Thank you in advance to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the advanced copy of The Apocalypse Seven by Gene Doucette in exchange for my honest review.

***The Apocalypse Seven by Gene Doucette contains an extremely unique plot that kept me guessing--what in the world is going on? Told through the perspective of varying narrators, each character awoke one morning to find the world that we know quite changed.....and quite deserted. They have no memories of what happened, nor any inkling as to the timeframe and events that led to the apocalyptic world around them. Each are driven to find "survivors" and must navigate this treacherous new setting.

I personally enjoyed most of the book. I am a huge apocalyptic fiction fan. The plot compelled me to keep reading because I had to know what happened and how their lives would resolve. The resolution, however, struggled for me. I was disappointed by cause and background of the apocalypse and by the epilogue. I'm interested to see what others think--perhaps they will love it. I do believe that this book could bring up some great discussion, but there are several questions that in my opinion, that were never answered. Often a book's ending is a preference thing, and in this case, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Another book about the end of the world, it seems there were a lot of them this last year and understandably so. This one is different in that you should not expect an action packed, zombie filled book with a lot of fighting. It's more of a study of human nature, what happens when it seems like you are the last one alive in the world when you wake up in the morning?
I liked the pacing of the story and how you slowly got more and more information along with the characters leading to a more or less satisfying explanation in the end. The fact that the chapters were divided between the 7 people gave you insight in all of them and (superficially) their backgrounds. In the end the guessing about what had happened is what kept me reading, along with a slight attachment to the characters. I think more could have been done to add tension to the book in the form of moral choices or angst to grip readers more, but I did enjoy myself with this book.

*** An ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. ***

Sorry; can't give this book higher than 3 stars (and, truth be told, it's more like 2.5 stars). The dialog seemed very stilted to me...not things college kids would say. And not the things that they'd do under the circumstances. None of the characters inspired me even slightly, nor piqued my interest enough to continue reading. If the characters and/or plot don't grab me by the first couple of chapters, I quit. Which I did with this one. Not recommended for anyone over the age of about 15,.

Seven strangers wake up in New England alone and confused. Wild animals are everywhere, no signs of people anywhere, and things just don’t add up.

Can you say an end of the world book was fun to read? I thoroughly enjoyed The Apocalypse Seven. Interesting take on the end of the world. Elton alone is worth the time. One thing I really appreciated with this book was that all the survivors worked together instead of trying to kill each other.

Unfortunately, this book was just not for me, and I had to DNF it. The premise sounded awesome, and I was really interested to meet the cast of characters… but the opening really dragged for me.

My first red flag was beginning the story with a character waking up. It wasn’t a total dealbreaker because it does work extremely well on the rare occasion (ie. The Hunger Games). But here it didn’t. I understand why the author chose to begin with the character waking up in the context of this story, but I feel like he chose the wrong character.

If we woke up in Carol’s head, the emotional stakes would have been immediately through the roof. Escalating terror at not being able to find her seeing eye dog, not being able to find help, and being alone in a place she can’t identify. Then she’s calls out and finally has a stranger answer her… She doesn't know if he's the one who's taken her dog. She doesn't know if the man who answers her cries is a friend or foe. But she calls out to him because she's that desperate. That sounds heart pounding right? The potential was there…

But instead, we woke up in the brain of a hung over freshman who drank way too much beer has us fretting for several pages about how he got home last night, whether or not he has slept in, if he’s going to be late for class, rifling through a drawer of clothes, and worrying about his body odor? I mean… there’s just no stakes there.

I did know that there would be “waking up” in the beginning thanks to the description… but the characters should wake up to some action or emotional stakes. They shouldn't wake up to the mundane and shuffle around scratching their head.

But I thought if I could just power through that opening, I’d make it to the action and everything would be well.

Then FINALLY we get to the point where Carol’s having an emotional breakdown on the church steps, and the speeding bicycle comes hurdling a new character into our path! The action is building up! Something's going to happen! But then….

We cut to an info dump of that new character’s backstory.

I took a breath. Ok. I can do this… I’ll just make it through this part and the exciting post-apocalyptic action will start.

Things are moving along, the group is together…. But then… I’m supposed to believe that these super intelligent kids who got into Harvard would decide to go to their favorite restaurant instead of a grocery store? After they’ve seen churches, hotels, stores all vacant? Only after they arrive at the closed restaurant do they come to the conclusion that a chef wouldn’t be there to prepare their food? Did I read that right?

Then… these Ivy League students who all aced their SATs seek drinking water at …. the river? In Boston? I’ve never been in any city where I’d drink the water from a river.

By this point, I’m a little disgruntled as a reader. I skim forward to…

The wolves! YES!!! The wolves and the wolf chase were great. I liked the exchange where he got into the super market and the new girl says she doesn’t think his friends are going to make it. Great build up of tension there. And the moment where the wolves are on the other side of the fence and Carol hears them sniffing the air… also great. That’s what I was waiting for.

But by the time I finally got to it, I’d already had to skim big chunks of text and was exhausted with the story.

So, again, great premise. There’s an enticing hook there. (Great cover art too!) And the story likely becomes riveting… but the beginning lost me before I was able to get there.

Other reviewers really liked this book from what I can see - it’s got a lot of 4 and 5 stars already. So, I know I’m probably an outlier. Maybe I’d give this book another shot in the future, but for now, I’m going to shelve it.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to @netgalley for the arc of The Apocalypse 7 by @authorgenedoucette
I finished this book in a couple of days mostly because I was very invested in the characters. They all felt unique and I enjoyed that this is a very character driven narrative. I like an author that creates believable & diverse characters.

The Apocalypse 7 tells the story of seven people; Robbie, Toure, Carol, Paul, Bethany, Ananda & Win. They find themselves the lone survivors of the apocalypse & they have to survive. There's a lot more danger than anticipated. Also I would like to say that Nolan is the bestest boy. I don't want to spoil too much. This book deserves to be read and I give it 4⭐

The Apocalypse Seven is an interesting book, and not what I had first expected. Yes, there are classic tropes of post-apocalyptic fiction, but there's also a lot more. The main seven characters are all from different backgrounds, with different skills, abilities, and foibles. This makes for many interesting interactions when they have to work together to try and work out what has happened to the rest of the world. Being one of seven people left alive (probably, maybe?) would be a challenge for anyone, and the challenges are well displayed.
The third arc of the book has some unexpected twists and turns, which challenge everything you think you know about what's happened.
An exciting read throughout, with a wide range of characters.

The end of the world hey? Feels like we're there already doesn't it? Well, this book makes our current issues look like nothing - and it's great because of it! Reading a novel where there are only a few people left in the world resonated with me, the way the author wrote about how empty everything feels really sucked me in. Wildlife everywhere, a mystery about why these people are the only ones left provides a great premise, up until an ending that felt a little disconnected from the rest of the novel for my taste. All in all, a good read - don't expect highbrow concepts, more routing for the characters to survive the situation they're in. Good times!

this is my first book from this author and i am genuinely surprised by how i enjoyed this book. i didn't think it would make me love it, but i did love some parts and i enjoyed the ride. It's good tale about survival and stuff like that and it happens in Cambridge which i find very fun and endearing. Will definitely recommend this and check out new books from this author!

Disclaimer: I would like to thank the publisher for providing a review copy of this book.

The Apocalypse Seven by Gene Doucette absolutely delivers what it promises. It is an enjoyable scifi tale of survival and discovery that takes place in Cambridge, MA after all but a few humans have been gone for some time. The author does an excellent job of describing what Cambridge and Boston would be like long after humanity disappears. The story switches viewpoints between the seven characters in a very understandable way that pulls the reader deep into the plot.

I will keep an eye open for more novels by Gene Doucette. I recommend Apocalypse Seven for people that enjoy stories that include aliens, post-apocalypse scenarios, survival, and Cambridge.

Gene Doucette blew my mind with Unfiction some time ago. Difficult to go from there, once the bar is set that high. With this, now my third read by him, he definitely doesn’t disappoint, it’s no Unfiction, but it’s quite good. I’d read more of Doucette’s, but he’s got this penchant for series and I prefer standalones. This one seems to be a standalone, at least for now, but it can easily be serialized too.
So anyway…that’s obviously why I selected to read it, the other reason being…hey, it’s apocalypse, perfectly appropriate for the worst election on US record ever. So…did Doucette’s tale of whateverpocalypse as the seven survivors of it come to call it distract enough from the ever disappointing and depressing news? Well, yeah, it kind of did. Doucette’s a very good writer, he does great descriptions, dynamic pacing and dialogues and likeable engaging characters, but his greatest asset is his wild originality and imagination.
And so his stories go places other works in the genre just don’t get to. Although…this one for me was very reminiscent of Wayward Pines, but it was still very much a beast of its own. Apocalypse comes quietly in this story, people just wake up to it, wake up to a barely recognizable world grown wild in flora and fauna and strangely peopleless. Seven survivors of Beneton ad different races (this is not a mere PC nod, it’s logical to the plot as you’ll understand in the end) and of varied ages come to find themselves at the end of the world and must band together to survive it and find out the truth about how it all came to be. The truth takes quite a while to uncover, so for a long time you’re stumbling around as cluelessly as the seven, but in the end the scientist among them gets there. But even armed with the truth, the fight still isn’t quite fair or balanced, because whatever’s after them may not be a force that’s well meaning or even terrestrial. So it’s a survival story and a mystery with a pretty crazy plot twist in the end.
And it works, on every level. Despite the abundance of young characters, it never gets dumbed down to YA levels, in fact the youth acquire themselves nicely and maturely in this brave new world they find and work well with the older of the seven, the scientist and the pastor.
The depiction of the apocalyptic world they inhabit is vivid and stark, made me think of the World Without Us, which is a high compliment since that’s one of my all time favorite nonfiction (and apocalyptic) reads. The funny thing is that Doucette set the story right around where he lives, which just makes you appreciate how different the writer’s brains are wired, to jauntily and brutally fictionally annihilate their surroundings just for fun.
And fun it is, oodles of fun. I really enjoyed this story, it was exciting, compelling, original, infused with just enough humorous aspects and wtf*ckery to prevent it from being opressingly bleak, this is the end of the world you don’t want to sleep through…unlike the titular apocalypse seven. Very good read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Enjoyed this book overall- it was an interesting take on the apocalypse. It wasn't immediately obvious why the apocalypse happened, and I enjoyed figuring it out over the course of the book.

Wanderers meets Stand and Revolution series vibes. It’s not too close definition of this quiet mind spiraling, grey cell fryer, thought balloons popper, teeth gritting, nerve bending novel but at least it is a start!

Seven strangers wake up in different places, finding out the earth they were living is deserted, overgrown with wild life. Pigs, wolves chase them at the night. The electricity failure seems like permanent malfunctioning.

A college student Robbie finds himself at another person’s dorm room ( the room number is right but he finds other person’s clothes at the drawers) and only thing he cares is not getting late to his class! What kind of drinks he had at party? But he wakes up to a different world! The dorms look different! The vegetation, the buildings, even the air he breathes is different and only person he finds a young Chinese blind woman who is agitated because her guidance dog is missing! Her name is Carol and she has no idea what the hell is happening to them! Why the streets are isolated? Why there are more animals touring around?

A geek boy on his bike stops at the last minute not to hit Robin and he congratulated them for missing the apocalypse just like he did last night. His name is Toure and last thing he remembers he passed out in front of his computer when he was coding.

And the rest of gang includes Bethany, 14 years old girl who is really good at opening the locks, Paul: a convicted man who becomes preacher in his early 50’s, Ananda: a smart, middle aged, scientist and Win: a badass farmer girl who is better arrowing skills than Oliver Queen!

You keep asking yourself: what the hell happened to them? Are they denying their situation and they are like Bruce Willis acting like curing a young boy till they understand they are on the ghosts the boy can see? Did somebody kidnap them? Or are they living in parallel universe? Are they aliens? Is this really end of the world?

And you keep thinking why they are chosen ones! Instead of badass Win and some street smart knowledge of Paul, none of them have surviving skills. But that must be something they are in common, what makes them so special!

My brain is on fire! Too many conspiracy theories exhausted the hell of me. I partially find some answers but the conclusion was unexpected! Did I like it? Yes! The ending was well-served and played!

And at least three characters became my favorites! Geek boy Toure was my number one because he was the only one having so much fun about the idea of apocalypse and without him: this book couldn’t be one of my favorite sci-fi novel without his existence!

And badass, intestine carver, horse rider Win carries her big girl pants so stylishly!
Let’s not forget Bethany is quite genius girl is another badass teenager who can break into the places, find resources to survive, fire guns like she’s related with Dirty Harry but she is still lost, emotional kid who still tries to understand what they are dealing with and interestingly she’s closer to find answers!

This is well written, riveting, entertaining and surprising survival, sci-fi, apocalyptic story with remarkable characterization which deserves my full five stars ( and the stars of the universe where those 7 last standing survivors live! )

Special thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/John Joseph Adams/ Mariner Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Well, this was fun.

Ever read a book and just know that the author would be a blast to talk to in real life? This is that book. The author has a wonderful sense of humor and humanity that just shines through on almost every page.

The book definitely kept me guessing. Each time I thought I knew what was going on, I was quite wrong.

No spoilers here. I’ll just say that I wasn’t quite all in on a later character to the book. Just didn’t love that one. But I still thought the author handled everything well.

As for the reason behind everything, I’ll just say that it had a surprising gravitas – surprising because, for a book about the apocalypse, most of the book is pretty lighthearted.

I liked it. I’d definitely read the author again!

*ARC via Net Galley

This book took me by complete surprise, in the best possible way.

For the first thirty or so pages, I wasn't really feeling it. But I'm so glad I kept going because I haven't been so entertained by a novel in a good few months. The thing I love about 'The Apocalypse Seven' is that it reminds me strikingly of Birdbox with a dash of Station Eleven, but it laughs at both of those comparisons and goes and does its own thing. Specifically, all seven characters in the story are... good people. Sure, they argue sometimes, but all of them are cooperative and kind. It's like an anti-Lord of the Flies. I didn't realise how refreshing I was going to find this spin on the post-apocalyptic, de-populated setting until I was reading it. Although technically, the book should be called 'The Apocalypse Eight' because the horse is his own special character.

The second thing I loved about the book was that I snort-laughed more times than I can count. The humour was never try-hard and it was sufficiently spaced out that it was always a delightful surprise. Most of it came from the interactions between the characters - adorable and kind they may be, but they're not above poking fun at each other's perceived flaws.

There are also moments in the book that I found genuinely unnerving, something I very rarely experience while reading. The mystery surrounding the characters' predicaments was compelling rather than annoying, and my fascination was just another reason to keep reading. The explanation wasn't fully satisfying on some levels, but on other levels, it was pretty damn smart. I appreciated the way the author struck a balance between scientific realism and science fiction in creating both the setting and the reason for the characters' predicament, and there's a certain irony in the explanation that anyone who cares about climate change will appreciate.

All in all, I had a huge amount of fun reading 'The Apocalypse Seven' and having to put it down to do other stuff like work or sleep was really inconvenient.

(With thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review)

I wanted to read this book because of its synopsis. 7 people wake up one morning in Boston to discover they’re the only people still alive. They don’t remember going to sleep the night before or know what happened to the rest of civilization. The landscape has re taken over the city and there are strange dangerous creatures they must avoid. Sounds great, but I found it slow reading and couldn’t really make myself care about any of the characters. Nor did I care about the ending. Sorry, this book was just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and John Joseph Adams/Mariner Books for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

Seven strangers wake up in New England alone and confused. Wild animals are everywhere, no signs of people anywhere, and things just don’t add up.

Can you say an end of the world book was fun to read? I thoroughly enjoyed The Apocalypse Seven. Interesting take on the end of the world. Elton alone is worth the time. One thing I really appreciated with this book was that all the survivors worked together instead of trying to kill each other.

Every now and then you get to the end of a book and sit there and think: “What did I just read?”.

This book has everything. A post apocalyptic mystery, psychological drama, wolf attacks, power cuts, weird weather events, unusual alien style technology.... it doesn’t know quite what sort of book it wants to be and I honestly loved it.

Might not necessarily recommend to students as it does get a little bit silly - but some of the scenes are perfect examples for showing how to write about weather to create a specific atmosphere or invoke weather related changes to characters moods.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks to #netgalley and the publisher, who provided me an ecopy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review. This book hits my recent doomscrolling sweet spot, post apocalyptic, survivors banding together, with a larger mystery driving the narrative. I particularly enjoyed getting to know the characters and their day to day battles for survival. In that way, this book may have been even better as serialized fiction like a tv show or a comic book, Walking Dead style, as I found the world building to be engaging. The plot however, as it unveiled itself to the characters and the readers, showed that there were not that many people in the world, and they fortuitously were able to find one another. When the mechanism of this was explained I thought, ok, but some of the characters were placed far from the others. There is a time paradox involved in the explanation, which I do not want to spoil by going into details but that did not bother me here. There are surprised in the book, which keeps it fresh, and because the characters are as naive to the world as the readers, the pacing of discovery worked very well. Additionally, there is enough humor scattered to lighten the mood from time to time. So, all in all, this was a good read. Anyone who likes Walking Dead, Station Eleven, The Road or any post apocalyptic fiction at all will like this, though it isn't gory at all. The ending was a little bit trite in my opinion but the overall experience of the book is very good.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Apocalypse Seven.

I love apocalypse books (especially if zombies are involved) and this title is great so I was excited when my request was approved.

The Apocalypse Seven was different (in a good way) from what I was expecting.

I was expecting survivors being chased by zombies, having to fend off predators of all kinds, and making their way to each other amid a new world.

There are no zombies, but there are predators and the world is a strange and frightening place. Especially when you wake up and it's not your world anymore.

Without giving anything away, I enjoyed The Apocalypse Seven. The concept was original, and all the characters are likable and relatable in their own way.

There's plenty of exposition on each character, world building for each individual as they acclimate and adapt to their new surroundings and make sense of the new world.

I sort of figured out how the seven ended up where they were, but the author kept me guessing, dropping frightening clues and hints which made my mind whirl at every turn.

I'm a big fan of The X-Files so the explanation at the end had me nodding my head in understanding and awe.

I eagerly look forward to the author's next book.