About the very worst people can be, and the very best?

To be honest I don’t know if I love or hate this book.

Read the book + listened to the audiobook. This one such a fun read and was "White Lotus" vibes. What a funny cast of characters put in a tough situation.

The narrator did a fabulous job of bringing some of the more obnoxious characters to life. This book felt like I was watching a train wreck just waiting to happen.

Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend is so funny! I wanted to read this story just based off the title and I’ve found it to be very clever and it had me laughing throughout.

The narrator does a great job bringing all the different characters to life with lots of different accents.

3.5 stars
For a post apocalyptic book, this one was quirky and funny! What do you do when the sun goes out while vacationing in the Bahamas, surrounded by entitled rich people? Dan is not one of those entitled rich people so the struggle is real when it comes to him navigating their greed and the decision of whether he’s going to save everyone, or just himself. I found this to be a unique and attention holding listen. The narrator was a bit annoying but it totally fit with the character and the vibe so I went along with it!
*Thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for the audiobook copy

This was a little exhausting to read. The world is a mess right now. The last thing I want to do is listen a book about the elite taking over when the end of the world is approaching. A little too close to home. I mean there is an “uprising” but by that time, I didn’t care anymore.

Even the narrator who is lumped in with the non-elite, spends so much of his time being judgmental. It feels like the point was missed… or if not, it was a conscious choice…

The story is juicy and incredibly entertaining, but the characters are so freaking exhausting. I’m meh about this one. It was clearly written by a white man and just didn’t give me enough to enjoy… except Mara!

Pub day: August 6th, 2024

4.25/4.50 I LOVED this book and was so surprised by it. I found it really funny. The book doesn't take itself too seriously and is great satire!! The book follows the vacation/trip of various couples on an isolated island...and they're trapped given some interesting turn of events. You follow Dan and his girlfriend as they navigate this vacation gone to hell (lord of the flies style).

I can honestly say I have not read anything like this book before and the humour was just so good. Totally feel like this book could be a movie (I sure hope so!)

What a fun enjoyable book! I definitely recommend Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend lol. The narration had me giggling, “Do planes still fly when the sun explodes?” The story line pulls you in with the sun exploding right away in chapter 1, line 1. I kept finding myself asking how is this going to end and I really enjoyed how it all played out.
I listened to the audio version of this book and the narrator did a great job. Sometimes I get annoyed with the different character voices, especially when a man does a woman, but this one did not bother me.
If you are looking for a fun light summer apocalyptic read, this is a great choice.
4.5 stars for Zero Stars
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

What does the eternal underdog do when the sun blows up on vacation? This book was hilarious in a very unfunny situation. You will fall in love with a ragtag group of characters stuck together in the Bahamas. It was an excellent commentary on human nature and how people can justify anything to survive. "Love is the sound of Legos clicking together" was the most poignant description of two people being right for each other. The author did a fantastic job creating characters with witty, emotional banter. " At the end of the day, everyone just wants some trans fats and a quiet place to shit." What a blatant reflection of the human experience. The audio version was one of the best narrations I have heard in a long time. I will probably be annoying, telling everyone to read this book. If you know me, be warned. When in doubt, "always get the pretzel".

I received an ARC audiobook for my honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and RB Media, Recorded Books.

The title of this read was Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend. Don’t be fooled! This book was worthy of four stars! The audio version was excellent!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC .

I just couldn't find this funny, neither the fact that as usual, the rich get special privileges, nor the idea of the sun melting (when we are experiencing global warming at an unprecedented rate).

I listened to a hilarious mystery about an obnoxious homicidal boss yesterday, so I was primed to be distracted from my problems and laugh - this audiobook served neither function, unfortunately.

Regarding positive feedback, the voice acting team for the audiobook version of this book were an excellent choice, they did a great job.

If the premise of this book / audiobook interests you please give it a chance, it might be your cuppa, it definitely wasn't mine for some many reasons.

This was a good book. The plot was interesting and kept me engaged. It was interesting to see how people react in stressful situations. It was different than I expected, in a good way. The ending was shocking. I enjoyed the book. I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed the narration.

Dan Foster has been underachieving for years, but now he has a girlfriend, Maya, and he’s finally taking his first vacation and lounging in the pool on a private Bahamian island. They’re at an all inclusive resort and while they are not in Building A - that’s for the super rich, but they are staying in the mediocre Building B (but not C because well, that’s for the riffraff). However, while sitting by the pool, the sun explodes and all the resort guests have to figure out how to deal with the impending apocalypse. The elite guests (i.e. Building A), led by a beachbody multi-level marking owner and her preacher husband, take over the resort and steal all the supplies and begin a rationing system based on labor. Now the plebs are looking to Dan for leadership and he has to decide if he can finally rise to the occasion. It’s a bit like a high end resort version of Lord of the Flies.

I really had no idea what to expect when I picked this one up (and I started with the audio which I felt like jumped you right in even more so) but this one was fun immediately. It’s satirical, funny and starts pretty fast paced. It has the same theme of One Perfect Couple but with a tongue in cheek quality to it. This is a social satire and so it brings up issues of socioeconomic bias, religion and science overreach. The narrator was perfect for the audio on this one but I enjoyed reading it as well. Because of the satirical nature of the book, it’s a spoonful of sugar while you ingest some deeper messages; you get to have some fun while you think about some of the ills of the world.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the ARC to review

Overall a pretty good read, I enjoyed the plot but to anyone going into this book thinking that it’s a surviving the end of the world type story, you may be disappointed. This story to me was more about classism and how much power imbalances affects people. The comedic timing had me chuckling, but I will say that I did get the ick from a few lines the characters say in reference to current online trends.
In the first half of the book, the main character was extremely unlikable in the sense of he’s just another man with nothing really going on, let’s give him this really awesome girlfriend in hopes of making him more interesting. Though in the last half we really got to see and understand more of him which made me root for him in the end. There is a twist too which if you’re paying attention throughout the book you’ll probably be able to tell what’s going on, but I still enjoyed the reveal.

4.5 ⭐️

What a standout debut novel for Wassmer! The story grips you legitimately from the first sentence and keeps your attention consistently. The range of characters made for an imperfect group to be experiencing an apocalyptic event together, which made it all the more better! This story had it all; sacrifice, plot twists, well timed humor, and even though the circumstances were undesirable the cast still took time to celebrate (what little they could) in times of crisis. There’s only one thing that kept this from being five stars to me.

Spoiler warning for one piece of the story:

Dan and Mara’s relationship. I loved their dynamic in the beginning, and then out of nowhere it seemed like Mara didn’t want to be with him anymore and Dan randomly mentions that he hates the sister she wants to get back home to. Which okay, those discoveries don’t blow my mind. But then it shifts to them getting thrown into being married and then all that tension gets dissolved and it’s never mentioned again. Perhaps it was just the nature of going through a beyond traumatic event together, but I’d say that made me question their relationship so it pulled me out of the story. However, they do reconcile pent up feelings on their wedding night in a tender moment so it does end up getting squared away.

Regardless, this was an absolute blast and will be recommending to all my friends, and I’ll be keeping tabs to see what this author pumps out next!

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher, and MJ Wassmer for an advanced copy of this book!

What could be worse than the sun exploding while you’re on a private Bahama island vacation? How ‘bout an MLM Queen Bee appointing herself Boss Babe of the resort? Want to survive the apocalypse, hun? Be part of the (s̶c̶h̶e̶m̶e̶) solution, or else.

Dan, a snark-talking, underachiever, is coaxed by his out-of-his-league girlfriend, Mara into becoming the reluctant hero of the “this vacation is bullshit” rebellion. But are his true motives just as self-serving as the Dystopian Diva’s?

Would-be readers, look at the cover. It’s a cocktail-sipping dude in an inner tube, floating unbothered in a pool while the world ends. If you’re looking for hard-hitting survivalist drama or scientifically accurate fiction, you’re not gonna find it within these pages. It’s speculative satire with some pretty witty observations that made me laugh while also making me think.

The narrator has great comedic timing. I’d definitely listen to other books read by Stephen R. Thorne.

Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend by M.J. Wassmer
Narrated by Stephen R. Thorne

I rarely read Apocalyptic or Dystopian genres but do enjoy Science Fiction, which sometimes does venture into Apocalyptic and/or Dystopian so I probably need therapy or something. Those genres are mentioned in this book's taglines, along with Humor, which sparked my curiosity. So I tried it and the story is silly and funny in a dooms day kind of way. It's the characters who make it funny and I couldn't help liking several of them, hoping they could somehow do the impossible, which is to live through the end of the world.

Twenty nine year old Dan Foster is on an island resort vacation with Mara, his girlfriend of two years. Despite knowing he was genius material by the time he was seven, or maybe because he was told this at a young age, Dan coasted through life so lazily that by the time he was in college and an adult he was pretty much capable of doing nothing but underachieving and feeling guilty about it. The narrator nails it with the narration, his demeanor makes the story even funnier for me and I could easily imagine seeing everything through Dan's eyes.

Now, the sun has just melted from the sky and the world is dark and humans have maybe two weeks before they freeze to death. Dan could and does find himself pondering how he wasted so much of his life and now it's about to be over and he's left with a life full of regrets and could of, should of recriminations. Not that any of that matters anyway now that there is no future for anyone.

The resort was already broken up onto social classes. There is building A, the wealthy elite, building B the middle class-ish types (Dan and Mara), and building C which is made up of poor people who got super big discounts to stay in what amounts to prison cell-like rooms. Once the sun goes "poof" the island becomes more like a dictator run concentration camp no escape horror story. Building A runs the show, hoards everything, including electricity, water, food, etc, along with meting out severe punishments against the underlings, all the way up to and including executions. No planes coming to save these folks, no outside communication, this is a no escape remote island horror show.

But it is funny. Dan is a real doofus in so many ways but he does try to do heroic things now and then, only to fall on his face, get up, browbeat himself, and do it all again. I really did like some of these characters even if the story felt a bit cartoonish at times. But that's why I could handle the story, so many goofballs that made me laugh even if I felt bad for laughing at times. Overall, I had a good time surviving this apocalypse although I'm not saying if anyone else survived it.

Thanks to RBmedia | Recorded Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

Full of humor, action and the best twist I definitely didn’t see coming! I loved it! It was a great read! Thanks NetGallery!

I'm gonna be honest here (as I always am when providing my feedbacks): by reading the synopsis of this book I had certain expectations and ideas of what this novel would turn out to be. And my expectations were never met and my ideas were pretty much all wrong.
I thought this book would be a post apocalyptic and dystopian story with some humour.
Well, in my opinion, the only 'apocalyptic' thing that happens is the fact that the sun exploded and the characters, now and then, here and there, mention some repercussions of it.
By the way, other than Dan, the protagonist, I pretty much didn't care for anyone else. And I'm not saying all the others are unlikable or despicable in any way. No. They simply didn't interest me. I never felt invested in them, and after the first 20% of the book I didn't feel engaged, either.
Honestly, this novel turned out to be way too 'funny' for my taste and not really dystopian and post apocalyptic in any way I could hoped for. By the time the twists started to come, I no longer cared for.
I believe this book will please other readers, especially those who enjoy a more comic, funny and satiric humour way of a dystopian story, but it ended up not appealing to me.
The audiobook narrator is decent enough and I'd recommend it to audiobook lovers.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for allowing me to listen to a free advanced audiobook copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

FIVE stars. DEFINITELY recommend!
Despite the sheer intensity of the premise, M. J. Wassmer’s debut didn’t fail to make me laugh. This book managed to put the worst parts of humanity on full display in a unique and incredibly imaginative setting.
I also love that we are witnessing all of this through the eyes of a guy called Dan. Dan is awesome. I loved his commentary, his humor, and his sarcasm. If the world is going to end do yourself a favor and seek the nearest Dan.
ZERO STARS, DO NOT RECOMMEND is an incredible debut by M. J. Wassmer’s that offers a witty commentary on class difference in an intense high-stakes narrative that still manages to laugh at the stupidity of humanity when faced with its imminent demise.

This was one of the most fun yet ridiculous books I’ve read in a while. Granted with the title like this, you knew it was going to be an interested read. Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend tells the tale of what happens when you go on vacation with your significant other to a remote island in the Bahamas and the sun explodes. Yes, the sun exploded or rather looked like a running egg or melting butter. Those are real descriptions from the book which make so much sense by the end. Bravo Wassmer for working fun details in from the very beginning. The cast of characters vary so much across the island but it made for a great read (except Lilyanna, IYKYK). Being trapped on an island with Lilyanna can be its own dystopian novel. Mara however is everything I love in a FMC while Dan is delightfully clueless while somehow leading the resistance. I felt the plot was fairly well paced considering the topics it addressed. There was also a nice blend of humor mixed in which this book really needed. This was the story that knows how to walk the fine line without going so far as to be cheesy. While I guessed the big reveal, I thought it was perfect for this story. Wassmer provided us with enough clues to figure it out but did it in such a way that it was still exciting to read about once you knew. I read this via audiobook, and it was an absolute delight. I can’t recommend Thorne’s narration enough. It added perfectly to the overall ridiculousness (in a good way) that is this book.