I just couldn’t get into this. It was a hard slog to finish. the story was predictable and written in a weird way. Nothing new about these types of stories but usually they are more entertaining. Maybe in poor taste since it references Covid.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it’s a good story with some twists you might not see coming. But on the other hand, it’s literally a guide to how to do all this crazy stuff and I’m a bit worried that some people will actually follow it.

Either way, I enjoyed reading this story about a group of preppers who take their leader’s kids hostage. Is anything that’s happening to the group real or is it all in their heads? Find out by reading How to Survive Everything.

I do have to say that everything was going well with this book until the end, which was really a kick in the teeth to what really should have happened. Despite this, I’m still giving this book four stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

Engaging, entertaining, and all too timely. A recommended purchase for collections where dystopian titles are popular.

"My name is Haley Cooper Crowe and I am in lockdown in a remote location I can’t tell you about."
The synopsis on this book was well written and drew my interest to read it. Haley and Ben are kidnapped by their father, taken to a remote compound, and taught survival skills in preparation for the end of the world. Being so isolated from the outside world begs the question what really is happening?
This book was medium paced and kept my interest for the most part. I did not always enjoy the story through Haley's voice. The author did an excellent job writing a survival guide and about the extreme side of the prepper community. I will say that there was more gore then I would expect for a book written for young adults. But overall it was an entertaining read.

Not totally unique plot elements, but still a good story overall. This author put together a pretty engaging tale with some unpredictable elements. (although some readers may figure them out ahead of time). I think most scifi fans will like this.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

**Thank you to the author, Harper Perennial and Netgalley for a free download ARC in exchange for an honest review!**

Ewan Morrison's How to Survive Anything is an interesting take on the future health/financial apocalypse, or rather, the 'prepper' community, and how a young girl, her brother and mother learn to survive once they are kidnapped into a safe house by their father. The protagonist's voice can be rather annoying at times, but I was definitely amused by some of the teenage girl-isms that Morrison evoked in his narration.

About 1/3 of the way into the book I was tempted to DNF it because I just couldn't bare to read anything further on pandemics, but I did push through and although I was disappointed in the ending, it was still an entertaining read.

Morrison does not shy away from gory and gruesome details, and I did struggle to stomach some of his descriptions of certain...chaotic events that occurred throughout the book. Major props to Morrison for his clearly extensive research on prepper communities, conspiracies, and mental illness as well. He writes with meticulous detail, and while some of the book's ramblings can touch on being overwhelmingly drawn out, I'd like to believe it was done so in a way to best represent a young teenage girl's stream of consciousness.

This is probably not a book that I would have chosen to read if I had not been gifted it through Netgalley, but it was still interesting to read through.

2.75/5 stars for me.

The premise of this book piqued my interest. A survivalist father who may or may not have accurately predicted the next pandemic kidnapping his children? I was all in.

My interest, however, slowly diminished the more time I spent with the narrator. The teenage girl narrator is extremely underdeveloped. Her emotions and thoughts lack any believability, especially for such an extreme situation.

Overall, the book’s premise was great. But the writing couldn’t keep up.

*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

Haley Cooper Crowe is the child of divorced parents, sister to ADHD and overall 'unhealthy' kid Ben, and friend to a small group of girls. She is, for all intents and purposes, everyone's idea of an average 15-year old. However, her father has suffered from severe mental illnesses for a long time and has convinced himself and a rag-tag group of people societal collapse is not only inevitable, but happening. After kidnapping Haley and her brother, and then abducting his ex-wife, the small compound becomes and island of itself-- no one in or out.

This book, though marketed for young adults, touches on some gruesome and mature themes-- and is definitely for an older audience. There is a graphic description of a leg amputation and mild sex scenes.

The narrator, Haley, is a young girl thrust into an adult world. Torn apart by her parent's manipulation, and forced to make decisions no one prepared her for-- she does the best she can. However, that meant a lot of indicision and erratic behavior; which, in my opinion, makes for a tedious read.

Ewan Morrison did a fantastic job creating the 'Survival Guide' that Haley read throughout the book, and it's obvious he did a lot of research into the prepper community. And there was, especially at the end of the book, a lot of interesting commentary on politics and consumerism.

Overall, HOW TO SURVIVE EVERYTHING, is another good apocolypse prepper read!

"My name is Haley Cooper Crowe and I am in lockdown in a remote location I can’t tell you about."

Haley was living a rather normal and boring life following the COVID 19 pandemic when her father kidnapps her and her brother in order to "save" them. Her dad Ed is divorced from her mom and has spiraled very far down into a rabbit hole of doomsday prepping. He is absolutely convinced that 6 billion people are about to die due to a new pandemic. He, and a few friends have set up in a secluded barn a place to wait out the new pandemic for 3 or more years.

Haley isn't sure what to think, where her loyalties lie or how to contact anyone from the outside world. As the
group becomes more and more committed to pioneer life she continues to question their goals - is there a another pandemic?

This novel is fast moving and will keep you up all night guaranteed. If you love a novel with a YA twist, a dystopian outlook or just want to be immersed in a race against time, How To Survive Everything is for you! #HarperPerennial #HowToSurviveEverything #EwanMorrison #Netgalley

**SPOILERS**
3.5 stars

This was very challenging to review and certainly to put a star rating to, as I found myself with very mixed feelings overall. The novel is incredibly unique and has a smart perspective for a pandemic/dystopian novel, though is really disturbing in the same way.

During a night when he has custody of his kids from his wife, Hayley's father (Ed) kidnaps her and her brother (Ben), whisking them away to his bunker/compound created in anticipation of a pandemic he is sure will bring much death and mayhem to the UK and beyond. They are not alone on these grounds, as Ed has brought in some "friends" he met in NA, Mabel and Ray (and sometimes Kane), and Mabel's teenage son, Danny. Teenage Hayley is trying to suss out how they all got in this position (when did her dad have time to build up this protected land?) and trying to acclimate but has many questions she can't get answers to.
We learn along the way that Ed has been diagnosed with deep psychological problems and, without wifi access, Hayley can't tell how bad the world is getting outside their closed off land within chicken wire fences. Are all her friends sick, struggling to breathe with a sickness that has run rampant? Have grocery stores all been wiped out of essentials? Has Dad imagined something way worse than is happening? Maybe people are just hanging at the mall like usual?

I love that Hayley and Ben have been taught from Ed, over their lifetimes, survivalist techniques/skills that will be helpful when deprived of resources we've all become accustomed to (electricity, wifi, water, etc). Ed is an inventor and has always found ways to exercise new ideas, which was a constant in Hayley and Ben's lives until their parents separated. While this is "conditioning" in a sense, there are true needs for these skills as the real world around us loses stability.

I found myself less than enamored with the positioning of Hayley as not feminine enough, referring to herself possibly being "too geeky and tomboyish" as she enjoyed worked through a communication wiring hack her dad taught her. Terms like "tomboy" thrown around as negative (not an isolated incident in the book) is problematic to me in current times and make it feel obvious this came from a male author.

It also feels like an incredibly rough position to put this young teen protagonist in: Hayley is the only person we meet who has the wherewithal to step back and evaluate the situation (as much as possible with limited access to news and outside information). While they are functioning inside their sheltered space as an isolated community at the end of the world, we don't actually know if a pandemic has started or whether Ed is acting on a doomsday inclination that may be completely unfounded. Hayley's responsibility to her family and her desire to believe her father is a heavy burden. Almost brutally so as the book seems to come to a resolution. I really don't know whether to think this makes it a somewhat genius perspective or an absolutely terrible choice.

I do know that the end felt like a cop-out. The author didn't actually need to make a decision on how to handle the impossible situation he'd put his protagonist in when she finds out there isn't actually a pandemic because... after a bit, one comes sweeping in and neatly ties up the conflict Hayley was confronting.

Entertaining and fascinating read but... finding out they didn't need to do an amputation in the kitchen instead of going to a hospital? That put me a bit over the edge.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for this advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book surprised me in the best way. Based on the cover and description, I was expecting a rather shallow dystopian novel. However, what I got was a book that hooked me from the first and made me read compulsively at the end to see the outcome. How To Survive Everything is action-packed, but thoughtful at the same time. I found the characters to be very well drawn, especially the narrator, 16-year-old Haley. Haley has some growing up to do when she finds herself at the center of a new life orchestrated by her father, a survivalist. There are hard lessons to be learned and adjustments to be made in dealing not only with her family, but with the four other souls who buy into Ed Crowe’s vision of the world on the brink of collapse. It’s a time that is all too familiar…a ramped-up pandemic that is more serious than COVID-19. The book pulls no punches in portraying the stark, grim potential reality of life lived off-the-grid. Recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

How to Survive Everything by Ewan Morrison.

The story is told from the perspective of Haley Cooper through a Survival Guide she has written and documented. Haley is 15-16 years and along with her brother is going through the normal tug of war between her parents as a result of their divorce - until their dad takes them on a strange adventure day which turns out is really a kidnapping. Only in his eyes it’s to save them from a deadly pandemic.

I wouldn’t classify this as traditional horror, more YA doomsday drama. The concept is interesting and I burned through the pages without interruption. The craziness is both believable and unbelievable, but I think that’s the point as through the entire story you see Haley waiver on her feelings between her dad (and eventually her mom) as she struggles to understand who to believe on how to survive. The play of blind faith, hope, and wanting to believe in something (in someone) plays out across multiple characters.

However…
(Note - despite my however I did enjoy the book well enough).

> It’s been a long time since I’ve been a 15/16 year old girl, but I feel like the voice there was a bit off the mark. I know she was torn between her parents and unable to make decisions but the back and forth was at times tiresome.
> The romance element, totally not needed given the circumstance. Last thing I would be thinking about in my kidnap lock-down shelter.
> Ending had all the elements to a strong crazy chaotic finish but they went and… well… I don’t want to give away the ending. It just fell flat for me at the very end.
> I also get that this story feels a lot like a story about ‘family’ given the focus on her parents divorce and how their relationship was, is, could be… but honestly, kidnapping isn’t how you create a healthy relationship. Sigh - stockholm syndrome isn’t romantic.

I can see how it would be very easy to go down the doomsday rabbit hole. That’s what makes this story interesting. However there are realities that the story doesn’t fully address so go in with some suspension of reality and enjoy it for what it is.

Packs in a lot but I'm not really sure if it delivers.
This ultimately becomes a story of survival and separation.
It has quite a few nerve wrecking moments which I enjoyed and the adventure overall starts to come together closer to the end.
But at times I feel like it was trying to do too much.
Still enjoyable though.

WHAAAAAAT. WHAT WHAT WHAT. This book had me on the edge of my seat.

Haley, our fifteen-year-old protagonist, is used to not so much mediating between her divorced parents as choosing between them; it seems she can never make one happy without hurting the other, so the best she can do is toggle between them. It's not easy, but she's mostly got it under control - that is, until her dad kidnaps her and her younger brother. He brings them to a hideaway house with his fellow preppers and survivalists, where he believes they'll be safe from the upcoming pandemic. From there, it's fair to say things ... escalate.

Throughout the book, Haley veers from extreme to extreme in considering who to believe, whose version of reality to embrace: her father's (the pandemic-to-end-all-pandemics is upon us!) or her mother's (the world is just fine, thank you very much!). While this sounds dark, the book is at times quite funny - yes, there's trust issues and impending doom aplenty, but also crushes and hilariously consistent interactions with her parents, despite the chaotic circumstances.

And, of course, every time she thinks she's finally got things figured out - the rug gets pulled out from beneath her (and the reader!) again and again.

Plot-wise, I thought this story was propulsive and compelling. It probably could have been shorter - some of the back-and-forth, I'm-with-dad-no-I'm-with-mom started to feel stale after a while - and the writing was clunky in some places (Haley's voice sometimes felt less authentically and more stereotypically teenaged). But I'm overlooking that because I could. not. put. it. down. 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

Thanks to Harper Perennial and NetGalley for my ARC.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

A five star idea, minus a star and a half for the preciousness of the execution. Three. Five rounded up. This really could’ve used an editor to help this guy tone it down