The Beginning of the End - Emily S Hurricane

What if you wake up one day to find you're the only person left alive? I think I'd find that challenging, and at times interesting, but at most times, probably horrible.

The Beginning of the End is the first short part of a five part series of Daphne's time living by herself at the end of all things. Well humans anyways. In this book we get a cross Canada road trip tale complete with BFF Crow.

Volume 1 of the Bloodlines series is a short 50 page read that exists in its tiny physical form because the printing company that the author was using is going out of business. So a sort of introductory to the series was printed as a way to get the feel of what's happening and as a way to point in the direction of the $5 e-pub you can read on any device.

Because I only read vol. 1 my review here will be rather short as well.

Main Character: Daphne Rhodes

Mother: Willa

Father: Dale

Reluctant BFF: Crow

Cause for Survival: Unknown

Daphne is a flower shop owner in a small town on the east coast of Nova Scotia. Now, she might be the only human survivor left in the world.

We follow Daphne as she struggles through the trauma of losing everyone she has ever known and loved, plus the trauma of being completely and utterly alone.

But why is she alive?

Well, that's what she's going to find out. Her and her only friend - a crow.

This is an apocalyptic novel that has a little more emphasis on humour rather than tragedy. Don't get me wrong, there is still tragedy, it's just not dwelled upon quite as much as you would in reality. Our character pretty quickly burns her town down and takes off on a cross-country road trip not long after we set up the story.

So what happened? Why is everyone dead? Well this book was written pre-pandemic and was being passed around to publishers in 2020. It didn't get recieved well. Why? Because it was an extremely fast spreading virus that got around the super quick and got everyone incredibly sick. To the point of their insides were boiled and they died. Good soup.

But for whatever reason, it didn't affect our gal Daphne. On her deathbed, her mom said she had to share some info to Daph, can I call you that? Well upon learning this info, Daph has a clue as to why she may be immune and why she's always felt a little bit different.

There may be someone else out there in the world who is alive and who may have the answers for Daphne. Before leaving her hometown she wants to get super wasted and a crow decides to take care of her. This crow remains by her side for the rest of vol 1 and is the main source of companionship, no matter how reluctant, for Daph.

Along the way across the country, Daphne decides to test what else her body can withstand. Queue an onslaught of broken limbs and smashed faces among other "science" experiments.

When we get to Montreal is where vol. 1 ends and we get left on a cliff hanger. Daphne hears something and then stares down the highway towards what could very well be a threat. After Daph tries to run, she gets pinned down against the road and we get the 'End of Vol. 1' message.

So would I recommend this book? Yeah, it was fun and lighthearted and was written so you can read through it pretty quickly and easily. The end of vol 1 hints at where the rest of the story is going which I won't spoil here. Though if you want it spoiled, the covers of the digital versions of the books spoil it for you. On the topic of the digital versions, I probably wouldn't have bought the book based on seeing those. So I'm glad I picked up the tiny starter pack and this is a reminder to only sometimes judge a book by it's cover.

7/10.

Thanks for reading!

-Scott

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