Dancing in the Dust

By: Gwendolyn Pendraig

Narrated by: Karin Allers

Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

After surviving the plague that wiped out her family and most of the warm-blooded life on Earth, Ayla has spent 10 years in relative solitude surviving and, against all odds, thriving. Ayla's world gets a whole lot bigger when she finds a fascinating new canine companion. Along the way, she picks herself up a nemesis, a needless distraction, and a new approach to postapocalyptic life.

Capable of devastating violence and deep compassion, our antiheroine walks an almost invisible line, navigating her own morality in a world where the concept doesn't exist anymore.

A uniquely female perspective on the challenges of surviving in a world ruled by the violent and strong, this is not for the fainthearted or easily disturbed.

Please be aware this book contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence and scenes that some listeners may find disturbing.

©2017 Laura Elizabeth Morgan (P)2018 Laura Elizabeth Morgan

Strong story, without an ending

loved the whole book, Karin Allers read it very well. However the end felt like stopping in the middle of a story, like there should have just been another chapter afterwards.

Dancing in the Dust

(I received a free copy of this audiobook for review). this book is an interesting, bleak take on a post apocalyptic world. it's not for the faint of heart, and they're is a ton of sexual violence, be forewarned.

Not Your Average Post Apocalyptic Story

I'm really torn on how to rate this book. The Ayla scenes are in first person which is not a style I particularly enjoy. The narrator, Karin Allers, has a deeper, more gravelly voice that didn't mesh with what I was expecting of Ayla. It was a good narration and the voice probably fits with the ruggedness of the environment, it just took me a while to get into the groove of the story because of it.

The story itself is bleak, violent and gut wrenching. I was totally enthralled listening to it and sometimes did not want to get out of my car (I listened while commuting). Every morning I was excited to head to work and find out what situation Ayla was in next and how she was going to overcome the next struggle. The writing is vivid and really drew me in. The ending left me a little confused so I hope there is a sequel coming out soon.

I received a copy of the audiobook for a review.

Koontz meets McCarthy

Disclaimer – I received a copy of this book in exchange for my review

Reading this book made me feel like I was reading the bastard child of The Road and Intensity, with a dash of Tank Girl thrown in. I love strong female protagonists, and I especially enjoyed that this one pulled no punches, and didn’t apologize for doing what she had to, even when she had to make difficult choices. I was sucked into the book from the very beginning, and it was one of those reads that I had to force myself to stop, just because I wanted it to last as long as possible. In the book, Ayla lives in a post-apocalyptic world where mankind has been mostly wiped out, and all that remains are brutal gangs of men, and a handful of people doing what they need to survive. This book has been called bleak, gut wrenching, and dark, and I agree. But I couldn’t put it down. The way the author wrote Ayla’s thoughts and emotions left me gasping, and I thought the narrator did an amazing job with the voice.

All the gore that comes with the end of the world

In the interest of full disclosure, this review is being given for a review copy of the book.

That said, I honestly really enjoyed it. When I initially looked into the book I was imagining something light and action filled, but what I got was something that would keep me on my toes, scratching that itch that I'd normally turn to a Mad Max to hit.

While Dancing in the Dust doesn't have that same wasteland setting as Mad Max, the sense of isolation is no less real. There aren't many people left, and those that are aren't people you want to mess around with, especially if you're a woman. If there aren't many people left in the world, there are even fewer women, and you can imagine the unique struggles they would have in a world lacking the social constraints we have in polite society. Some of the pre apocalypse setup for this feels a little over the top at times, but overall, I feel like it's well executed.

Gwendolyn never felt the need to make Ayla above it all. She's certainly no innocent female superhero. If anything, she seems to struggle more than most other characters we see in the book, but we never feel that she can't handle what comes her way. She starts to feel like a real person who has to struggle to overcome a difficult past and a bleak future. Things don't always go her way, often having very bleak outcomes, but it's from these struggles that we care and want to know more about her.


A quick note on the narrator. My only real complaint is that to me she felt a little too old for our main character, but otherwise, Karen hits the notes well. She's got a great range and a gritty tone that fits the setting. Overall, I would say she was solid and would be happy to see her return.

A pulls no punches Post apocolyptic action story!

In a not too distant future that bears a resemblance to The Handmaid's Tale, religious fundamentalists have been voted in to power in the US, and quickly discard many of the freedoms Americans enjoy, especially cracking down on women's freedom. It basically looks like the worst of Saudi Arabia's suppression of women, where men rule over the women. This would have continued, except the Dust falls, and everything changes.

When the dust clouds come, almost all the humans get sick and die horribly of a plague like sickness. It happens so suddenly that the worlds governments are caught flat footed and have no chance to stop it. Society falls apart, becoming something Mad Max would be familiar with. This is the world Ayla grows up in, fending for herself, from a young teen to her mid 20's, when the story starts. She has trained herself to be able to hunt and defend herself against the lawless bandits that survived the plague like she did. While not huge in number, she is alone, so she is careful to keep hidden and build up supplies and weapons. She has even gained a new companion, a large dog that's much more than it seems. Unfortunately, things are about to change for the worse.

After being discovered by a group of men, Ayla is captured and is tortured sexually and physically. Keeping her cool in her worst case scenario, she manages to escape and What follows in a crazy conclusion that would make any post apocalyptic warrior proud, as she tries to defeat her new enemies while keeping herself alive and somewhat sane. This all leads to a surprising conclusion, as we see that the men were not some isolated scavengers, but a part of something larger and much more sinister. We also see that changes to the people of the world are coming, changing what it means to be human.

I have enjoyed the wide variety of Post Apoc stories that have made a resurgence lately, and Dancing in the Dust is no exception. In fact, it has some very creative settings and characters. Ayla is an excellent character. I've seen reviews saying she's an anti-hero. In a world with no heroes, where its every person for themselves, I'd say she's no hero or anti-hero, just a survivor. She is also not in any way the dreaded Mary Sue. She struggles, she makes mistakes, and while she is strong, its through years of training and surviving in the harshest crucible imaginable, life with no rules at all, to the strongest and quickest and most clever goes the spoils. Is it a perfect book? No. Occasionally Ayla does some things that are head scratchers, but that's probably to be expected in such tense conditions. The secondary characters aren't spectacularly rounded out, but that's more a function of the books length and their parts in it than anything else. Still, it is excellently plotted, paced and executed, and Ayla is in that group of Post Apoc warriors you'd want at your back if society ever fell apart.

The narration was handled by Karin Allers. She did a good job of using tone and inflection to differentiate the characters. Her voice is such that there was not a huge variety of male voices, but there are enough in any scene to be able to tell who is who. Her narration is steady, and she doesn't fall back into a monotone, keeping the action moving along. Overall, a solid effort, and I would definitely recommend this book whole heartedly.

Warning: The rape scenes in this book are fairly graphic, as is the violence. They really pull no punches, so fair warning.

Dark and Gritty

Enjoyed the ending, but it's a brutal, violent, sad journey. A well told tale of survival in a heartless world.

Pulls no punches

A stark and brutal post apocalyptic tale. If cannibalism and rape are too much, skip this one. That said, it does showcase a strong female protagonist, a detailed enough explanation of the apocalyptic event without delving too far into an explanation to lose intrest or credibility, and a pleasant dynamic between the characters you aren't meant to hate. Decent enough read, but very much for mature audiences only.