Book Review: When The Power Is Gone by PA Glaspy

Russ and Anne Mathews live in a rural suburb in Tennessee. Regular people, with regular jobs, living a normal life - except for one thing. They are what many people call "preppers".

They have stocked up on supplies to survive any kind of event they can think of that may occur to disrupt life as they know it. When that event comes, they start preparing for the new way of life they will face. Along with their teenage son, and their next door neighbors and best friends, they plan their exit from a neighborhood too close to the city to a farm in the country. They just have to get there.

Their faith in their own capabilities and in humankind will be challenged, as they fight to protect and keep their supplies and, quite possibly, their lives.

When the Power is Gone is the first book in the A Powerless World Series, dealing with how life might be lived after an EMP. If you like post-apocalyptic fiction, this novel by P.A. Glaspy is a unique story from a woman’s point of view.

My Review: 
Anne and Russ live with their son Rusty and Russ is the one that persuaded Anne into becoming a prepper. They have gathered supplies to do them through an emergency, and with like-minded neighbours Bob, Janet and son Ben, have decided that working together is the best thing for survival. Janet's prepper relatives Monroe and Millie own a farm a few miles out in the country that has been set up ready and that is where they plan to go in the weeks following a disaster. But hiding during the early stages of lawlessness proves more difficult than they thought, with demanding neighbours wanting their supplies and raiders looting empty houses around them. Should they leave and how safe are those few miles to the farm going to be?

I really enjoyed this series! The main narrator is Anne, an ordinary woman who was slowly brought round to the idea of prepping by her husband Russ. She isn't someone who claims to know everything or have all the answers but is rather the woman who lives next door that you wouldn't look twice at. This book starts a few minutes before the disaster hits, just enough time to meet Anne, and Rusty who is late for school. As soon as the EMP hits, Anne knows exactly what has happened and is thankful that her son was not on the school bus or at school, and that her husband Russ is only minutes away from home, coming back from a callout in his job. Janet next door and son Ben come straight over and they start to get things organised as they wait for her husband Bob to arrive home, which he is able to do.

The story then follows the group as they start to get organised with things like planning the first meals from the perishables in the fridge and freezer, collecting and storing tap water before it switches off, getting alternative cooking and cleaning resources set up and ensuring that from now on, nobody answers the door unarmed. I liked the fact that the reader was able to see step by step how to organise in the immediate aftermath of the EMP without it feeling like a lecture. It was more like watching Anne doing what needed to be done and feeling what she is feeling as they work together to get themselves comfortable.

Safety in numbers is important and the decision is taken to move Bob's family into Anne's home, so they can secure one property instead of two. When gadget mad neighbour Brian arrives on their doorstep wondering what has happened to the power, Russ takes the decision to tell him what has happened with the EMP, explains how life is about to change and gives Brian advice on what he needs to do to survive. Brian is shocked but quickly realises that he needs to organise himself and starts gathering supplies and accepting some help from Russ and Bob.

Things take a sinister twist when a truck with armed men comes onto their street and start casing the houses, sooner than any of our group expected to see them. When the men later break into an empty house and loot it, the group accept that they need to get the trailers packed so they are ready to bug out as soon as possible. At the same time, another neighbour has been smelling the food that they have been cooking and comes over to ask for a handout. Now Russ and Bob realise that security around their home needs to be stepped up immediatly and this ratches up the tension in the story. I really felt as if I was with Anne and her group as they waited to see if their house was going to be targeted by neighbours or the raiders first. At the same time, the men have to scout the route they plan to take to the farm to see if there are any problems waiting for them.

I'm not going to say much more about the plot so I don't ruin it for anyone else. The main part of the story is how the group deals with the day to day aftermath of the disaster, getting ready to leave for the farm and trying to defend their property until they do go. It is about two families working together, their relationships with neighbours and strangers and the story of them trying to reach the safer farm during a time when hell is breaking loose around them. There are confrontations with bad people that provide tension, scouting missions where they encounter other sirvivors and a few patches of action that gets you worried about the group. The next part of the story focuses on the journey to the farm, which has the same tension and excitement.

I liked the straightforward way the book is written and it kind of feels cozy, as if we've known these people for years. They are easy to like and root for, though Bob and his humour can be a little wearing! It is a fiction story but is a very useful book in how to deal with the aftermath of an EMP. It mentions skills that are useful to learn, what you should stockpile, the importance of a working vehicle and why bugging out may be the right choice. It has a lot of useful information but it doesn't preach to the reader as some books do. It informs through fiction. If you like EMP disasters or have any interest in starting prepping, I recommend this book! I have aleady read this and have ordered the third book and the prequel story which explains how Anne became a prepper.

Read January 2018
5 stars