JUST GET HOME
BRIDGET FOLEY
Harlequin MIRA have very kindly given me access to the ARC of Danger in Numbers by Heather Graham and invited me to participate in their official BLOG TOUR! It is out next week on 13th April and I'll start by telling you all about the book and the author and then I'll dive in with my review.
THE BOOK
When the Big One earthquake hits LA, a single mother and a teen in the foster system are brought together by their circumstances and an act of violence in order to survive the wrecked streets of the city, working together to just get home.
Dessa, a single mom, is enjoying a rare night out when a devastating earthquake strikes. Roads and overpasses crumble, cell towers are out everywhere, and now she must cross the ruined city to get back to her three-year-old daughter, not even knowing whether she's dead or alive. Danger in the streets escalates, as looting and lawlessness erupts. When she witnesses a moment of violence but isn't able to intervene, it nearly puts Dessa over the edge.
Fate throws Dessa a curveball when the victim of the crime—a smart-talking 15-year-old foster kid named Beegie—shows up again in the role of savior, linking the pair together. Beegie is a troubled teen with a relentless sense of humor and resilient spirit that enables them both to survive. Both women learn to rely on each other in ways they never imagined possible, to permit vulnerability and embrace the truth of their own lives.
A propulsive page-turner grounded by unforgettable characters and a deep emotional core, JUST GET HOME will strike a chord with mainstream thriller readers for its legitimately heart-pounding action scenes, and with book club audiences looking for weighty, challenging content.
THE AUTHOR
Originally from Colorado, Bridget Foley attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and UCLA's School of Theater, Film & Television. She worked as an actor and screenwriter before becoming a novelist. She now lives a fiercely creative life with her family in Boise, Idaho.
Instagram: @bridgetfoleywriter
Website: www.wonderfoley.com
THE REVIEW
****
Just Get Home is one step down from an apocalyptic dystopian novel – a disaster survival story set in LA. We meet mother Dessa who is trying to get home to her daughter from a night out downtown and Beegie who was riding a bus when the world turned upside down. I really liked the partnership between the two female characters; their backgrounds and way of seeing the world are so different and it really felt like they learned something from each other in the end. I also enjoyed how their stories were interwoven at the beginning without you really realising it at first. Also please note that there should be a trigger warning for sexual abuse and rape in this book.
My main criticism of the book was something that I had to check with other people before I wrote in this review! The earthquake itself happens in a place that usually gets small scale earthquakes a few times a year (although nothing on this scale). Although the earthquake is very bad, it is not a global catastrophe and even suburbs around the city are unaffected. It therefore seemed very unrealistic that in the 5 minutes after the earthquake hit people were raping, pillaging and looting places and everything had turned into an ‘only out for yourself’ scenario with added American terror of guns. I would have understood if this had been a global event where everywhere was affected or if this event had been a few months in the past and we were in the middle of a dystopian society but it just seemed bizarre at how quickly human levels of depravity were raised. Usually when an earthquake hits other parts of the world there are stories of people coming together to help and care for their fellow humans which did not seem to be happening here.
It also felt like the story was trying to point out how evil men can be; and as a woman I totally get that, but I found it a little unfair. The only men we meet in the book are terrible; either wielding guns, raping the women or manipulating the world around them which felt unbalanced. I also thought that although the ending had a nice climax to the events, it seemed a little too wrapped up and ‘happy ever after’.
Overall, Just Get Home is a simple story of survival, but hyperboles events to get its point across. Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin Mira for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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