[REVIEW] The Blast

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Series: N/A
Author:
 Sarah Perlmutter
Genre:
 young adult, science fiction, post apocalyptic, survival, romance
Published:
 December 15, 2014 (first published January 25, 2014)
Purchase: Amazon

After a series of blasts force Beatrice Hicks and her family into their prepper bunker, they emerge to discover they are among the survivors of a nuclear apocalypse. Fighting against rogue groups and coping with deaths are just some of the adjustments Beatrice must make to survive, but how will she maintain her humanity after the blast? 
Praise for THE BLAST:
“This is the most impressive and heartfelt apocalypse story I’ve ever read in my life!”
“A real tour de force... [It’s] refreshing to have a YA book which focuses on the important things in a person’s life – family, love and death.”
“What a beautiful story. A wonderful look at the human ability to survive, rebuild, and grow through survival.”
“One of the best post-apocalypse stories I have read.”
“This book easily stacks up against my favourites and has an originality that many books seem to lack these days. [The] writing style is impeccable and this book is utterly breathtaking!”

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But the trick is to find the good in everything and to be thankful for that.
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I signed up for the book tour of The Blast because I like science fiction. I like post apocalyptic stories. I like stories that involves survival. I expected The Blast to be something like the usual novels - the world breaks, people unite, a government is establish then start oppressing people and blah-blah-blah... But The Blast exceeded my expectations.

The Blast stared off well. Beatrice Hicks saw an oncoming bomb. Her family along with a couple of neighbors took shelter in Beatrice's family basement. From there, it was literally a survival - they hunt, grow vegetables, look for canned foods, watch themselves from 'nomads' (survivors who kill other people and take all their things), and other more things.

I like the development on Beatrice. The bomb exploded when she was 10. A lot of things happened since then and it was a really crazy. You can really see where she's coming from all the time. She's brave. She's reliable. While there would be times when she just emotionally break down, it never really bothered me. In fact, I really feel so much for her. 

One of the things I really love about here is Beatrice's closeness to her family. The story not only revolves around Beatrice but also on the people around her. It really made me feel that when an apocalypse happen, it's not just about the bigger things like how the government will bring the society back up again or the scientific explanation of the apocalypse. It's about surviving. It's about surviving with the people you care about. It's finding finding out ways how to help each other, how to keep yourselves alive. It's about taking care of each other no matter what.

Aside from how family oriented this story is, I like the somehow realistic take on the story. It's not always that I can find something like this - something that literally takes the life right after an apocalypse (because usual stories go around the society that was built after the apocalypse then they turn into some kind of dystopian soceity. yup.). I like the emotion in this novel. There were fear, bravery, sadness, desperation. Perlmutter successfully pulled these things.

The romance aspect of the story is pretty good. It's insta-love but it's something I can accept. Beatrice and Todd just met. They were both young - young in years but in experience, if we're talking about such an apocalypse, I'd say they were old enough. There certainly was development on Beatrice and Todd's relationship and while it was a bit quick, I'd say it was pretty good.

While I really loved this story, these characters, and how it was presented, there were a couple of things that kind of bothered me. There a clear lack of world development. The story was too focused on the family, on Beatrice, on how they'll survive each day that the world was set aside - like what's really happening out there? Why was there a blast to begin with? Nothing was explained. Then there was this odd moment which bothered me for a moment - there were still canned foods 5years after the apocalypse! Like how is that even possible? I know canned goods last long but I think that 5years is over doing it.

Overall, The Blast is A MUST READ post-apocalyptic story. It shows real survival. It shows that when things like this happens, it's not always about a corrupt government or about an over the top science experiment. It focuses on family, losing love ones, surviving, and living for the future.

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What I Like: (1) The development of Beatrice, (2) the realistic take on the story, (3) the emotions that went on in this story, (4) how nicely written all the characters were, (5) the sweet romance between Beatrice and Todd, (6) the survival aspect of the story - the nomads, kill or be killed, looking for food, staying in the basement

What I Didn’t Like: (1) the lack of development on the world (there could still be more in here)




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ABOUT SARAH PERLMUTTER
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Sarah Perlmutter is the Wattpad featured author of THE BLAST, a young adult post-apocalypse novel.  
Outside of the young adult genre, Sarah has published poems and flash fiction through Mash Stories, Millennial Garbage, the Pittsburgh History and Landmark Foundation, and the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project. 
When she is not writing, Sarah enjoys spending time with her husband and cat, cooking food that is far too spicy, making arts and crafts, and teaching high school English.
For more information about Sarah and her writing, check out her website.

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