Breakdown by Katherine Amt Hanna
423 Pages
Published April 2011 by Createspace
ISBN13: 9781461093794
Six years after a pandemic devastates the human population, and the subsequent loss of much of the world's technology, Chris Price finally makes it from New York to Britain to reunite with his brother. But unresolved grief over his dead wife and baby and the horrors he witnessed as he traveled through a changed world have damaged him. He struggles to let go of his past, accept the healing kindness of those around him, and let love back into his life.
I want to read more books like this. Period the end.
I really was going to end the review there, because this book was so perfect in ways I can't explain, but that would be boring and not like me to pass up a chance to ramble on about nothing to all twenty of you readers.
When I was in the eighth grade, I read On The Beach by Nevil Shute and LOVED it (this should really explain a lot of things about me).
Also in the eighth grade, I dressed up as a refrigerator for Halloween. My dad painted a box white, cut open a freezer door and a main door, and voila - costume. Best costume ever, in every way except logistically. I could barely see. I fell down a lot (or got knocked down when people punched the back of my box - ha!) and would get stuck on my stomach and needed someone to pull me back up. I couldn't fit through doors. People asked me if I was an outhouse. But the worst part of all was after we were done trick or treating and were headed back home in the truck, my beloved white box FLEW out of the back of the truck on the highway and got ran over by a transport.
That story had nothing at all to do with this book, but I thought it was a good day to fit it into a blog post.
Anyway. In eighth grade, I read On The Beach by Nevil Shute and LOVED it. Breakdown by Katherine Amt Hanna really took me back to that experience. Although the plots are very different (nuclear fallout killing the population slowly vs a plague that brought down most of the world as we know it), I found the world building very similar. Reading about reverting back to spots with no power, gas rations, food rations, trading food and necessities on market days .. the absolute joy in finding something we take for granted right this minute, like coffee.
The journey Chris takes to reach his family is a very solitary one, and even when he finds company, he's still a very solitary man. The story isn't action packed, but moves with a calm grace as we slowly get to know Chris.
All in all, I was impressed. I read this book as an epub, but I would definitely purchase a hard copy for my collection.
See? Way more fun than if I had ended when I said Period, the end.
I want to read more books like this. Period the end.
I really was going to end the review there, because this book was so perfect in ways I can't explain, but that would be boring and not like me to pass up a chance to ramble on about nothing to all twenty of you readers.
When I was in the eighth grade, I read On The Beach by Nevil Shute and LOVED it (this should really explain a lot of things about me).
Also in the eighth grade, I dressed up as a refrigerator for Halloween. My dad painted a box white, cut open a freezer door and a main door, and voila - costume. Best costume ever, in every way except logistically. I could barely see. I fell down a lot (or got knocked down when people punched the back of my box - ha!) and would get stuck on my stomach and needed someone to pull me back up. I couldn't fit through doors. People asked me if I was an outhouse. But the worst part of all was after we were done trick or treating and were headed back home in the truck, my beloved white box FLEW out of the back of the truck on the highway and got ran over by a transport.
That story had nothing at all to do with this book, but I thought it was a good day to fit it into a blog post.
Anyway. In eighth grade, I read On The Beach by Nevil Shute and LOVED it. Breakdown by Katherine Amt Hanna really took me back to that experience. Although the plots are very different (nuclear fallout killing the population slowly vs a plague that brought down most of the world as we know it), I found the world building very similar. Reading about reverting back to spots with no power, gas rations, food rations, trading food and necessities on market days .. the absolute joy in finding something we take for granted right this minute, like coffee.
The journey Chris takes to reach his family is a very solitary one, and even when he finds company, he's still a very solitary man. The story isn't action packed, but moves with a calm grace as we slowly get to know Chris.
All in all, I was impressed. I read this book as an epub, but I would definitely purchase a hard copy for my collection.
See? Way more fun than if I had ended when I said Period, the end.
