The Scavengers

De: Lucas Grubbs

Narrado por: Sean Duregger

When the apocalypse comes knocking, don’t be afraid to slam the door in its face.

Unusual storms are becoming so frequent that they no longer count as unusual. James Black, a young man living in the Midwest, watches as the storms grow to titanic proportions and evacuations begin. Every city within hundreds of miles starts to flood and the real fight for survival begins. Panic becomes widespread, the government loses its grip, and the evacuations are called off. Individuals who are desperate to control their own fate begin to emerge and the scavengers are born. The remaining populace becomes a danger to itself as the last bits of law and order are stripped away.

James does what any strong, intelligent, and unattached man would do...He hides.

The road to safety is treacherous at best, so James bides his time while planning for the future. All of his plans blow up in his face when he helps a young woman named Emma. She is smart, beautiful, and witty. She changes everything.

The world may never again be the place that it once was, but people will never change. The good, the bad, and the somewhere in between will always be a factor. James learns about himself, and the people around him, while discovering what it truly takes to survive.

©2015 Lucas D Grubbs (P)2019 Lucas D Grubbs

nice change

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

Nice to listen to a post apocalyptic book that doesn't follow the same tracks as others. The main characters were funny and relatable. And the narration while cheesy sometimes, was enjoyable.

YA Post-Apocalyptic Venture

The premise was very interesting! Widespread intense weather could definitely derail the normal day-to-day lives of citizens. The beginning of the book flows and progresses. As a hardcore reader of PA fiction, I question these ease of finding things the group needed. The character interaction seems very young even though they are over 18. This book probably should be marketed ad YA fiction and I could see young males appreciating the interaction and humor. Good first effort by the author!


This review copy audiobook was provided by the author/narrator/publisher free of charge via Audiobook Boom for an unbiased review.

The Scavengers

This was a good book.Sometimes funy,sometimes scarey,I felt it was more for a YA audience.The end of the world has happened and a young man ,among many others,does not get evacuated.It turns out to be a lucky move for him. Sean Duregger was a fine narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'

New type of apocalypse

I've read a lot of apocalypse books and I think this is the
first weather related one I've personally come across. Good story, although the banter and vocabulary seem to be aimed at a younger audience. Narration is ok. Decent pace and voices. Overall it was a good listen.

I wanted to like this more than I did

I gave this an honest to goodness college try after discovering this book wasn't really my cup of tea. I got through to the end and was glad the story picked up a bit more to my liking as it progressed.

The narrator did not work for me. He had a lot of issues with the cadence of his speech while reading. At the end of nearly every sentence he sing-songs the last word from low to high and I found it really distracting. It made light of what should be a more serious story. Again, I powered through and gave both author and narrator a fair chance. But by the end I still wasn't convinced this was the right narrator for the story. He sounded age appropriate, but that also could have been part of the issue. He sounded too young.

Once I started the story, I had to check the genre a few times to be sure I chose this book correctly. I think its perhaps categorized a bit inaccurately. It felt more Young Adult rather than Literary Fiction. I think if classified as a Young Adult novel this would appeal to a more appropriate audience and elicit a more positive review.

The story starts out with a young man, James, fending for himself in a new world of survival. He's trying to make his way to a safe zone amid the onslought of one catastrophic storm after another. Flooding is wide spread and makes any kind of travel very difficult. James rescues a young woman, Emma, from certain misfortune and they become travel companions trying to safely negotiate one challenge after another. All the while, they're narrowly avoiding mishaps large and small (or getting out of them after they hit) they're investigating their budding romantic feelings towards each other. The scavengers are the misfits they meet along the way. Those that drop their humanity for survival.

While the concept is good the execution suffers a bit. For whatever reason the author focuses a LOT on James and Emma's smoking habits. While I'm not opposed to smoking being present in a story, I feel like we're on a 7hr smoke break with interludes of story where it should be the other way around. The character is entirely too consumed with smoking, foraging for cigarettes and the social preoccupation of all the characters around smoking. Its just too much filler. It doesn't feel realistic or plausible for a person in survival mode to put cigarettes above all else. Seems a little ludicrous and irresponsible.

While I get that this is a young man and young woman we also seem to focus a little too much on the sparkly juvenile flirting between the two characters and insignificant details behind their interactions. For example, James explains why he starts to hold Emma's hand, not because he's helping her walk but because he's feeling romantic towards her. We know why people hold hands, we don't need any explanation there. The play by play sex scenes also seem a little gratuitous too. Their feelings being taken to the next level is a natural and expected progression of things but we don't need a detailed account of opening condoms and such. A better balance of nuance and actual detail needs to be found I think. The banter between them feels really young as well and just too much. I feel like I'm listening to teenage brother and sister making childish jibes at each other rather than 2 adults getting to know one another. When the pair meets the woman in the camp ground and there's this sexual 3-way tension in the air, again, CRINGE CITY. It just feels really really juvenile and not at all in the context of "OMG we're in a life and death survival situation lets figure out how to survive."

The meeting of the army guys feels a bit contrived but I feel like this is where the story finally gets interesting and more compelling. It seems a bit unlikely that they'd send this kid in to help with their missions to find a secure route to the safe zones in scavenger territory but whatever.

Lastly, I feel like we just skim over what's happened with the climate and the arrival to present day. There's storms and life is not how we knew it yet James seems very unconcerned.

All in all I feel like this story could have been more successful with a bit more editing and pruning of some fluff. For the right audience this is probably a great start to a series following James and Emma into the new world.

More for young adults

Took a little time to warm up to the story. I stopped listening at first, but gave it another try. I’m glad I continued. Story picked up after awhile. I think young adults would really enjoy the banter between the characters. It would have been a little more exciting if it started at the beginning of the weather change and the evacuations. Narrator’s voice matched the age level of the story.

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

Good listen

I enjoyed the book overall, although there were periods that were rather dull. Narration was good.

Nice Listen

Enjoyed the story and the narration is fantastic. I have several that Sean has narrated and he has never failed!

It ended very abruptly.

I am not sure if there is a second book to this or not, but there needs to be. It ended without notice and a few plotlines not played out. I did enjoy it though.

I was so very wrong!

I was given a copy of this audio-book for free in exchange for a honest review:

I looked at a few of the reviews before I read this book. Other people did not seem to thrilled about this book. Personally, I loved the book. The story was excellent and so was the audio. When I first heard the narrator I was a little worried myself, until I realized how PERFECTLY his voice fit the story. It was a great combination.