Review: The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J. Walker

Title: The End of the World Running Club

Author: Adrian J. Walker

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Publication Date: September 5, 2017

ISBN: 9781492656029

Synopsis from Goodreads:
This powerful post-apocalyptic thriller pits reluctant father Edgar Hill in a race against time to get back to his wife and children. When the sky begins to fall and he finds himself alone, his best hope is to run – or risk losing what he loves forever. When the world ends and you find yourself forsaken, every second counts. No one knows this more than Edgar Hill. Stranded on the other side of the country from his wife and children, Ed must push himself across a devastated wasteland to get back to them. With the clock ticking and hundreds of miles between them, his best hope is to run — or risk losing what he loves forever.

I’ve been super into post-apocalyptic fiction the past few years, an interest that keeps growing as more and more books in this genre are written. I read about The End of the World Running Club in a book e-newsletter and immediately added it to my to-read list. I couldn’t wait to read it and so I put a hold on the audiobook at the library. I began listening to is as soon as my hold came available and I was HOOKED! This book was so intense and so good. As an audiobook, it was completely riveting. It shows a world completely destroyed–cities demolished, human life decimated, and families torn apart, but through all this negativity, the beauty of human essence emerges like a Spring flower from beneath a blanket of dirt and snow.

Ed is a bit of a garbage human being and what’s worse, he’s been a bit blind to it for far too long. When the end of the world comes and his life of complacency is ripped away from him. Although his families survives, when his wife and children jump at the chance for a brighter future, they leave him alone to rot in the desolate and cruel wasteland of their former life. Against all odds, Ed pulls himself together and fights not only to survive, but to also better his life and to find the true meaning of being a compassionate, driven, and caring human being. When anarchy descends on what remains of this world, will he be able to rise from the ashes and show that love can triumph even in terrible darkness?

This world is not beautiful and it is not kind, but this story will leave you with a sense of hope that even when all seems lost, there is something to strive for. There is an uplifting message between these pages. There is always room to start over, to begin anew.

Happy reading!