at the same time, rolling out all the tropes - conspiracy-laden preppers, ambitious high octane consumers, soccer moms, etc.
What makes the book distinct is the author’s amazing sense of humour and ability to make almost all the characters sympathetic and believable.
Just as me and my family are kept guessing if the collapse is real or a conspiracy theory, so is the protagonist and the reader, in a (mostly) delightful way.
March 15, 2025
Die Covid Pandemie ist vorbei, doch Ed hat sich schon auf die nächste Pandemie vorbereitet, die seinen Informationen nach kurz bevorsteht. Um seine Kinder zu retten, entführt er sie von zu Hause, ohne ihrer Mutter etwas davon zu erzählen. Er nimmt Hayley und Ben mit in sein Lager, das weit außerhalb der Zivilisation liegt. Außer Ed und den Kindern leben dort noch Meg und ihr Sohn Danny, Ray und den Außenposten bewacht Kade. Sie sind irgendwo in den Wälder Schottlands und gerade für Hayley ist es schwierig, ohne ihre gewohnten Kontakte mit ihren Freundinnen zu sein. Auch möchte sie ihrer Mutter Bescheid sagen, doch es gibt kein Netz, nur das Überlebenshandbuch ihres Vaters. Die Stimmung unter den Bewohnern des Camps wird immer aggressiver zu Hayley, Wie die Zukunft aussieht, ist für Hayley noch nicht fassbar.
„Überleben ist alles“ von Ewan Morrison ist ein etwas anderer Thriller. Es handelt sich um eine Vorbereitung auf eine tödliche Pandemie durch sogenannte Prepper. Der Thriller wird beschrieben aus der Sicht des Hauptcharakters Hayley, einer 15-jährigen Jugendlichen, die durch ihren Prepper Vater aus ihrem normalen Alltag herausgerissen wird. Zusammen mit ihrem Bruder wird sie in die Gemeinschaft um ihren Vater eingeführt wird. Ihre Gefühlswelt wird sehr eindringlich beschrieben und ich kann mir das sehr gut vorstellen. Diesen Thriller macht auch die genaue Beschreibung aus dem Prepper Handbuch von Hayleys Vater Diese Beschreibungen sind sehr deutlich und man könnte es eigentlich an die Seite legen, wenn denn mal wieder eine Pandemie kommt. Doch das Handbuch ist schon ganz schön krass und die Themen ebenfalls. Es wird an alles Gedacht von Einlagerung von Lebensmitteln und Medikamenten und anderen. Aber auch wie man mit Kontaminierten und Verletzten umgeht. Ich konnte mich sehr gut in das Buch einlesen, aber es ist richtig krass. Die Sprache ist durch aus verständlich und direkt.
Ich fand dieses Buch interessant, aber auch sehr verrückt für mich. Ich habe schon von Preppern gehört und ich finde sie sehr schräg. Genauso ist das Buch, schräg. Trotz alledem gab es nur einige Stellen, die nicht so interessant waren. Ein Pandemie Thriller, der ungewöhnlich ist, aber schon verständlich.
„Überleben ist alles“ von Ewan Morrison ist ein etwas anderer Thriller. Es handelt sich um eine Vorbereitung auf eine tödliche Pandemie durch sogenannte Prepper. Der Thriller wird beschrieben aus der Sicht des Hauptcharakters Hayley, einer 15-jährigen Jugendlichen, die durch ihren Prepper Vater aus ihrem normalen Alltag herausgerissen wird. Zusammen mit ihrem Bruder wird sie in die Gemeinschaft um ihren Vater eingeführt wird. Ihre Gefühlswelt wird sehr eindringlich beschrieben und ich kann mir das sehr gut vorstellen. Diesen Thriller macht auch die genaue Beschreibung aus dem Prepper Handbuch von Hayleys Vater Diese Beschreibungen sind sehr deutlich und man könnte es eigentlich an die Seite legen, wenn denn mal wieder eine Pandemie kommt. Doch das Handbuch ist schon ganz schön krass und die Themen ebenfalls. Es wird an alles Gedacht von Einlagerung von Lebensmitteln und Medikamenten und anderen. Aber auch wie man mit Kontaminierten und Verletzten umgeht. Ich konnte mich sehr gut in das Buch einlesen, aber es ist richtig krass. Die Sprache ist durch aus verständlich und direkt.
Ich fand dieses Buch interessant, aber auch sehr verrückt für mich. Ich habe schon von Preppern gehört und ich finde sie sehr schräg. Genauso ist das Buch, schräg. Trotz alledem gab es nur einige Stellen, die nicht so interessant waren. Ein Pandemie Thriller, der ungewöhnlich ist, aber schon verständlich.
December 15, 2023
3.5 stars
This one was very odd and weird but actually very entertaining! It wasn’t the most amazing book I’ve ever read but I was pretty captivated the entire time. The writing was pretty standard and the pace was a little wonky at times. The concept was pretty interesting and it had an edge of unreliable narrator in it which made it better. This book and the characters ping pong back and forth so often with the behaviors and thoughts it’s a little crazy. Overall, it’s entertaining, satirical, and a fun read.
This one was very odd and weird but actually very entertaining! It wasn’t the most amazing book I’ve ever read but I was pretty captivated the entire time. The writing was pretty standard and the pace was a little wonky at times. The concept was pretty interesting and it had an edge of unreliable narrator in it which made it better. This book and the characters ping pong back and forth so often with the behaviors and thoughts it’s a little crazy. Overall, it’s entertaining, satirical, and a fun read.
February 1, 2025
If this was not pick w for book club, I would not have finished So many things wrong with this book…First, the main character is a 15-year-old girl written by someone who is clearly never been a 15-year-old girl. Nothing about Haley seemed authentic. Next, I listened the audiobook version where Haley was obnoxiously American, yet the book was supposed to be set in Scotland. (Danny sounded like a freaking hillbilly!) Finally, even putting the emotional trauma, the book was just poorly written. Absolutely did not enjoy and would not recommend.
April 12, 2023
This kept me on my toes the entire time. I went into it thinking I wasn’t going to like it or end up finishing it…WRONG. Lots of WTF moments, things that made me question society, and a little romance on top of it all😌 Would definitely recommend to someone wanting to switch things up from all the run of the mill romance books that every seems to be reading right now.
July 20, 2022
The plot of the book was very strong and the attention to detail (like the survival guides, etc.) was really great to weave into the story line and the character development for the father, Haley and the mom was great. However, trying to include a teenagers vocabulary in this did not make the book as relatable as the author may have been meaning too. Overall, great story and kind of eery two years after covid first hit, great ending. But I don't think the author reallllly knows how teenagers speak because reading the 'slang' was cringey.
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