Review: Etiquette for an Apocalypse

Etiquette for an Apocalypse
by Anne Mendel

Published April 22nd 2012 

Bracket Press 

Review copy

Summary from Goodreads:

It’s the 2020 Apocalypse and Sophie Cohen, former social worker turned neighborly drug dealer, must keep her family alive amid those pesky end of the world issues: starvation, earthquakes, plagues, gang violence and alas more starvation.She investigates a serial killing and takes down the sinister emerging power structure while learning to use a pizza box solar oven, bond with her chickens and blast tin cans from the perimeter fence with a Ruger 9MM.

In order to accomplish all this she must find a way to love her mother, accept her daughter’s adulthood and reignite her moribund marriage.

She might discover that a decentralized, consensus driven life—without fossil fuels, iPhones and chocolate éclairs—isn’t the end of the world, after all. 

Thoughts:
This book is certainly what I needed after reading too many dystopian books with the end of the world cliché. It is hilarious, wacky and made me laugh out loud right from the beginning to the very end. The writer certainly has a way of making fun of even the most severe of circumstances and it is reflected on the colourful characters that were portrayed in this book.

Sophie Cohen and her family which consists of her diva-ish mother, her overworked husband and her rebellious teenage daughter lives in a condo in downtown LA with other eccentric residents. While they make do with solar power and eating anything that comes by (termite soup, anyone?), Sophie is presented with a juicy mystery by her husband who is a doctor.Someone is killing women and disposing their bodies in the hospital and now it's up to them to find out who is behind all this.

Sophie is certainly a character I empathised with. She's a mother desperately trying to protect her family while coping with the destruction of a civilized world. Her candid response and sarcasm is quite funny to read. And despite her cynical view of the life she's living, Sophie is rather resourceful and is just trying to make the best of things. The book is quite an entertaining read and at the same time taught me a thing or two on how to survive an apocalypse.

Recommended for: fans of quirky dystopian
Verdict: 5 stars.
Available on: Amazon