Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.87 Stars Content Rating: PG-13 Earth may be a nightmarish landscape, but that's no reason to stop the music. Post-apocalyptic life ain’t all doom and gloom for Sebastian Yun. The eighteen-year-old lives for broadcasting his music to the end-of-world-weary masses from behind the wheel of his sweeeeet, double-decker ride. But when making a pit stop at a small, dusty town, the self-made radio DJ runs into a shady old nemesis who totally kills his good vibes. This seasoned flimflam woman claims she can send the bloodthirsty creatures that prey on mankind back to hell. When Sebastian’s completely-not-selfish attempts to unmask the phony hit the wrong note, the very real danger is cranked all the way up to 11. Will Sebastian live to share more of his dope tunes, or will it be dead air from here on out? (synopsis from amazon.com) Normally, I am not one for post-apocalyptic books. Occasionally, I’ll watch a movie of this variety, but rarely will I read a book about the end of the world. I came across this one because I follow the author on TikTok and I thought the premise sounded really fun. A DJ driving around the world in a double decker bus, playing music from pre-apocalypse? Sounds like a good time! Plus, this is so short, I figured I wasn’t investing that much time if I didn’t end up liking it. But, I really liked this book! It was a weird, fast-paced little snippet of some end of the world shenanigans. I will say that because it was so short, I felt like I was missing so much information. Of course, I suspect much of this information will be revealed in volumes two and three, but it still would have been nice to have a bit more set up for the character and the world they live in. Also, because of the length of the book, there weren’t really any good stopping places, so it’s really a book that you just need to take an hour or two to sit down and read in one sitting if you can. Enough about how short it was, let’s talk about the actual story. The characters were fun and interesting, but I didn’t feel like I got to know them very well. I look forward to spending more time with Sebastian and Meza in the sequel and even the conwoman, Chancy freakin’ Freeman. The humor was goofy and I liked that there was a running joke throughout about how the town they were staying in was too small to actually be called a town and so Sebastian, despite being in the middle of a crazy situation, keeps trying to figure out a better word to use to refer to the town, such as “village” or “hamlet”. It’s just a silly gag that keeps on going and is resolved at the same time the action is, which was a fun way to wrap things up. As far as the plot goes… there’s not a whole lot to it, but that’s okay. I think the best way I can think to describe this book is that it feels like the pilot episode of a TV show. We’re not sure what is happening really, or who these people are, but it’s fun to watch them fight monsters and listen to music. It’s like watching an episode of some show you randomly find on your preferred streaming service or at the library and you watch it. And maybe you don’t fully vibe with it at first, but it catches your attention, it captures your interest, and you think to yourself “hmm, I want to see where this goes”. Now, I haven’t read the next book in the series, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m going to get sucked in and start to get way too attached to these characters. And I’m excited for that to happen. I loved the music choices for this book as well. Since Sebastian is a DJ, there were several songs mentioned that I thought went well with the scenes and added a layer to the atmosphere created in the book.I especially enjoyed the song at the very end and loved picturing everyone at the end singing along to it. What’s fun about this being set in the distant (or maybe not so distant) future is that any song could be used. It’s not just classic rock, or older songs. Since we don’t know how far in the future this is, it is not limited to the music of yesteryear, the series can mention music that’s coming out this year and it will still be “old music” to the characters. I think there’s also a Spotify code on the first page, but I couldn’t get my phone to scan it, so I’m not sure if that’s actually what it was or not. If anyone else was able to get it to work, let me know! I recommend this book to anyone who likes post-apocalyptic stories with a little flair, or people who enjoy fun music. As I said, I am eager to read the next book in the series and will be ordering it shortly. Well, I’m off to hide from the giant booger monsters of the future. Thanks for reading! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60616050-so-you-survived-the-end-of-the-world
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