The Things That Keep Us Here Book

A couple of people recommended this one to me.

With my penchant for apocalyptic fiction, I went along.


O.k. Where to start?

First of all, for more than half of the novel, I thought that this was a young adult book as it was written down to such a level. I thought that it was o.k. as a YA novel though I had read better. I was absolutely shocked that it was intended for adult readers.

My mother always said that I should have something nice to say. So, I will say that this is a quick read.

In many ways, that is the only positive thing that I can say.

From here on, SPOILERS will be mixed in. Just so you are warned.

The overall plot can be guessed by anyone not on life support by around the fifth chapter. The love story portion reads like a twelve year old boy who has been trapped in a bubble for his whole life. Awful, awful, awful. It is entirely empty prose - empty of any real emotion and empty of any real reason. Honestly, this is the kind of narrative you would show to most people and (if honest) they would just ask you where the characters' reasoning and motivations lie because they certainly aren't apparent or realistic in the manuscript that we are given.

Honestly, the "romance" is so ridiculous and manufactured that it makes me ticked off. Do people really want to read a story where one thing happens to people that tears them apart with no real reason beyond the absolutely banal and then they inexplicably stay apart but without meeting other people and then nothing happens to bring them back together but suddenly they have sex in the laundry room and the best part of it is that then the man dies? If so, this novel rocks. Amen. We're all so vapid that we only want one dimension to any story. Oh, and the grad student? Was anyone fooled? I have a hard time believing that anyone - anyone at all - believed that Peter and Shazia had anything at all together. Dear author: Foreshadowing does not equal a hammer over the head.

So, let's just say I'm a bitter guy and go on to other elements of the story.

Plot holes? Why did the "mom and pop" store owner have his store open alone without any weapon to defend himself while riots were taking place across the country - and as far as that goes, why would money even matter at that point? Why did Peter not go into the survivalist's house as soon as he realized he was dead and they needed food? Why did Peter never ask Shazia about the missing sample when it was said over and over and over how careful he was in his research? How does the potency of the virus suddenly diminish when it comes to (puke) love? Why was the cabin with its self-sustaining food resource (fishing equipment +lake) not mentioned at all before? Why was there no way of defending themselves until suddenly there was a shotgun in the closet? Why was the absolutely silly reasoning for the loss of William left until the ridiculously empty last pages of the book?

Seriously? This book was false emotional swiss cheese.

I was wrong with my initial assessment. Young adult fiction is much much much better than this absolutely awful crap. I don't consider myself to be a tyrant but this story is the very definition of trite bullshit. If anything, it is the elementary school happy ending version of a pandemic.