It Could Happen Tomorrow...

An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.

Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.

For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.



Jackie says:
"This novel is dystopian to it's very core and creepy as all get out.  One random day, North America (at least) gets hit by a tremendous electromagnetic pulse that wipes out all electric things and immediately kills most of the population.  Only the very young (12 and less) and the very old (65+) seem to survive relatively intact.  Others survive too--mostly teenagers to early 20s--but they have changed into cannibalistic zombies and are very, very dangerous.  The story centers on 17 year old Alex, who was camping off-season in the Michigan woods alone.  She meets up with an old man and his 8 year old granddaughter shortly before the pulse, and finds herself the guardian of the little girl  when the EMP kills the old man via his pace maker.  Thus begins an adventure that just doesn't stop, and the surprises and violence are very nearly continuous.  Desperation and brutality seem to be the aftermath of the pulse as those who are left fight to survive the first winter after 'The Zap'.  It's a scary story with a LOT of graphic moments, but it's also impossible to put down.  There are plenty of unanswered questions by the end of  the book, making me wonder if there is going to be a sequel.  I certainly will be trying to figure things out for a long time, wondering what clues I may have missed, etc.  While it's a little choppy in places, I still call it a fine, if very, very dark, novel."

Downsizing Through A Teenager's Eyes

"They dismantled my brass canopy bed and carried it out, a man in front and a man in back."

And so begins Irene's journey from a penthouse on the Upper West Side to well, shes not entirely sure where. Irene's father is a downsized investment banker, and her mother is a socialite. When her father cant immediately find new work, the familys lifestyle quickly catches up with them, and they are eventually forced to move in with Irenes grandfather in the big family farmhouse upstate, where Irene gets to know her grandfather on her own terms and meets a most remarkable family. Everything I Was is the story of a young woman deciding what she wants for herself when she discovers that the adults in her life are not infallible.



Jackie says:
"Irene's father has lost his job, and subsequently her family must move out of their posh New York apartment. They move in with her grandfather at his small nursery farm. Tension is high--her mother hates the country and loves all things urban and expensive, and Irene blames her for their need to move. Her father is quiet and depressed, trying to smooth things over between his daughter, his wife, and his father. It isn't easy. Her grandfather slowly helps bring Irene out of her angry shell--gives her a place of her own in the barn loft, fixes up a bike for her, restores a canoe with her to use on the farm pond. On her bike rides every day to town, Irene notices a large and boisterous family who eventually notice her and welcome her into their chaotic fold. By joining their family, Irene finds a way to help heal her own."