Post Plague Kidnapping
Good evening from a drizzly England. I hope you’re well today.
Today, I‘m reviewing Post Plague Kidnapping, by author V. B. Law.
Summary
Post Plague Kidnapping is set in the late 2030s in the Southern US. Leah (our leading female) lives alone, fending for herself on a daily basis. She prefers it that way: when you’re alone, no-one can hurt you. No-one can leave.
However, Leah isn’t the only person to survive a world-wide viral infection. Other groups have been observing her town for some time when she is finally captured and taken to live at a nearby colony.
Leah must learn to trust others: her survival may literally depend on this.
Story
The story is well-structured, with the bulk of it revolving around Leah’s fight to be left alone as she struggles against the feelings she develops for her captor, James. Leah’s blatant trust issues are highlighted as she learns to accept people back into her life, post plague outbreak.
From the half way point on, things do become quite erotic between our lead characters, so please keep that in mind if you’re below the age of eighteen. I felt that this was an interesting way to draw attention to the character’s trust and boundary issues, however, there was an awful lot of it, sometimes distracting from the actual storyline.
Characters
I honestly wouldn’t bring myself to mess with either Leah or James, if I knew them in real life. Both are equally as stubborn, set in their own ways, and are at first oblivious to any other way of doing things.
Leah prefers to be independent, only looking out for herself as a way to minimize the responsibilities and heartbreak of negotiating life with others. She fears being close to others for multiple reasons that are deeply embedded in her psyche. I found her to be a feisty, cunning, funny, and deeply complex character.
James is a strong and passionate ex-military man that knows what he wants in life, and it’s clear from the start that he wants Leah. At times, James is blind to the fears that eat away at Leah, leading to explosive misunderstandings and arguments between the pair. At other times, James clearly demonstrates great levels of empathy and compassion towards Leah and her trust issues, thus helping to ease her discomfort. I found him to be an often misunderstood, yet courageous character that is simply trying to keep things together for his community.
While the pair’s relationship begins as a strained and one-sided attraction, it soon progresses into one of friendship and later, of passion.
Writing
The story was steady to fast paced and flowed well throughout. The lead character’s natural personalities conflict well, making for some amusing disagreements that further plot development.
I was often drawn into the depths of Leah and James’ emotions, particularly Leah’s alternating sense of fear and excitement.
Tension was built up well, with twists that had me guessing, especially near the end when the stakes were raised high.
Favourite Things
One of my favourite things about this book is the idea that when things collapse, people come together and care for each-other. They forget about their differences and empathize with their fellow people.
It seems a shame that society would have to collapse, or for some other intense tragedy to occur,
just to get people to see themselves in others. However, the idea that people can get to this stage still warms my heart.
Memorable Quotes
‘People are judgemental and intolerant of those who don’t think like they do.’
As I reached my mid-twenties, I realized that this is true for most people, to some degree.
We grow up, being taught that there is only one correct way of doing things. In reality, there are so many ways to do something that it’s impossible to count them all.
We all possess different types of intelligence and logic, and I feel that we each deserve to make use of them, no matter how different from the norm they may be. After all, different problem solving processes achieve different results.
‘Fear is a powerful thing.
It can make us believe things that aren’t real and deny the existence of things that are real.’
This quote hit me hard. So often nowadays, we happen across an online article or news segment with some terrifying, click-baity title. These types of articles are designed to sway us into believing certain things, or to join a certain cause or political group. Issues are presented in a biased way, with skewed context that often omits crucial truths we need to understand the big picture.
As the quote says, fear can make us (as people) believe things that aren’t real, because we are made to feel like they are a present threat to us. Similarly, fear can make us question or deny simple truths, as long as they are presented to us as falsehoods by people deemed superior. Thus, the truth of a matter goes largely ignored, while the lie prevails, simply because we are so afraid, we come to believe it.
This practice in our modern journalism, politics, and news distribution honestly makes me sad
Overview
Sorry, I got quite passionate about that last paragraph.
Overall, I found Post Plague Kidnapping to be a fun and interesting story to read. Although
there were times where the plot seemed to get overtaken by eroticism, I didn’t mind too much.
This was a fresh take for me on human survival and I enjoyed every moment of imagining the characters working together to keep their little community going.
My rating: 4 stars.
Recommended? Yes, to lovers of post-apocalyptic style novels, with erotic-romantic leanings.
Thank you for joining me for today’s review.
I hope you found it interesting.
If you would like to know more about the book, please visit its Goodreads page, HERE.
I hope you have a wonderful coming week.
Take care, Dax. xoxo
One Comment
vblawnola
Thanks Dax! I’m so glad you enjoyed the book. Your detailed review means the world to me!