Follow Here To Purchase Etiquette for an Apocalypse

Author: Anne Mendel

Publisher: Brackets Press

ISBN: 978-0-9848930-0-3 (pbk): ISBN: 978-0-9848930-1-0 (ebook: EPUB)

The world Post-Apocalypse 2023 is described through the eyes, ears and feelings of Sophie Cohen in Anne Mendel’s Etiquette for an Apocalypse. Sophie writes in first person, present tense about the world around her after the Yellowstone Caldera blows in the year 2020.

This paperback book has a charming, almost “Supertramp” feel to it’s jacket cover of a thin, unadorned woman reading the same novel while having a cup of tea in the middle of a desert with a bleak brown sky and a dog beside her. The back of the jacket lists two reviews and one book description. It is two hundred and seventy-seven pages, not including the praises, title pages and acknowledgements. Each chapter beginning has an apropos quote at the top of the page. No grammatical or typographical errors were noticed. The book has a plethora of profanities, sexual content and racial slurs so is not recommended for pre-teen age and under.

Mendel’s main character is in her forties and trying to keep her husband, daughter, mother, condo friends and herself simply alive after world-wide devastations. The storyline is initially convincing, relating to all aspects of trying to live after an apocalypse. It has dark humor, sadness, and relationship struggles in it. Several sentences are reread to appreciate and enjoy the wording, sarcasm or nuances.

From living by hunting, gathering, trading and protecting the condo where the survivalists live, the story evolves into a murder-mystery of a serial killer who victimizes prostitutes. Before the case is solved, there are turf-wars, jockeying of who will be king in the area and justification of dealing with “the bad guys.”

The first third of the book is a page turner, keeping the reader interested in different avenues to survive, establishing each character and visualizing the revamped, post-apocalyptic Portland, Oregon area. The author tells it from the heart and perspective of Sophie’s mind, be it by her wit, sexual desire for her husband or hurt for a disconnected relationship with her demented mother, preteen daughter or savant brother. The second third of the book gets a little far-fetched with psychics, covens and the occult, strange King Arthur characters and an unrealistic rescue of Sophie’s newly-discovered sister. The final third redeems some of the interest but gets a bit muddled down in solving the war between two groups who want ultimate territorial control.

I enjoyed reading the dark humor, the character building given through the writer’s eyes and the creativity of dealing with survival after a world-wide devastation. However, I was disappointed on the amount of profanity and sexed-obsessed thinking.  I also do not fully understand the final page of one sentence – as perhaps maintaining relationships was the key reason for writing the book.