If the author starts off by boasting that this book has been quoted in Congress, the next thing he should have said is, “This book follows a bunch of well-meaning morons through the first 3 days of the apocalypse.” To not be warned that this book would be 7 hours of half-assed “prepper’s”, I would have saved my time. Thankfully I can return this book.
I don’t know if writing morons is harder than competent people, but morons do create drama more organically. I nearly gave up on this book with 2 hours left, then I tried to understand the action of the characters through the lens of my own family members, well-meaning morons that know something about prepping, but still don’t know how to survive on their own. I made it another 30 minutes and then gave up as characters were just making bad decisions in general that had nothing to do with survival.
Survival is 99% about what you know and are able to do on your own and the last 1% is about what you have to help you. You can have all the water in the world, but if you don’t know how to swallow, you’re a dead man anyway. Aside from ability, you need resolve. Resolve to do whatever is necessary to survive. These characters don’t have the resolve required to survive the world they live in, but the author will keep them alive anyway.