Call Me Adam
by Jo McCarty
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Pub Date Apr 01 2024 | Archive Date Sep 15 2024
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Description
"McCarty’s sharp characterization and vividly imagined catastrophes will leave readers of humane, contemporary apocalypses rooting for life in a sea of relatable loss." — Editors Pick, Book Life by Publishers Weekly
“A consuming work of great unpredictability and power.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This is not a formulaic apocalyptic novel—in fact, it’s surprisingly inventive and delightfully weird.” — Kirkus Reviews
In a rural Michigan town, in a post-Covid world on the brink of a new disaster, Louie discovers an extraordinary ability-he can't die. Fortuitous, if not for the small catch that he doesn't want to live. While everyone else is desperately fighting to survive a global biotic crisis, Louie constantly seeks death only to be resurrected time and time again.
Louie is the town nothing. If life was a school yard pick, he would be the last one on the team. Immortality is a burden, a cruel twist of fate, even as he wonders why him and what he is meant to do. But everything changes when Louie meets Katherine, a smart New York City woman determined to survive in this post-apocalyptic world. Finally, Louie has a reason to live, which is good timing because with each death he becomes weaker.
It would be a love story if not for all the death and dying. Katherine and Louie aren't living in utopia. There are other survivors who have their own ideas about the future. Ones they're willing to kill for. Louie and Katherine must not only defend themselves and their resources from outsiders but fight against their own darker natures before Louie's strange gift fades away.
Amidst the chaos and despair, their story is one of hope, resilience, and redemption. Louie and Katherine, an unlikely modern-day Adam and Eve, will prove that even in the darkest of times, an ending can be a new beginning.
CONTENT ADVISORY
This book contains adult themes and explores the darker nature of the human condition. Readers will be exposed to content they may find upsetting, controversial, or offensive, including fictional portrayal of self-harm, suicide, and suicidal thinking.
Advance Praise
Editor's Pick, Book Life by Publisher's Weekly
Survivors of a post-Covid pandemic learn the value of life and love in this speculative thriller of what it means to survive. Small-town ne’er-do-well Louie has been given the “gift” of survival—he cannot die, but he desperately wants and tries to. Katherine, meanwhile, wants to survive but wonders if that’s even possible, as the world duo community faces a devastating new flu that quickly infects and kills its victims. As they embark on initially separate journeys—Louie in a remote town in Michigan and Katherine in a shutting-down New York City—through this possible apocalypse, meeting survivors with their own agendas. But Louie’s phone call to the newspaper where Katherine works connects them—he thinks, rightly, somebody should write about his apparent immortality. As civilization crumbles around them, with full towns reportedly wiped out, the duo begins to have increasingly vivid, shared dreams of one another.
McCarty captures this chillingly familiar possible future in brisk prose, offering enough striking imagery to suggest a world gone wrong while never weighing the narrative down in minutiae. The story, disturbingly plausible after the events of 2020, intrigues from the first few pages but becomes increasingly urgent: a dying mother arrives on Katherine’s doorstep and thrusts her infant daughter, Ana, upon her, while Louie reluctantly finds himself with unwelcome houseguests, most notably a former police officer named Devlin. These new entrants into Louie’s and Katherine’s carefully controlled worlds lay bare everyone’s fears and flaws, all as the dreams drive Katherine to leave NYC and seek Louie out.
As their story unfolds, these surprising leads learn to hope and fight for the future they had dreamed. Framed among themes of survival, redemption, healing, new beginnings and love in a variety of forms, the characters are caught in loops of their making until they discover their purpose. McCarty’s sharp characterization and vividly imagined catastrophes will leave readers of humane, contemporary apocalypses rooting for life in a sea of relatable loss.
Takeaway: Humane thriller of a pandemic, survival, and unexpected connection.
Comparable Titles: Ling Ma’s Severance, Karen Thompson Walker’s The Dreamers.
Production grades Cover: A- Design and typography: Illustrations: N/A Editing: A Marketing copy: A Print Date: 04/08/2024
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781941175019 |
| PRICE | $16.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 340 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Marsha B, Reviewer
Yes!! All of the stars!!!!! I absolutely loved this book!!! Couldn’t put it down!!!!!! I highly recommend this book!!
Alex S, Reviewer
#CallMeAdam #NetGalley
Post-apocalyptic fiction is one of the most wide-ranging genres, as the end of the world has preoccupied many a creative mind ever since the dawn of human speech, thought and writing. Jo McCarty succeeds in breathing fresh air into the genre with the story of Louie, a man who has been trying to end his life since a personal tragedy wrecked his life. The catch? He cannot. Louie cannot die, no matter how much he tries to, and this gives his story so much heft. He and his love interest, Katherine, are, as other reviewers have pointed out, akin to a modern-day Adam and Eve, seeking to survive and build a future in a world where life and death are no longer as clearly delineated as we know them to be. This postapocalyptic thriller with a huge heart stands out for its poignant take on suicidal tendencies, which is why I believe it to be destined for classic status in the future. A tense, yet tender-hearted tale of how the world could end and begin anew, CALL ME ADAM is a masterpiece. Solid ten out of five!
Anastasia A, Reviewer
I really enjoyed this book. It deals with a lot of hard hitting topics, death, grief, lost, metal health all in a post-apocalyptic world. These are defiantly subjects that should be explored more and I applaud Jo McCarty for taking them head on.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
Reviewer 1178625
This postapocalyptic thriller with a huge heart stands out for its poignant take on suicidal tendencies, which is why I believe it to be destined for classic status in the future. A tense, yet tender-hearted tale of how the world could end and begin anew, CALL ME ADAM is a masterpiece.
Sarah M, Reviewer
I received a copy to review from Netgalley, below is the blurb
"In a rural Michigan town, in a post-Covid world on the brink of a new disaster, Louie discovers an extraordinary ability-he can't die. Fortuitous, if not for the small catch that he doesn't want to live. While everyone else is desperately fighting to survive a global biotic crisis, Louie constantly seeks death only to be resurrected time and time again.
Louie is the town nothing. If life was a school yard pick, he would be the last one on the team. Immortality is a burden, a cruel twist of fate, even as he wonders why him and what he is meant to do. But everything changes when Louie meets Katherine, a smart New York City woman determined to survive in this post-apocalyptic world. Finally, Louie has a reason to live, which is good timing because with each death he becomes weaker.
It would be a love story if not for all the death and dying. Katherine and Louie aren't living in utopia. There are other survivors who have their own ideas about the future. Ones they're willing to kill for. Louie and Katherine must not only defend themselves and their resources from outsiders but fight against their own darker natures before Louie's strange gift fades away.
Amidst the chaos and despair, their story is one of hope, resilience, and redemption. Louie and Katherine, an unlikely modern-day Adam and Eve, will prove that even in the darkest of times, an ending can be a new beginning."
I really enjoyed this book, the 2 main characters Louie and Katherine are a bit quirky and are unusual in that they are not 'perfect' human specimens and both have their flaws. I liked how the story unravelled and how we can sort of relate to the normality of it following the covid experience. For example the fact that the roads are not blocked with cars trying to escape but are clear because everyone presumably was trying to isolate at home. Louie was my favourite character as he was not fazed by the lack of human company initially and actually thrived in the environment where he didn't have to interact with others. The one bit I found slightly bizarre was how Katherine's character appeared to change so dramatically once she found Louie. At times she seemed like a different character to the one she had been prior to meeting him, more laid back. Maybe this was because she had found him, but at times I found it weird. Overall a great book that I was invested in finishing and would recommend.
Ashly H, Reviewer
This book is a fast paced dystopian read. The author pulled emotions from me that i didn’t know i could feel. This book is rather anxious making - but in a good way. It captivated me by the authors use of attention to detail and not leaving a single thing unexplored.
Jamie C, Reviewer
This is one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. I am posting this now at 1 am because I could not sleep until I finished it and shared my thoughts. Louie and Katherine were so deliciously flawed and broken. They felt real. The pandemic that leaves them alone felt realistic as well. I know there were some hard scary parts of this book but it also felt really hopeful.
It was absolutely perfect. I will never get over this one.
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