The Hidden Prepper

EMP Survival in a Powerless World

By: Robert J. Walker

Narrated by: Jess Trepanier

Civilization has finally reached the breaking point. After an EMP destroys the nation’s power grid, a family’s strength is tested.

An EMP means the end of the world as they know it for a family who fights to survive. When disaster strikes in the form of an EMP, Keith Jameson and Ted Holder flee to their remote homestead with their families.

©2022 DBS Publishing LLC (P)2022 DBS Publishing LLC

awesome

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

Foul language

Good story but would have been nice if there was an alert on the language. That was completely uncalled for. It fits the character but I do not like to hear my creators name used so disgusting. Give a heads up that there is bad language in the future.

Sterotypical and shallow

~Disclaimer: I received a free audiobook copy of this book. ~

I don’t think I’m the target audience for this book given the fact that I’m a millennial. A bit older than the “We’re the social media generation; we grew up with phones and tablets in our hands from the time we could walk.” (pg 113) group, but not by much. The description of this generation in the book is: “They sure as hell don’t know how to fix anything—except maybe kids who grew up poor, like me—and while they know how to do pretty much anything online, on a computer, they can’t even begin to wrap their heads around something as simple as, I don’t know, changing a bicycle tire or something. And now they have to try to survive in a world in which not only all tech is dead, but even basic stuff like electricity, cars, and running water are all things of the past. It’s just not going to happen.”. (pg 113) This book has a rather insulting take on how the younger generation would fare in an disaster situation.

There is a heavy focus on guns and brawn. When the girls are deemed to have toughened up it's because “ ...if I just yelled ‘hello’ from the darkness, I think those two girls would have pumped me full of lead!” (pg 164). Because obviously the correct response to other survivors is to kill them on sight, no questions asked. Survival after a bad situation shouldn’t be I’ll get mine and I’ll keep it with violence.

In actual survival situations, altruism is common and that sheer unadulterated panic isn’t actually the human response. The whole image of everyone else panicking while our group keeps a cool and collected head and survives is not reality. It is a rather dismissive take on society and we have years of disaster data to draw on (even if it isn’t EMP data, but plenty of disasters result in loss of communication and the electrical grid). Sure there will always be bad actors, but this book paints the bad guys as BAD GUYS that it feels very heavy handed and uninteresting. The book goes with the bad guys rape and sexually assault women trope. It is tiresome and overdone. And as a woman it getting so much focus in a story made me want to drop it. I just want to see more nuanced characters that don’t feel like walking tropes.

The cast we follow is VERY quick to accept that this EMP situation is nationwide and actually happening (when it easily could be regional especially early on). They also have way more skills than the average person and are preppers who are knowledgeable about EMPs.The dads terminal diagnosis could have been interesting, but it isn’t really fleshed out. I would have liked more time to be spent on his thought process throughout the book. One of the reasons I wanted to read this was because the idea of someone with a terminal illness fighting for his family seemed interesting. It just ends up feeling like a lost opportunity. The two women in the group find themselves multiple times in situations where they are threatened with rape and have to be rescued. Again trite, overdone and boring. It doesn’t add tension it just makes me tired.

Personally, I prefer EMP fiction that focuses on group dynamics and a cast of characters with a variety of skills and opinions. I find it more interesting to read about bringing people with different insights into the group: architects, nurses, or even hobby gardeners. The skills needed after a disaster which is long term are varied. You need people who can cook, make clothes, heal people, have administrative skills, have communication/negotiation skills and can grow food among many others. Books are more interesting when there is variety.