Title: Upheaval
Series: Divided
Author: C C Robinson
Genre: Dystopian, Post Apocalyptic
Release Date: 31st January 2024
BLURB
An impossible choice - survive to live in bondage or die.
In a world torn apart by racism and nuclear warfare, Juli and her fiancé Moses, an Army Ranger, must fight to save the last stronghold of freedom in the US. With their diverse group of friends in tow, they set out to unite the disparate ethnocentric militias of Cincinnati under their leadership.
But the forces of darkness, led by the drug lord-turned-general Martin and his powerful gangs, are closing in. Will they be able to stop the darkness from taking over?
Find out in CC Robinson's debut novella Upheaval, a suspenseful tale of strength, courage, and hope in the face of unspeakable odds. Upheaval is the post-apocalyptic present-day prequel to the Divided dystopian series.
Rebel movement. Found family. Fight against impossible odds. Diverse cast of characters.
Midwestern urban setting.
**Trigger Warnings: death on page, waterboarding, other violence, orphaned children, and gun violence**
REVIEW
After reading the book I would say the cover depicts the characters of Juli and Moses as they make their way through the now ravaged, broken world. The cover would definitely make me stop and want to read the blurb to learn more about the book.
The world has now been torn apart by racism and nuclear warfare, though some people were expecting and had been somewhat preparing it is still a shock to most.
The main characters are Julianna/Juli a pregnant teacher and her fiancé Moses whom she has been dating for 9 months. The book begins after an EMP has hit and the electric has gone off for its final time. Half an hour later Juli makes the difficult and probably dangerous decision to set off alone and head to the meeting point of the like-minded group of people she and Moses are part of. Moses should be on his way over but with the area in chaos he hasn’t arrived yet and Juli doesn’t feel safe waiting, she leaves him a note and sets off. Juli may be pregnant but she and Moses have ensured she has maintained her fitness levels so she sets of running to the meeting place. Just as Juli is about to run into trouble, she is joined by Moses who had been frantically making his way to her. They end up in a shoot out with Juli having to kill to defend them for the very first time in her life. They finally get to the meeting place which is underground, it is a dancehall in an old speak easy and thankfully largely forgotten about.
Initially the group use it as a base to survive, to live in relative safety but they soon have to decide whether they should save themselves and try running to a safer area, or to stay and attempt to help others and fight those who are attacking others.
There are pockets of different survivors and militia but they are spread quite widely and though fighting back their impact is becoming less and less effective. Juli suggests them all coming together in one base, which securing would not take as many people as the individual bases were. They could pool resources and rescue people and bring them into relative safety.
The Cincinnati University is chosen for the new larger base. The different groups slowly come together and Juli and the others assign them different dormitories to stay in with their own groups so trouble within the larger group doesn’t start too.
It turns out that their radio transmissions are being listened to so a special code is created by Donna and distributed, with Moses taking the risk to attempt to sneak across the bridge to further out groups they communicate with. Unfortunately, they have a mole within the camp are betrayed again from someone with their own trusted group revealing the new code.
A battle breaks out and the decision is made that they all need to leave the University. Various people lead different groups, though Juli naturally insists on being with Moses when he finally returns. Some of the groups, escape, sadly others, including Moses and Juli’s are captured. Moses is singled out for torture though he reuses to reveal any information on the other wider spread groups.
The other former residents of the University are separated into races and given different places to live. This means that Juli’s & Moses’ core group are split up, which will make planning mass resistance, fighting back or escaping extremely difficult.
My initial thoughts upon finishing the novella were Wow what an action-packed novella where and when can I read some more of this series!
Summing up, though this is a novella it is packed with detailed world building (or should that be destroying) great characters and has so much packed in!
No comments:
Post a Comment