All the Little Children

By: Jo Furniss

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham

When a family camping trip takes a dark turn, how far will one mother go to keep her family safe?

Struggling with working-mother guilt, Marlene Greene hopes a camping trip in the forest will provide quality time with her three young children - until they see fires in the distance, columns of smoke distorting the sweeping view. Overnight, all communication with the outside world is lost.

Knowing something terrible has happened, Marlene suspects that the isolation of the remote campsite is all that's protecting her family. But the arrival of a lost boy reveals they are not alone in the woods, and as the unfolding disaster ravages the land, more youngsters seek refuge under her wing. The lives of her own children aren't the only ones at stake.

When their sanctuary is threatened, Marlene faces the mother of all dilemmas: Should she save her own kids or try to save them all?

©2017 Joanne Furniss (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved

AMAZING! All around Perfection!

I don't know which was better, the story or the performance! Although not my usual Genre it Absolutely grabbed me from go and never let go! I lol'd and had cries in my eyes, My heart raced and I found myself shushing characters!! I will be looking for more from this Writer with this Narrator! Well Done and Thank You!

Love this book for strange reasons!

The main character angers me but I am still fascinated by her! Her choices bother me to no end as it could have been better! However in panic mode as she is I have to forgive her as she isn’t thinking clearly. I keep searching for the happy endings to her choices. This book is not predictable by any means. Give it a shot and see for yourself!

So absurdly out of touch

"We hope you have enjoyed our presentation of 'All the Little Children'" headphones off, clenched fists- NO I DID NOT.

*Mild spoilers galore*

This was a really unrealistic imagining of a pandemic dystopia. I must say I may be biased as an American where conversations of world-order-breakdown-preparedness are not all that uncommon- BUT there were some things that were just really far fetched. The spread of the disease made little sense, only 2-3 of the characters were really flushed out, the protagonist was a real pain. She was so self absorbed with this "am i a good mummy" energy and worrying that she was too severe that she actually didnt do the things a mother with little regard for her children liking her would do.

I get it- youre stuck in an abandoned hellscape country with a group of 15+ children and teens, thats pretty cumbersome. But TWICE they were compromised/had to sacrifice life because a kid was like "hey, im gonna run away to find my boyfriend" or something else of little consequence. I found myself wishing my own mother was in this novel to give the misbehaving 12 yo a stern glance and a curt tongue-lashing on selfishness. But the protagonist was too worried about seeming like a bad mom so she let a 16yo boy be in charge wtfffffffff. A bunch of kids ransacked her car and ran off so she chased them and injured herself instead of resupplying?? OK. A hermit abducted her 3 year old (just for ONE night...) and it was just to teach her a parenting lesson about being too mean... OK. The "blanket of flies" on each corpse didnt make sense. People by themselves in their homes dying from the plague without contacting the outside world didnt make sense.

So many things. So many things fell apart upon further inspection. But i think my biggest thorn is how easily a group of small children on bicycles evaded trained mercenary executioners with heat sensors, drones and tons of weapons.

The narrator's take on the children was meh, i found her VO of the 3 year old a bit grating. She did well switching between American and British english.

Good

I enjoyed it but I definitely prefer the Marlene at the end of the book to the Marlene at the beginning of the book. I was worried for all the kids with that Marlene. The narration was excellent.

unforgettable!

This was my first from this author and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Unpredictable and edge of your seat fun

Engaging fictional pandemic survival story

This was an exciting story, wonderfully read by Fiona Handingham. Seems like the ending left open the possibility of a sequel.

3.5 stars but decent

Good enough to keep my attention after the first few annoying chapters, almost gave up on it but it picked up after the 4th chapter. Some parts are poorly written but I do give credit for the imaginative effort and good performance.

Terrible ending

I

The book was ok. It kept me interested but the ending was awful! I had to look to see if there was a sequel. Spoiler alert - there is NOT!

PLEASE READ FOR YOURSELF!!

After reading all of the negative reviews, I almost stopped reading this book after the first few chapters. I'm SO THANKFUL I DIDNT!!!
FIRST off the ending... This isn't a series. The author says it's not and it doesn't end as a series. It just doesn't tie everything into a perfect bow for people. I actually got chills and it really makes you think. For thw people saying she's a terrible mom and so on... Obviously didn't read the whole book. She starts off at making mistakes like all mothers do because none of us are perfect , but the beautiful thing is in the end and she starts making sacrifices and changes for the better. i hate to say this... but I will...I honestly think the only people that wouldn't like the book are people that can't think deep enough to understand the book. There's actually a beautiful comparison at the end to what they're going through and what millions go through every day in country's such as Afghanistan and Africa . I loved the book, yes the mom annoyed me for the first half, but that was the point... she needed to grow. I loved the ending it leaves you with a sense that things will be OK.
Spoiler for ending ahead....






If the author wanted to leave in on a cliff hanger like people said, then her kids wouldn't have been rescued and we wouldn't have seen Lola in the last chapter!!

Exceptional story

This was one that I could not stop listening to. The creativity was endless - there was not a single chapter that dragged. I didn’t want it to end.