After the End

by Joshua V. Scher

As a Doomsday prepper, he's ready to survive the apocalypse. But what about the men hunting him?

It turns out Addison was right: the world as he knew it did come to an end by means of a killer virus.

He’s by himself now near what was Sicily, Oklahoma, tending to a wilted vegetable garden, foraging for rabbits, and eking out not quite enough water from a dried-up well. It’s time to move. His Uncle Izzy, whom he’s decided to seek out in his survivalist cabin hundreds of miles away, had prepared him well for an apocalypse – all but for the loneliness.

The plan is simple. Gun. Bow. Bike. Go.

If he could just make it across the state, then maybe…

But the virus didn’t quite kill everybody. And humanity isn't all that humane anymore.

Ransacked and run-down, Addison learns all too quickly that hope is the enemy and trust is a liability. Survival has its costs.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man might be king, but in the land of the dead, he’s bait.

The literary bleakness of Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD meets the survivalist thrills of Gary Paulsen’s HATCHET in this harrowing novel from Joshua V. Scher. Now a Motion Picture from Shout! Studios and 1157 Productions, out 8/17/2021.

Genres: Post Apocalyptic, Dystopia

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 3, 2021

About the author

Joshua Scher is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. His debut novel, Here & There, was published by 47North and his first feature film, After the End, was released by Shout! Studios. On stage, Scher’s work has been produced around the country and internationally in a variety of theaters and festivals including Roundabout, The O’Neill, and Williamstown. Most days you can find Joshua hiking with his dog or nursing his various parenting injuries.

Check out Scher’s feature film, After the End:
https://www.shoutfactory.com/product/...

Conspiracies abound at www.TheReidierTest.com and its comments sections!

Reviews

[N.N. Heaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly timely, this book is made for readers in 2021. If the disease here had a number after it, then it would be eerie. Stripes isn't just a movie we love, it's a disease in this land that brings about doom.

This is a superb book about a kid named Addy (that is who he was to me) who is a survivor that goes on a journey. The journey is the basis of this very readable tale. Surviving a long trek across a desolate landscape gets actually worse when he finds other existing humans.

The interplay and interaction between Ava and Addy make this book a must-read. The humor made me laugh out loud at times. This book has so many memorable passages, they stick with you for days after you read them.

Beautifully written and clever, it is a very enjoyable read. The flow of the book is smooth. The pacing is sublime and makes this an instant classic. Recommended to everyone who lived in the pandemic. Read this book, it is written for this generation to enjoy. A great book that is rightly being made into a film.

My Rating: 5 stars

Reviewed by: Mr. N

This review first appeared: https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/po...

[Marion Craggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little read for anyone who likes the post apocalyptic genre. Not my usual read and this may be why it took me a while to get into the story, but once I did I enjoyed it. Some good descriptive language. I felt we got to know the main male character well but the female remained fairly enigmatic. I personally would have liked to get to know her a little better as well.

I received a free advance copy of this book from the author and am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Charla Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the storyline was intriguing there was a bit of clutter to get to the bones of things.
Why was our MC so scared of living in the open? Why did he need to have rules in place before scavenging for supplies? What was he so scared of?
I understand rules for entering the homes themselves. It felt anticlimactic for him to wait and watch for set periods before allowing himself to enter.
I did like the fact that while he seemed to be book smart on prepping, his real world skills did not match. It was refreshing seeing him learn and grow like a regular human being.

[The Bookish Elf · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the slew of dystopian and post apocalyptic novels coming out, you can only imagine how refreshing it is to stumble upon a truly refreshing, incredibly well created novel about a killer virus. After the End by Joshua Scher is such a visually powerful but slow methodical reading experience. The story is simple but the words pack a punch, it's about survival in this bleak desolate post apocalyptic world, about a kid named Addison who is trying desperately to keep himself alive and protect against the elements and the frightening prospects of encountering other living humans. As Addison strives to find ways to survive, he learns and adapts to the new environment, but he faces many challenges. Left to survive on his instincts and what he’s learned from his uncle Izzy about apocalypse, Addison ponders over his lonely situation and deals with many emotions.

The setting is grim from the start and it just gets more and more grimmer with impending doom descending onto the pages until you want some kind of relief.... and then that ending! So very wonderful and sombre but beautifully written, After the End by Joshua Scher is a wonderful reading experience.

This is a book about fear, death and utter devastation in every sense; it’s about a very real struggle for survival and about the shocking cruelty of life, the world and its inhabitants. Ultimately however it’s the story of life, hope and kindness; it’s about the human spirit and the quest for survival. Despite and in spite of the devastated world in which this is depicted, it is a story about living in the ‘here and now’ and ultimately redemption.

Joshua Scher has a simple formula for his novel. The writer is able to create a relationship that is both heartwarming and innocent, and shows remarkable skill in eliciting protective love for his characters so quickly and effectively. Then he leads his characters out into a world of malevolent danger. This malevolent danger reaches its apotheosis in the dystopian world he creates in this novel where any stranger encountered is likely to be a murderous cannibal because not all survived humans are humane.

Authors often exploit a post-apocalyptic setting for heroic vigilante action or to demonstrate human hubris. Joshua Scher steers clear of these usual genre conventions. Using it as a scalpel, he peels off the layers that define humanity. The legal, social, cultural, philosophical, and religious systems are all gone! What remains after you remove all that veneer? Even the will to survive is an inadequate answer.

The novel 'After the End' is simple in its dynamic - we're kept on constant tenterhooks about the safety of Addison. The big surprise is how much life affirming beauty Joshua Scher manages to extract from this bleak futuristic vision. What you get at the end is a compelling story, a grand thought experiment simplified and put into narrative form, made all the more intense out comes as it does in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which has laid bare and obvious so many structural inequalities of all kinds. Highly recommended.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did like it a lot, actually i was win over by the speach in the first person, a post-apocalyptic story told by the eyes of who is living it, that sometimes makes it or break it, in this case, this was all i needed to reel me in. Even with him thinking of himself as a prepper, he doesnt have much experience and he learns at the same time he goes through the experience, it was kind of refreshing for me to see he getting frustated or not being able to use a bow.

In the end, he is a kid that was forced to grow up, many partes of this book he thinks and talks about his mom. (Funny thing at first i thought that he was a She because of his name, he introduce himself as Addie 😅 but in other book by baileigh Higgins i thought morgan could only be a male name, i Blame the walking dead, but, yeah i have that problem sometimes).

When Addie got to know other character, i found their banter really funny 😅 i was reading One of those parts while waiting in Room full of people and i got some glares.

Some readers may become upset that we don't know more about Stripes, this is the plague that brought the world to his knees, well if you think about that, our main character he was in school not long ago, we don't know nothing, aside from him being alone God knows for how long, and i am saying that by our fist chapter, he had veggies in a garden, at least 4 to 5 months, from seed to fruit, this really takes a while.

Everytime i read a post-apocalyptic book i think to myself, what would i do if i was in this situation?! In this book i got the perfect quote that explains my feelings..

"When the end comes, i don't want to be left behind. I'd rather embrace the annihilation than face the aftermath on my own."

I Will use this quote everywhere and everytime ❤️

Mr joshua if you decided to continue this story you could tell us more about the outcome of a situation of a character, that i am dying to ask, but i can't because it don't want to give spoilers, or about the origin of Stripes, actually telling more of the stories of this world would bring to life many volumes😁

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[B.P. Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Are We Reading?: After the End, by Joshua V Scher

Rating: 4/5 Individually wrapped Oreos

Give me the short version: Hobby prepper Addison gets launched into it when the end of the world really happens.


You might think given the unfolding COVID-19 crisis that reading a novel about the aftermath of a deadly virus would be stressful.

However as somebody who loves the mental exercise of watching a horror film and imagining how I'd be a "survivor" (when realistically I'd be a handy snack for the first cannibal off the rank), I found that this was just the kind of escapism I needed.

After the End is riddled with interesting prepper titbits I'd never heard of before such as how to use bush chemistry to make colloidal silver bandages; but not so heavily as to weigh down the plot which trips along at a nice pace. Just when young protagonist Addie's insights threaten to become too neat, along comes Ava with danger at her heels to bring a larger world into his perspective.

Funny little asides abound to keep the story lighthearted when at times it could descend into misery; but it is Addie's deep attachment to family that really grounds the story and brings him to life as a character you want to follow.


Favourite bit:
"They prefer the heat of the day. After thirteen years underground, who can blame them? A lifetime in the dark, feeding off roots and sap, inside a burrow. Hiding away all that time just to avoid predators. Smart strategy. Just outlast the hunters. Patience is all it takes. And resignation to an existence of excavating, coated in mud, sap, and their own anal fluids in a drive to survive. Only to one day, after more than a decade in the dirt, tunnel up to the surface and break free out of their cave of a universe, into the light. The revelation of it all is so powerful, they molt en masse metempsychosis. Leaving abandoned exoskeletons behind, frozen in the moment of rebirth, still clinging to some old piece of bark."

[Gil T · Rating 4 out of 5]

The End is Not What it Seems

With his uncle’s guidance, Addison has grown into a doomsday prepper. He has guns, food and water. His schoolmates think he is a bit odd. But then it actually happened, a virus wiped out the majority of the human population. He is on his on now, but at times his memories get mixed up with reality. Stories of not only better times, but bad times too. Being on his own Addison can’t be blamed for this though. I have to admit the introduction was a little slow for me, but it was done this way to show his loneliness and how the world and the heartbreak began to wear him down.

He has to pump the back well for a while now to get water. He knows the town is cleaned out and soon his water source will be gone. It is a long trip but he decides to go see Uncle Izzy figuring he is better prepared, has water and food to last. He packs up everything in his bike and an attached trailer. He has a bunch of water containers, food, a bow, a pistol and a shotgun. He still has a decent amount of ammo too. (He has been stockpiling it). He thought something like this would happen just didn’t know it was going to be a virus. He tries to go a certain number of miles a day to make it to his uncldes.

But all is not well and good in the world. There are stripes which become zombie like infestations. You don’t want to get near them or shoot them, otherwise you might breathe in the toxin. As Addison is biking towards his uncle’s place, Addison, his bike and trailer all fall into a pit. He hurt his leg pretty bad too. Why did Addison try to go a bit further? Who put the trap there? What are their intentions? Addison will have to wait and see what happens next.

[Scott Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dystopian story of a young man's travels through Oklahoma after a virus takes out a large portion of the world's population. I wasn't too sure about the story in the beginning, but once I figured out the central character was talking to himself in his head, and on the edge of insanity due to loneliness, it started to make sense. The story really picked up when he met a female traveller, and their interactions and banter really picked up.

I felt the story was realistic in terms of our two characters being stalked be three predator men, who had negative history with the female traveller. Once reaching their destination our characters had a final conflict with the three predators, with the help of a character from the young man's past.

Good story, and was easy to follow along. It had the right mix of action and humor as well. I would like to read a follow up of our two main characters to see where they wind up together.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Amy Savvides · Rating 4 out of 5]

I surprised myself by liking this book so much.

It had a bit of a shaky start I feel, that didn’t really seem to tie in with the majority of the story. Our main character is a teenage boy, left to look after himself after some sort of global collapse. We find out only a little bit of this as we go through the book.

I enjoyed his interactions with other characters - they seemed real to me. The prepper side was more realistic than other books I’ve read of this nature - we didn’t have a young man living in an underground bunker eating lovingly canned goods - his existence was probably the same as everyone else’s, but he also knew how to make a fire.

I’d read another in a series about this world but feel I’ve seen enough of these particular characters. The story was nicely rounded off.

Overall, good premise well executed. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review from the author and Book Sirens.

[Trisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a prepper has really helped Addison but he has decided to leave where he is and seek out his Uncle Izzy, so the plan is to bike his way to his uncles with his bow, a gun or two and some food. What he doesn't plan on is finding another survivor and not really know if the pregnant girl, Ava, is friend or foe but now she is going with him. Will they find others, will they be friend or foe?

This book is non stop action and suspense. The characters, I believe, are realistic for the situation and that might be hard sometimes to get the character where the author wants it to go while keeping it real. I had the audio version and it was narrated by the wonderful Kevin Pierce. Mr Pierce can make you feel like you are on the road with Addison cheering him on and trying to help him through the rough spots. This is really a book for today but will be good for any day.

[Pam Shelton-Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into this book. It is written from a first person narrative and I can't tell if the grammar, spelling issues are legitimate or from the "folksy" speech. For a while since the main character referred to themselves as "Addie", I thought it was a female and once it was clearly male, thought it was a young teenager and not a seventeen-year-old. For all of his professed prepper attitude, Addison seems fairly oblique with respect to putting it into practice. He goes on a journey and rather than see most of the effect of the pandemic, we have some stalking miscreants who believe they can use women however they choose in order to perpetuate the human race. I don't care for the narration style at all; it is disjointed, has flashbacks and made it difficult to follow the story. At the end, I mostly just wanted to finish and didn't really care if anyone survived.

[Robin Ginther-Venneri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This world is Eden with no escape.

Addison, Addie, is left by himself in this dystopian world post-apocalyptic event. It was ravaged by a virus called the “Stripes.” Leaving the survivors in a BS or PS. Before Stripes or Post Stripes world. This story shows the loneliness of being the only one left after an apocalypse. A very interesting blend of fiction, movie references such as “Wilson” and survival tips/recipes like colloidal silver and the hilarious recipe for “Preppers Surprise.” I enjoyed the tale of the “Deer Women.” Also keeping track of humans and dead bodies on the calendar was interesting. There’s even an explanation of how to tell time by the stars. This was such a great book with its wealth of information and relatable characters. It had funny sayings that I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

[Kay Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story!

This was entirely different than what I thought it would be. There’s the plague, most everyone dies, of the few left the majority are evil, and a young man undertakes a tremendous journey to find hi only relative. But for me, the key was the dialogue. Addison is a prepper poet, jumping from redneck to prose at any given moment. I liked that he has secrets of his own that aren’t shown, only hinted at. All of the characters are individually standouts as well. And there’s humour that is so appropriate to those characters. A very clever story!

[Mrs LIR Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An odd book but quite timely as the C-19 pandemic is in its second year. You can prepare to be a survivor in an apocalyptic world but it is hard to survive a total solitary life. A young teenage prepper has survived the virus and he attempts to seek his survivalist uncle 100s of miles away. This is the story of the foes and friends and horrors he meets on his way.

I enjoyed this advanced free copy of the book and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Cynthia McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the most honest dystopian novel I've ever read. Very plausible plot and characters were well developed and easy to care about and believe in. I enjoyed reading this book.

[Aaron Eichler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written

I found this book well written and interesting, it is similar to other thing I have read but it showed that humans can survive.

[Cheryl Landmark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story

This is a well written book. I enjoyed the story. It is not War and Peace. But, if like the Post- Apocalyptic genre then this book is a winner for you.