Downfall

A Collapse Series Prequel

De: Angela D. Shelton

Narrado por: Samantha Norbury

The only thing anyone wants to talk about lately is the stupid virus that’s making people sick around the globe. But 13-year-old Lizzy Tilbrook has bigger things on her mind, like winning her class presidency.

It’s the first stepping stone in her plan to get into Yale. Then she’ll capture the title of Atlanta’s top lawyer.

Lizzy doesn’t need friends to do that—she needs voters. She’ll do anything to win them over and take down her rival. The new pandemic is just a speed bump along the way.

Or so she thinks.

When the virus reactivates in individuals who’ve already had it, it snuffs out millions of lives within days.

Insanity and chaos follow. Supply chains collapse, along with Lizzy’s plans.

Soon there aren’t enough essential resources to go around. Violence erupts.

With no place safe, priorities shift, and relationships become vital. Suddenly, being a lone wolf isn’t a sign of strength. It’s her greatest weakness.

Lizzy must find allies or face the apocalypse alone.

Downfall, prequel to the Collapse Series, an apocalyptic young adult novel. Experience the beginning of the Collapse by Angela D. Shelton.

©2022 Angela D. Shelton (P)2022 Angela D. Shelton

For any Age, Post Apocalypse w/ Covid Like Virus

Parents- PG- really kept very clean
Language- none
Violence- some violence around civilization collapse but nothing very descriptive
Sexual Content- none

For those not wanting to relive Covid in any way you'll want to avoid this one, but if you're looking for a post apocalyptic read for your elementary and middle school aged kids then this series will fit the bill. It's from a 7th grade girls perspective, with all the teenage drama, friend dilemmas, disagreements about parent rules on clothing, and masking. There's great messages about living with choices and their consequences, importance of friends, family and God. There is a Christian element, that I love, because it's not done in a pushy or preachy way. I would definitely let my kids read it.

Narrator- does a great job with the voice differentiation, I preferred listening at 1.35x speed.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A good prequel to a series.

As I was able to get this prequel when I got the first of the series, I decided to start with this one. I have no idea what might have been different if I had started with book one but this was a good standalone story to start with. First off, it is no doubt a teen novel. It all takes place in a high school setting with clicks and politics as usual. A good story overall. Ready for book one. I received this free review copy and I am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

very good

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

An engaging post-apocalyptic story!

Angela D. Shelton writes an engaging post-apocalyptic story. The story follows Lizzy, a 7th grader who must find allies in order to survive the collapse of a disease ridden post-apocalyptic world. The MC and supporting characters are well written, the world is well developed, and the plot moves at a good pace. I look forward to the first book in the series! Audio Version: Samantha Norbury does a great job with the narration and each character's voice.

A captivating listen!

Lizzy is currently running for Class President. Though she's only in the seventh grade, Lizzy has plans to get into Yale for college, and her becoming the Seventh-Grade Class President is step number one of that plan. Her mom has been mentoring her on how to run her campaign, and things seem to be going well.

What Lizzy is NOT focused on is the pandemic that is pandemic currently affecting the world - not even when her cousin Mary arrives from Honduras to live with them until things settle down again. But everything changes when a new variant begins wreaking havoc. Suddenly, people who had already had the virus and recovered are getting suck again. Seemingly overnight, millions of people around the world have died.

Now, being class president is that last thing on Lizzy's mind as she and her family struggle to find food, fuel, and safe shelter.

This newly published book serves as a prequel to Shelton's Collapse series and reveals the early days of the collapse through the eyes of Lizzy. At the beginning of the book, I did not like Lizzy at all. She was incredibly self-centered, viewing people as tools or resources to be used instead of people with whom to cultivate relationships. This viewpoint was only encouraged by her mother, who's used the same view to rise up the corporate ladder at her job while also looking down on Lizzy's dad, who has never had the same drive and is happy with where he is.

Even when Lizzy's cousin Mary comes to live with them because the international borders are closing, Lizzy is more concerned with making sure Mary has the "right" clothing to wear so she doesn't embarrass Lizzy at school than how Mary might be feeling living with them while her own mother is still in Honduras.

Even allowing for the self-centeredness of tweens and teenagers, I wanted to knock some sense into Lizzy to try and get her to really look at the consequences of her own behavior. Thankfully, as the world around her begins to crumble, Lizzy begins to grow; by the end of the book, she was much more likeable, and it was much easier to connect with and hope for her.

My struggle with liking Lizzy as a character actually helped soften the blow of the pandemic they were experiencing. With the background of the last few years, the scenario in this book is all too real, and even with life back to a relative normal, it wouldn't take much for our own world to move in this direction.

The other part that helped soften the blow was the relationship Lizzy has with her father and the strength she draws from him. He serves as a pillar of strength for both Lizzy and Mary, and that was nice to see.

As a general... warning isn't really the right word, so I'm going to go with informing... In the spirit of informing for clarity and transparency, his strength comes from his Christian faith, and there are several references to faith in God, and the characters pray before eating their meals. For those readers who aren't Christian, at no point does it feel like proselytizing. Instead, it is an organic shift to prayer as a source of strength in the midst of everything falling apart around them.

Finally, I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook, which was narrated by Samantha Norbury. She did a fantastic job, and I feel like listening to her narration elevated the book for me, bringing it to life in a way that reading it myself would not have. There were several places I found myself tearing up, and by the end, I was sitting on the edge of my proverbial seat as I hoped Lizzy and her family would be okay.

If you have the opportunity to listen to the audiobook, I highly recommend you take it. If not, you should definitely read the book. It is a wonderful story about the strength of the human spirit.