Before This Is Over

De: Amanda Hickie

Narrado por: Cat Gould

"A gripping look at the way humanity handles crisis." --Newsweek

In the midst of a devastating epidemic, how far will a desperate mother go to keep her loved ones safe?

There is a deadly virus spreading around the world. At first it is a distant alarm bell in the background of Hannah's comfortable suburban life. Then suddenly, it has arrived on the doorstep.

The quarantine traps Hannah, her husband, and their young sons in their home and forces them to rely on their own resourcefulness as water and power supplies are cut, food reserves dwindle, and their formerly idyllic backyard and quiet street become battlefields. Hannah is convinced that if she keeps her wits about her, she can protect her family, even as one threat after another looms just on the other side of the door.
Compulsively readable and deeply personal, Before This Is Over forces us to grapple with disas­ter through the eyes of an ordinary woman. How far will she go to keep her loved ones safe?

Reseñas de la Crítica

"When a global epidemic spreads to Sydney, Australia, one mother fights to keep her family alive and together in Hickie's debut thriller.... Quarantined together, Hannah's family faces challenges to their safety and questions about the limits of human empathy as they fight not only to survive, but to keep their own relationships intact. There is no shortage of suspense in Hickie's novel.... There's an effective sense of claustrophobia; once the family goes into quarantine, they have little contact with any other people or any other places, so the reader is trapped with them in their house-and in their roiling emotions. The most wrenching subplot involves a dead neighbor whose little girl is taken in, rather reluctantly, by Hannah's family. Poses the typical challenges to our safe, complacent lives, forcing readers to ask, "What would I do if...."
—Kirkus Reviews

"A tense debut.... Under these circumstances, how does one cope with entertaining an active child or feeding a growing, whiny teenager, who eats as if supermarkets are still open and refuses to understand why he can't use the Internet? Neighbors turning on neighbors is expected, but society is beyond broken when a family turns on itself. Hickie realistically depicts how isolation and the threat of disease affect one family, especially when electricity, water, and other services break down."
—Publishers Weekly

"Amanda Hickie's debut novel is a gripping look at the way humanity handles crisis."—Chelsea Hassler, Newsweek

"Before This is Over follows the same suspenseful lines as the post-apocalyptic classic On the Beach, which follows the day-to-day experiences of a group of Australians awaiting the fallout from nuclear war - but Hickie finds more to fear in disasters that have already happened than in any abstract threat....chilling."
—Jennifer Kay, Associated Press

"This slow-burn suspense carries a too-healthy dose of realism that will leave readers biting their nails."
—Rebecca Vnuk, Booklist

"Don't think you'll be able to grab a snack once you start Before This Is Over, Amanda Hickie's shatteringly suspenseful debut, because it's impossible not to be super-glued to the page. As the world succumbs to a deadly virus, Hannah, her husband and her two kids are barricaded in their home, on alert for dangerous looters, food thieves, and the contaminated sick. This is a novel that slowly, expertly nudges under your skin, and stays there, even as it raises provocative questions about what price you might pay to keep the ones you love safe. Gorgeously written and so chillingly alive that I was still unnerved hours after finishing the book-and how great is that?"
—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow

Tension in the Mundane

While hearing about the everyday life of a family hiding out and trying to survive inside their home during a killing flu epidemic, the story unfolds with tension and suspense even in the mundane. I could have done without the manufactured angst over some of the decisions made that didn't need to be agonized over, but it was still a good read and really made you think about what could happen during a serious flu pandemic. The narrator has an authentic Australian accent and did a great job, but had a slightly annoying habit of raising her voice at the end of statements, otherwise I would have given her 5 starts.

Your Reflective Skin is Falling Off Your Bones

I suspect it would take about 15 minutes for polite society to be exactly like Mad Max if their was a pandemic, revolution or coup (fingers crossed). I am unbelievably chagrined I finished this piece. We get it, mom is an extra strength neurotic and dad is a dumb dumb super douche not unlike Donald J. Just another in a lifetime of genuinely poor decisions. I hope in heaven I get to Tivo my life just to see my face right before I make some my worst choices. Like in '88 when I was suicidal for months on end, on my way to Pink Floyd and thought to myself, "You know what I need, is this postage stamp sized blotter paper with a pelican on a surfboard." Life has never been the same since.

Trying to push through since I used my credit on this story

Trying to push through this book since I used my monthly audible credit on it, but I'm really disappointed. The story is good but the narration is rough to listen to...I should have bought the kindle version. The narrator sounds like she is constantly either questioning or making a grave point, neither of which is fitting for 90% of the book (and it has nothing to do with her accent- it's just her reading style). I dislike the narration so much that I will make sure future purchases are not read by the same person .