I'm a simple person, I see something about the apocalypse, I want to consume.
I was excited to read this book but ended with a lot of mixed feelings on it. I can't really give much away without spoiling anything, though. I really liked the concept of the story, and the whole post-apocalyptic setting was really cool (and easy to go along with the characters and how lost they're all feeling), but once the plot started to resolve itself and we learn what happened, I was left underwhelmed. Not because it's a bad plot, mind, I'm sure there are a lot of people who vibe with this type of story, but it just isn't my kind of thing and it ended up feeling kinda unoriginal and dry.
Really liked how the friendships started forming between the seven of them, especially the friendship between Robbie and Carol.

Content warning for some gore, blood, ableism and animal death.

3.5 / 5 stars. I loved the premise and the mystery/tension of the first two thirds. Each of the individual characters felt unique and like a complete idea. My two favorite characters, Win and Ananda, could have featured more in the story I felt like the ending was majorly rushed and because of it, left me slightly unsatisfied. This is a fun post-apocalyptic story. Don't go into it if you're looking for hard science. It's a little woo/woo fringey. I enjoyed the read!

This book was a joy.
The hook of trying to figure out what happened pulled me along, and I found myself unable to stop turning pages. I stayed up late for this book.
Each character has a unique viewpoint and set of advantages and disadvantages, and while occasionally this made things a little convenient at times, it also dropped me deep into the story. There is one scene that was so exciting and freaky that I made a little scream noise and got chills, and then I had to go find my husband and narrate the whole thing to him in a shouty voice. Seriously. So. Much. Fun.

Thank you to Netgalley and HMH for an advanced reader ecopy.

i really enjoyed reading this, it had great characters and a great storyline. I enjoyed the storyline with horror elements, the fact that seven people are without other people but not totally alone. It's a scary premise.

This was <i>good</i>.

Seven people wake up in different places to find that the world is now deserted of people and overgrown with wildlife. There's not much after that I can tell you, because the plot is a) survival and b) figuring out what happened to the world. I did NOT predict the outcome at all.

I think the most notable artistry the author shows in this book is a masterful navigation of tone. Waking up to find your former life - family, goals, identity - all completely gone, is a horrible trauma. Surviving in an urban wasteland overrun by predators and threatened by the more prosaic problems of starvation, sickness, injury, and the elements, is also horrible. However, this is NOT a story of death and dismemberment.

The tone of the story is irreverent, pragmatic, and hilarious. The author's narrative voice is unique and entertaining; I laughed out loud at least four times, and I am not usually an easy touch for humor. The characters all have their own quirks and skills, and overall remain reasonable and cooperative and funny. There wasn't a single character I disliked. But this book isn't a total wacky genre parody, either. Instead, it's a work of finesse that keeps an upbeat, ironic tone but doesn't lose sight of the fear and real emotion of the situation, either.

Overall, I enjoyed the whole experience. This book is interesting, fun, and an all-around good ride. I hope it's a hit when it comes out.

After a few sentences, I had the impression of reading a very odd book—odd in a positive, intriguing way that made it a real page-turner (I finished it in only two evenings’ time). Robbie, freshman at Harvard, wakes up on his first day at university and realizes he’s all alone in his dorm. The power is out, his alarm clock doesn’t work anymore, his closet is full of clothes that aren’t his, and there’s no car traffic, no sound coming from outside. That’s when he hears at last someone shouting. Two floors below his, he discovers Carol, a blind student, who has lost her dog. Together, they finally venture outside—and the surroundings look strange. It’s still Harvard, all right, but it looks as if during the night everyone had been evacuated, buildings had started to crumble, the local fauna had multiplied, and the vegetation overgrown the remaining infrastructure, pot-holed roads and streets included. After a while, they stumble upon a third survivor, a young computer geek named Touré, who cheerfully announces they’ve apparently slept throught the “whateverpocalypse”. After a dangerous night where enourmously huge wolves are roaming the streets they find a fourth person, Bethany, a moody thirteen-year-old girl. No one has a clue what has happened; the most vital thing is to find a way to survive in these conditions, anyway.

Four other persons are still alive: Pastor Paul, who wakes up in his remote New Hampshire chapel; Ananda, an MIT-scientist; and Win, a young woman who has come to her mother’s farm for a visit. All three wake up under the same circumstances: no one’s around, the infrastructure seems to have broken down quite a while ago, and there’s no sign of any living person around. The fourth person is a young boy the reader only glimpses fleetingly, for a reason he will find out towards the end of the book.

This excellently written and breathtakingly thrilling novel tells the story of how this seven survivors—the apocalypse seven—find each other in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after many life-threatening twists and turns, form a close-knit community despite their glaring differences, and learn how to cope with the bizarre reality. Of course, right from the start, I had more questions than answers (the same was true for the main characters), and had to do with the scarce clues the author was willing to throw my (and their) way. Why is the weather behaving so weirdly? Where are all the people (or, if they’ve all died in a catalcysm, where are their bodies)? Why are there so many dangerous, huge wild animals all of a sudden? What should one make of the odd light phenomenon the main characters have dubbed “The Shimmer”? Why do the stars look so unfamiliar when one looks too closely? What? Has? Happened?

Well, I got the answer at the very end; an answer all those who prefer their reads to be science-based and down-to-earth will probably hate but that I found brilliant. It’s simple: as soon as I started reading the book, I put my trust in the author and was willing to go wherever he wanted me to go, be it in a direction that, frankly, wouldn’t make any sense. Suffice it to say: it did. But not in the way I expected. Still, the unexpected, when offered by an accomplished writer who knows how to pace his story and construct his plot, who knows how to draw in his readers and knows how to write, too (very important!), can be very rewarding. For me, it was, anyway.

The characters were all quite different one from the other, ranging from the everyday-hero-despite-himself Robbie to the more cerebral Carol, from moody but interesting Bethany to God-trusting and yet doubtful Paul, from no-nonsense horse-whisperer Win to Touré the jerk and Ananda, who lives in her scientific bubble. The world-building was excellently done and very believable; the chapters were cut into neat little pieces with just the right amount of cliffhangers to keep me goind with bated breath. If you like dystopian literature and books about the apocalypse with an interesting twist, this book should absolutely be on your To-Read-List.

The Apocalypse Seven by Gene Doucette is a superb read! An engrossing read well worth the time spent.

If this book doesn't win at least a dozen awards, I will be shocked.

This book is so good. It kept me guessing till the very end. I LOVED IT! I loved that every single character brought something different and unique to the story. The author did a great job of bringing every single one of them together and yet keeping them separate enough for the readers to have favorites.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot, however, what would you do if you woke up and everyone else was gone. What would you do if you woke up and a 100 years had passed? How would you survive?

The book is so good, I read it in two days. I had a hard time putting it down to work, sleep, eat.

READ THIS BOOK you won't be disappointed.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this awesome book and give an honest review.