Melissa’s Review: Liberators by James Wesley Rawles

Liberators
written by James Wesley Rawles
published by Dutton Adult, 2014

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange  for an honest review.

Did I enjoy this book: It was a big bag of propaganda masquerading as a novel. I hated it. I’ll give Rawles a single star because he did give me a few ideas for additions to my Go Bag (Yeah, I have one. Because Zombies.), but as a novel it lacked, well . . . let’s just say it lacked. The characters weren’t memorable, the plot wasn’t original, and though I’m all for disaster preparedness, it’s hard to take advice from characters who feel the need to add hipster labels to their lunches (oh no, these aren’t hard-boiled eggs, these are PASTURE-RAISED hard-boiled eggs).

GOLDEN LINES

“Megan had routinely endured the ‘moonshine’ jokes from her colleagues jeering at the recycled glass jars she would use to transport green tea with her to work. Today she was grateful for having given up the chick purse for the ‘maternal urban assault pack,’ as Malorie called it. The large satchel allowed her to carry a lot of valuable things with her, including an Altoids tin filled with small survival items, a six-inch nonmetallic knife with the sheath sewn to the inside of the bag for easy presentation, a Gideon’s pocket New Testament, paper maps of the Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia areas vacuum sealed in a pouch, a made-in-America Mag-Lite XL50, and of course baby wipes . . . She also carried her green tea sweetened with local honey in the outside pocket of her satchel.”

 

Would I recommend it: Absolutely not.

 

About the book – from Goodreads: The latest survivalist thriller from the New York Times bestselling author and founder of survivalblog.com gives readers an unprecedented look into a post-apocalyptic world resulting from an all-too-real disaster scenario.

When looting and rioting overwhelm all the major US cities, Afghanistan War vet Ray McGregor makes his way from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to his parents’ cattle ranch in Bella Coola, British Columbia, in remote western Canada. Joining him is his old friend Phil Adams, a Defense Intelligence Agency counterintelligence case officer based in Washington State.

Reckless banking practices, hyperinflation, and government negligence have led to an unprecedented socioeconomic collapse in America that quickly spreads throughout the world. Lightly populated Bella Coola is spared the worst of the chaos, but when order is restored it comes in the form of a tyrannical army of occupation. Ray and Phil soon become key players in the resistance movement, fighting the occupiers in a war that will determine not only their own personal survival, but also the future of North America.

Liberators depicts a world that is all too conceivable and terrifyingly familiar. Fastpaced and packed with authentic information on outdoor survival, self-sufficiency, and small-unit tactics, James Wesley, Rawles’s latest thriller will resonate with his dedicated fanbase and encourage new readers to prepare for anything from lesser disasters to the dreaded worst-case scenario.