Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend by MJ Wassmer
Publication Date: August 6, 2024
Summary from NetGalley:
Vacation Checklist:
Pack swim trunks.
Apply sunscreen.
Survive the apocalypse?
Professional underachiever Dan Foster is finally taking a vacation. Sure, his life has been average at best, and yeah, he’s never quite lived up to his potential. But after a few Miller Lites in paradise with his girlfriend, Mara, things are starting to look up.
Then the sun explodes.
With the island resort suddenly plunged into darkness (he really should’ve sprung for the travel insurance), Dan’s holiday goes from bad to worse when elite guests stage a coup and commandeer supplies. As temperatures drop and class tensions rise, revolution begins to brew on the island, and Dan accidentally becomes a beacon of hope for the surviving vacationers. But when one six-person plane is discovered that could get them back to the mainland, Dan realizes he has a choice to make.
Does he escape the island with Mara? Or does he stay and fight to become the most unlikely hero of the end of the world?
ARC provided by Sourcebooks via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
This book had me laughing almost from the first page. It was quite a pleasure to read an apocalyptic story that was actually funny even though it was also quite dark. This is a satire on how humanity would function under extreme duress and it totally met my expectations. I so want to believe that people would behave better, but in reality I know that things would go pretty much like this book.
The story is totally told by Dan and he was quite the character to spend the book with. He is a reluctant hero, who really fights to not be put in the spotlight, but ends up there anyways. He has a lot of self doubt and doubts about his relationship with his girlfriend, Mara. But he works through a lot of stuff in this book and shows a lot of growth by the end. I really liked Dan and was rooting for him to survive.
There are many other characters involved in the story, but they are mostly underdeveloped caricatures of ordinary people. That is not to say that I didn’t like any of them, I did. I just wanted a little bit more from some of them. I really liked Lillyanna Collins, a fitness pyramid scheme cult leader, who pretty much sets herself up as the dictator of the island. She was a hoot and even though she was very over the top, I really appreciated how she thought she was trying to do a good thing.
The writing was the best part of the book. I loved the satire and the witty comments and conversations throughout the book. This was at its heart a book about class warfare and how quickly people and humanity can fall apart under stress. There is a lot of social commentary and you kind of can predict what is going to happen pretty early on. I mean even the way the resort is set up is a huge hint that something more sinister than the apocalypse is going on. The pacing is perfect and it is a book you could easily read in a sitting or two. I found it very hard to put down, as I really wanted to know how it all ended.
If you are looking for a quick fun read to take on your vacation, this would be a story that I would definitely recommend. It is fun and witty as it takes on a very dark topic. This is a debut, so there are a few issues, but I will be keeping an eye out for this author’s next book.
Four Stars, I definitely recommend!
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