Lights Out (Surviving the EMP #1) by Ryan Casey

Lights Out (Surviving the EMP #1) Reviews

• 
  Britt

  Yes yes yes yes yes. This is EXACTLY the apocalyptic fiction I’ve been looking for. No flowery, religious anecdotes, unrealistically long spans where the characters have time to reflect on the philosophy of the situation, and most importantly- no cheesy romance!
  
  That’s not to say I hate all of those things, but when it comes to an apocalypse, especially an EMP (as in this series), there is no time for any of that. It’s about survival and the present moment. I want the nitty, gritty, realistic action, no matter how heart or gut wrenching. I want characters to show us what it takes to keep powering through these situations on their own or in small groups; I really think that the whole “our town/large group is coming together to survive!” plot is just not realistic, especially at the start of something like this. It’s going to be every man for themselves for quite a while.
  
  The characters were realistic and I liked the variety of personalities and situations. At first it was a little hard to keep up with who was who, but I got used to it about halfway through. I also could have done without some of the emotional thoughts about ~who they are~ towards the end.
  
  I also always love a book that takes place in one day. You feel so much more connected to the characters and more equipped to handle whatever the books situation is if you follow along with them through the entirety. I actually plan to work on an EMP-apocalypse series too some day, and I’ll definitely also make the first book take place just in the first day. I think you just have to for this kind of story.
  
  I devoured this audiobook in 2 days! Never got sick of it. Sadly I have to wait until Sept. 1st to listen to the next one, as my Hoopla monthly quota is out. Womp womp. Will definitely figure out how to read more series from this author as well (as you’ll see if you follow me I rarely actually buy books, and when I do they’re used).
  
  4 stars from me! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• 
  Nat

  Well, here goes. I don't review a lot of books, but I can't get this one off my mind, so I am writing it all out. This book wasn't terrible. It flowed relatively well. Easy to follow and interesting and engaging enough to do so. The author, who I presume lives in the UK, really seems to be forcing that point. Not just with the setting and normal variances in phrases and words, but with a seemingly forced way of pushing as much evidence that this is occurring in England as possible, but though exposition-type lingo. Here's my problem; it feels like the author is that kid who did a study abroad or mission trip to another country and then suddenly the first 20 years of linguistic training and practice are shoved aside by the more exotic, novel lingo. "Does anyone want a burrrrrito? Oh, sorry, while I was in México on Spring break, I really assimilated to the culture there and now I just naturally roll that double 'r' or 'erre' as we call it." I don't know anything about the author, so he may be native to England, and if so, he has a knack for inserting every conceivable proof of it, but my bet would be that he is from somewhere else, like the US, but at some point moved to England and is trying really hard to make sure everyone knows he lives in England. Could be totally wrong, but it totally seemed forced.
  
  The characters....they are all the same person. I know they aren't really, but tell me if this sounds familiar: "I live a certain way based on bad/traumatic experiences from my past, but now that the EMP happened, I have learned in this single day that I need to be who I truly am, not who I was pretending to be." Guess whose story that is...you're right, all the main characters'.
  
  One thing that was done really well was that he made me hate the antagonists, such as the cops, store owner, escaped psych patients, etc., but I felt like a little reason or logical explanations from the protagonists could have solved a lot of problems, but the antagonists that are so annoying and easy to hate are so dense that it might have been futile to try to actually clearly explain anything to them. Either way, the author put in some ridiculous ways to get into or out of trouble, which made it impossible for the antagonists to see the simple facts and use common sense.
  
  There wasn't a whole lot of depth to the characters, but I realize this is really just a set-up for the next books, but then maybe this should have just been the first part of a bigger book.
  
  The book is set in pretty modern times, and I felt like that was casually placed in there without trying to hard to make it obvious or relying on some overt exposition, so, well done there.
  
  Overall, not a bad story, just not a great one. I like post-apocalyptic themes because it's kind of fun to think about what we would have to figure out if all our basic conveniences were unavailable. The same story could basically have happened with a handful of other scenarios (not exactly, but the basic story), so there wasn't a whole lot of exploration into the scenario, but I'm sure that will happen in further books, too. Go ahead and read it if you want. It's not very long, so there's little investment for an adequate return.
  
  I may come back and review my review, but for now, those are my thoughts.
• 
  Sherron Wahrheit

  Stories that unintentionally piss me off ALSO deserve one star and one finger. And you know which finger I mean!
  
  Stuff in the book that grated on my nerves:
  
  The characters are introduced “amongst” a smorgasbord of British terminology, which annoys me. But that’s actually my bad: I had assumed the story takes place in the United States, like 99 percent of all the post apocalyptic survival stories I’ve read, but—the story doesn’t take place in the United States at all. So then why did the publisher hire an American narrator who sounds JUST LIKE Mr Rogers? I realize that the author didn’t select the audiobook narrator, but I just have to mention it. A survival story narrated by Mr Rogers? That’s as unimaginable as Bob Ross painting some happy little clouds on Guernica.
  
  But really, the major thing that pissed me off is the writing: a layering of appositives and repetitions, over and over again. The sentence fragments. That restate the same thing over and over again, so that a sentence worth of experience gets dragged out to occupy an entire chapter. I don’t know. Maybe that is actually an admirable writing style? After all, the narrative in The Hatchet (sorry-no embedded link) flows in similar chunks of repetition, and it won a Newbery Honor award. But speaking of children’s lit, I’ve chatted with elementary school children capable of more depth, complexity, dignity, and sensitively nuanced language than is in this book.
  
  Even though the narrative prose put me off so much, I did check to see how the author handled the ending. I don’t like this current trend of authors ending a book with a manipulative “Hey you gotta buy the next book” cliffhanger. Which, of course, is how he ended the book.
• 
  Pam Shelton-Anderson

  This was a fairly standard EMP type story. Everyone surprised, people separated from loved ones, violent prisoners on the streets. Society in this story deteriorated within a few hours of the event, including a shopkeeper who became immediately sadistic and violent. That did not seem to be too realistic to me. I struggled with most of the characters all of whom had some prominent flaws, including their ability to make safe decisions and it made me hope that I would not ever run into people like them if a real disaster occurred. Even the "prepared" character allowed himself to be constantly drawn away from the issues at hand, though I'm glad he "woke" to his better human instincts. The writing is decent overall but the story just seemed rather disjointed and I struggled to connect with it. I may read book 2 to see what happens and if it improves.
• 
  Pepe Silvia

  Glad this book had so many preppers to explain what was going on
• 
  Janice Anitsakis

  Probably not even two stars. I listened to the audio version and the narrator was bad. I don’t even know why I finished other than boredom.
• 
  Sarahtar

  Have not ever read British post apoc fic
• 
  Andrea

  An EMP of unknown origins hits England and completely knocks out the power and anything electrically powdered for much of the nation as far as anyone can tell. When the EMP hits, cars crashed, trains slammed Into one another and planes dropped from the sky. Much of the country is devastated. With the loss of communication, even the military, police and Government are out of commission. People are left to deal with the chaos in the best way possible. The story follows 5 different main characters as they try to navigate these treacherous circumstances.
  I’m having mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand I really enjoyed the multiple characters with multiple points of view. Each of the characters experiencing the EMP in a different way. One was in a plane crash. One was in a train crash . One was in prison. One was on a bus trying to escape school. One is just in his car but he is a survival nut, is aware of what an EMP is, and is assuming, pretty accurately, what is going to happen next. I really found it interesting that the book covers such a very short timeframe. It’s only a half a day. There’s already a lot of chaos going on.
  Another thing I am surprised about was even though there are five main characters with each character having supporting characters around them I don’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of characters that there are. Each of the main characters are unique and interesting. Well actually, two of the girls are kind of blending a little bit and I’m having a hard time telling the difference between the two of them but the other main characters stand out and they are already starting to grow, even in the first installment of the series.
  The thing that I didn’t like and didn’t enjoy as much is this series is a bit more gritty than most books that I regularly read. It is very realistic but more geared towards a negative aspects of humanity and life. For instance several escaped prisoners try to kidnap a young teenage girl and it was implied that they weren’t going to do anything nice to her. Luckily she’s rescued by one of the other main characters. Three other prisoners kidnapped another main character and a boy she is taking care of. A bunch of other traumatic stuff happens to these two as well. I didn’t really enjoy those aspects of the story. There is a lot of violence that feels very real. The various accidents felt very real. People are breaking bones and suffering other major injuries. There’s no ambulances, no hospitals to take the injured to. Instead there’s just people on the street trying to help each other. While all of this violence and chaos was very well written I did not enjoy it. I do not like books that are dark in this way. I want my books to be an escape and not to be mired in the more negative aspects of humanity.
  
  Triggers and Rating
  Triggers- It is implied that a girl may be raped. Stabbing. Hitting people with things like bats, clubs and hammers. People lose teeth. A dog is injured. A young boy is kidnapped and threatened with a knife.
  
  Rating -
  R - There Violence is prolific and graphic. There is a lot of it. There is a lot of swearing. Simmer if it is British swear words.
• 
  Kathi

  So there are five people here.
  
  a thirteen year old girl who has been not so nice to the people around her and now on this one day of the apocalypse realizes she needs to let people in.
  and then there is this other girl who was mean to people around her and on this one day of the apocalypse realizes she needs to be nicer to people and to let them in.
  and then there is the survivalist who hasnt been nice to people for a long time, but on this day he realizes he can be nicer to people.
  and then there is the useless college student who hasnt been the nicest guy around, but he realizes why that is and is trying to do better on this day of the apocalypse.
  and lastly the escaped prisoner who has always been bad to people and has a temper and he realizes that now he can be better.
  
  ...
  
  then there is also the case that everyone gets knocked out at least twice or even more times and is kind of fine? They are all walking away from it.
  
  Then there is the not really hidden "the young generation is useless"-rant and the young generation reacts to that bullshit with "oh okay I will stay and reform"
  
  And lastly... the girl tells him to stay away and *another girl* tells him he cannot believe her and HAS to go after her. THAT is how stalker behaviour or worse starts. No thank you.
  Suffice to say I am not even curious what happens from now on, which is sad bc it looked really promising at the beginning.
• 
  Beth

  Almost quit a couple chapters in…but the potential story intrigued me…alas, the writing was awful.
  Characters repeated themselves constantly…I just have to get home…I have always been selfish…I am always trying to please others and look for approval…Each character had a nonstop inner monologue of what they saw as their greatest faults. So tedious and forced.
  Then the descriptions of what they saw and felt were very repetitive also: the air smelled like blood, so much blood everywhere, all the trauma of the day…this book took place over the course of one day and the story itself never grabbed me. You had stories of several selfish individuals and I didn’t really care about any of them. One Second After is a MUCH better book with same premise.
  One star is for narrator of the audiobook and one star for the effort it must have taken to find a publisher-
• 
  Elizabeth Ziegler

  I found the tremendous 180 degree personal growth and profound epiphanies every character experienced in the timespan of a single day to be pretty unbelievable. Honestly, this ruined the book for me. I am a fan of multiple plot lines in books, but in this instance it felt like none of the plot lines were ever really developed.
• 
  Ali Kerr

  Audio - Meh. Stopped after 1st hour - too many characters, too much background info, distracted from the events happening.
• 
  Monique

  Tedious. Everyone ended up sorely injured, and made too many bloody mistakes. I really don't care enough to find out what happens to them in book two.
• 
  Bruce Cline

  OMG! This is the most boring book I’ve read in years. This first volume is (must be) an introduction to later books in the series, but those are volumes I’ll never get to.
• 
  Wendi

  Meh.
• 
  Jennifer Jensen

  If you can leave a series unfinished I recommend you only read the first two books. Book 3 ruins everything.
  
  Spoilers
  
  
  
  
  
  I was skeptical of all the gratuitous violence. All the constant horrific things that kept happening. It was too much. More than could be believable. But book 2 ends on a reasonable enough high note considering what happenned next...
  
  Then book 3 happenned. I'll be direct. Sorry. Jack and Logan end up in a war over the death of one of Logan's people. We find out that Logan has been lying to himself about the circumstances of his imprisonment. The false narrative really pissed me off! As the reader you are convinced that Logan is on a Redemption Journey or at the very least was wrongfully imprisoned. Wrong! He killed them, he murdered the wife and the daughter in front of the husband before he killed him. And then he just decided to convince himself that he didn't do it. I really don't like that the author manipulated his readers this way. Jack utilizes some really bad guys to try and get Logan killed simply because Logan refuses to give up his revenge. And then Jack and his family lose the farm. Logan shoots Wayne and then Wayne dies. Logan gets shot in the chest and still can't let s*** go. So of course, Logan decides to shoot Jack in the chest. Emma Frisch's Logan to the ground and Jack ends up stabbing Logan in the throat. Logan dies. The bad guys took over the farm are convinced to help keep Jack alive. The book ends with Jack and his ex-wife and the girls walking off for greener pastures. This book was awful. I gave it three stars because I actually liked book 1 and 2.
  It doesn't help that Logan and Wayne were my favorite characters. Just saying
• 
  TP

  This book revolves around several very interesting characters and their journey after an EMP hit.
  Their emotional struggle.
  And I liked it.
  But after three quarter into the book it just got too much. And I had to force myself to keep reading.
  The problem of so many characters, their POVs, and the switching back and forth, leaves the impression that the story is slow paced and I was sitting here wishing it to increase its pace. For them to finally come together but those individual stories seem to find no end and go on forever. And then those self finding moments, those life changing self awareness moments. A bit over the top but bearable. Could have done without it or if maybe not the whole cast would have had one at the same time.
  And it doesn’t do the characters justice. To loose focus on their personal struggles, even skipping a sentence here and there because it was too much. The same inner epiphany and adventure packed threat into one characters story.
  
  Let’s see what’s next in the following book.
• 
  Evita

  I remember this very mediocre series I watched on Netflix years ago. It was an apocalypse series about the world after all the electricity stops working and society crumbles. It wasn't good, but mannnn was it entertaining. This is basically the book version of that show.
  I don't even know if it counts as reading because I only read the chapters with Logan and Emma. They were the only characters I really cared about.
  Also apparently this book takes place in the UK? The author really doesn't want you to know that. The audiobook is even preformed by an American narrator. Which SUCKS. Hearing an American say the word "bloke" is really weird. 
• 
  Nick Brett

  Set in England, this is an apocalyptic novel by which all power is lost. This is generally assumed to be a solar flare that has permanently knocked out all of the world’s electricity.
  Into this scenario we are presented with a range of characters, where they were when it happened and hope they cope with it.
  It’s familiar territory but easy reading if you like this kind of stuff, nice to see a U.K. scenario when we too often see a US version where everyone is armed to the teeth and the woods are packed with survivalists!
  I did look up book two, these characters might be worth continuing with…
  
  
  
• 
  Roberta J. Kassan

  Likedb. Ook seems to have interesting
  
  Interestng kept my attention and is not difficult to read as some military stories are.will try to finish up whole story. Have stopped that are too technical with weapons that im not into.im more interested in people.
  
  This seems to be easier to keep my attentiom better than what is on tv
  Did like the walking dead and fear of the walking dead for last 7 yrs of attend ment.