I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
This review contains spoilers.
I really liked the concept of this story and think it has plenty of room to grow, but the group of characters in it are either not developed at all (Guy, Elder, Carissa, and the boy), are unlikable (Tonya and Kara) or are just plain stupid (Derrick). Not stupid like badly designed. Stupid like they make poor decisions and say stupid things. The only character I actually liked in the entire story was Jimmy and he got killed early on. More time needs to be spent with each of these characters if there is going to be a real reason to be concerned about them or mourn them if they should die.
The bad guys also dont get very much time devoted to them, so each one may as well not have a name. The only exception is the leader, and his schizo nature seems a bit tacked on. Depending on what is done with him in book 2, I could see that becoming a much more interesting plot point, but at this point it just felt like a way to help drag the story out to give the family more time to figure out what they needed to do. If the bad guys are busy killing themselves, they dont have time to go kill the family, etc.
The chapter structure (in the audiobook, I dont know how the physical book is layed out) also seemed a little odd to me. Several of the scene changes from the Homestead to the bad guy camp seemed like theyd have been ideal points to stop the chapter and do a new one, but that isnt how the audiobook has it laid out.
Regarding the narration, I did the audiobook version on Audible, not a physical copy. The narration was fine, other than the fact that the narrator whistles his S sounds and has a deep voice. If I turn the volume up so I can hear him better, the S whistling eventually gives me a headache. If I turn it down, I cant hear him very well and need to rewind.