Karis Hylen has been through the New York City dating wringer. After years of failed relationships, she abandons her social life and whittles her days down to work and spending time with her dog, Zeke. Her self-imposed exile ends up saving her life when an untreatable virus sweeps the east coast, killing millions.Alone in her apartment building, Karis survives with only Zeke, phone calls to her … calls to her mom, and conversations with two young girls living across the courtyard. With the city in a state of martial law, violence and the smell of rotting corpses surround her every day. But her biggest enemy is her own mind. As cabin fever sets in, vivid hallucinations make her question her sanity.
In addition to her dwindling food and water stash, Karis must now struggle to keep her mind in check. When a mysterious man enters the scene, she hopes she can convince him to help her make it to the quarantine border. With the world crumbling around her, Karis discovers her inner strength but may find that she needs people after all.
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Perfect read for 2020
Mabry pens a unique but relatable story due to our current state of pandemic in Past This Point. I haven’t read anything from this author before, and I really enjoyed this story. The story brought the character to life, and going from social to antisocial with just the comfort of her dog, ends up saving her life. It was very realistic for a contagious virus that until recently seemed a bit far-fetched or something in the movies, or in this case, a work of fiction. It was a very well-written story, and I enjoyed it. Magnificent story, kept this reader turning the pages. A definite attention grabber. It led this reader through some tense and relatable situations, and the environment seems eerily familiar. It’s a great story to follow and try to figure out what will happen next. This story was intriguing and kept the reader guessing. I have fast become a big fan of (this author). I look forward to reading more by this author. This book is a definite recommendation by Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews.
I stayed up till 3am reading this, I had to know what happened to the characters. This book shadows the current events in the world with the coronavirus worldwide outbreak. It was so creepy, I had goosebumps on more than one occasion with newscaster saying almost the same words, the government saying the same things, the reality of the characters actions we spot on. While reading this I kept hoping this wasn’t a premonition, it’s that realistic. I was riveted by her story, scared, and horrified, in the ned I was glad to have known her.
Karis is a woman living in New York with her dog living a semi hermit lifestyle when a virus breaks out and people start to die. The advice is to quarantine yourself, cover your mouth when you sneeze, wash your hands, but death still comes. Alone as the the world come apart around her she creates a world inside her apartment, she befriends a couple kids across in another building, she reads, works out, talks to her parents in CA and her dog. She starts surviving and doing the hardest of things to live another day and hope for a way to make it home to her family in CA. Things are really bad, but not as bad as they will get.
4.5
Book source ~ ARC. My review is voluntary and honest.
When Karis Hylen decides to give up dating and be a crotchety hermit she had no idea it would save her life. Her recent antisocial behavior comes in handy when a new virus starts killing people and the east coast gets quarantined. Alone in New York City with no transportation she holes up in her apartment building. But as the weeks drag on, the emptiness and quiet starts to get to her. Good thing she has her loyal companion Zeke with her to keep her grounded. But when her supplies start running precariously low, she knows she has no choice but to make for the quarantine border in Loveland, Iowa. How the hell is she going to get out of the city and all the way there when she has no wheels?
Put in an impossible situation, Karis has to survive not only physically, but mentally. This isn’t just a story about how she keeps herself and Zeke safe and fed. It’s about her mental state and coming to terms with how she has lived her life and how she will move forward if she makes it out of this situation alive. It’s at times heart breaking as well as heart pounding and completely enthralling. I kept thinking, would I know what to do in a situation like this? Do I have knowledge buried in my brain that could help? I think so. While it could drag a little bit in spots, it was hard to put down. I wanted to see what Karis had to deal with next. If you like apocalyptic stories then I highly recommend this. Especially since Karis is older than your typical main character in this type of story. At 38 she has some experience to pull from. I have to tell you, this book stuck with me long after I finished it. And I’m sure my family got sick of me telling them all about it. LOL So, grab it now and let me know what you think.
I read this book because I’d heard that it was apocalyptic fiction from a woman’s point of view, which seems to be relatively rare. I enjoyed it thoroughly. As a physician, I’ve been trained to anticipate influenza epidemics and pandemics. The medical aspects were plausible enough that I could suspend disbelief. Karis Hylen has essentially become a hermit, trying to recover from her latest failed relationship. That antisocial trait, however, keeps her from being infected with a fatal influenza strain. She ends up trapped in her apartment with only Zeke, her dog, for companionship. Author Mabry manages to make Karis’s psychological decline believable as she watches friends and neighbors die off. The risk to her personal safety increases as fellow New Yorkers become more desperate. Karis survives with only carefully rationed telephone calls to her parents to keep her sane—and long conversations with Zeke. Definitely worth reading.
Finding one’s self in an unimaginable time
Karis found herself in an unimaginable time. All of her friends and co-workers have perished from the strange “Flu” that is spreading across the states. She has barricaded herself in her apartment with her dog Zeke.
She is afraid to go outside, she begins to here strange noises and to imagine things. She goes over her life and her relationships and wonders what went wrong and why she is still alone at 38.
Her only contact is over the rooftops and through windows talking to two young girls taking care of their sick mother in another apartment building. Then the mother dies from the flu and one by one the girls die from the flu. Karis is now alone with only a phone call to her mother and her dog Zeke. Then the lights go off, the water is turned off and there is no heat and nowhere to get food or supplies.
The only way out is to find a car that works and escape to the west which is still an unaffected zone.
Will she make it out alive? Will she perish in New York in her apartment? The answers are in the book. Pick up a copy today, you will enjoy it. I recommend this book.
Thanks to Nicole Mabry, Red Adept Publishing, LLC, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of the book.
This review is also available on my blog: Wine Cellar Library
What an incredible story. I am floored by the emotions this book elicited. Two—almost three—times, I was moved to tears. The main character, Karis, experiences so much in the few months this book covers. A huge, grateful thank you to Hidden Gems for providing me with an ARC of this novel. It is truly a hidden gem and needs to be more widely read.
A deadly virus has been unleashed in New York City and quickly spreads across the Eastern United States. Karis has been diligent enough to prevent herself from being infected and is happy for the quarantine when it is first mandated. At the very beginning, she has a chance to be evacuated to California, but because the airlines will not allow her to bring her dog, she stays in New York City. She cannot fathom leaving him behind where it is likely he could die. Any animal lover will understand her decision. When evacuations stop about a week later, she is determined to get to safety, but in the immediate aftermath, it is to dangerous to expose herself in an attempt to escape.
Confined to her apartment with dwindling supplies, she suffers through the loss of those close to her, the threat of being attacked by infected people or desperate and healthy stragglers, and the guilt of having to use lethal force in self-defense. There is so much emotion contained in this novel. I never would have expected that from dystopian fiction. I cried big ugly tears. My heart pounded with anxiety during intense scenes. I caught myself scanning ahead on pages where things got tense, quickly catching myself and grudgingly returning my eyes to the present paragraph.
For a debut novel, this is exemplary. I cannot give it enough praise. I hope the author continues writing because after reading this book, I will eagerly devour anything she publishes.
Past This Point by Nicole Mabry
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.
Past This Point begins with the lead character, Karis, cutting herself off from friends, coworkers, and the rest of the outside world in order to save herself from any more disappointment or heartache. She spends all of her time either closed in her office at work or at home with her dog Zeke. During her self-imposed seclusion, there is a virus released on New York City.
With NYC, the eastern seaboard and the midwest are put on mandatory lockdown. Borders are set in the west. There are no more planes out, Karis doesn’t own a car, and things are becoming more dangerous by the minute. Can Karis make it out of NYC and get back to her family in California? Read Past This Point. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
This is a story of survival, love lost and love found, determination, and hope. I laughed and I cried. I was heartbroken when I finished the last page.
A pervasive outbreak of a new virus from the viewpoint of a civilian. Nicole Mabry captured the intensity, the paranoia, and the heartbreak perfectly. The main character Karis I felt really connected to, I don’t know if it was just the similar heritage, or the fact we are the same age, or the fact that she kind of reminded me of my sister but I really felt like I was experiencing this with her from the initial stages of the outbreak and through the quarantine.
Karis’ self imposed isolation from her friends after a bad break up and slight germaphobic ways is probably what saved her life. Karis uses life skills she learned as a child to stay alive, knowing how to cook from scratch and how to cook acorns so they are edible to the self defense classes her father made her take, she was even wary enough to stockpile her dogs food when the virus kept most of her coworkers home. Karis tried getting a flight out of NY after the CDC cleared her but she wouldn’t, couldn’t leave her dog behind. She made friends with two little girls across the courtyard and fought off the madness of the isolation and quiet the was once NYC and then she met Ollie. Oliver “Ollie” is a British citizen who arrived two weeks before the quarantine got stuck in NYC. Karis who saved his life but still unsure if she could trust him, it seemed like this virus and quarantine brought out the worst in people.
Overall, this book was outstanding. Karis is intelligent, strong, and intuitive and a great main character. Julia and Emma the little girls across the courtyard were adorable and Julia was wise beyond her years. Zeke, the dog, a great companion and a sympathetic ear. Ollie is exactly what Karis needed, at first you’re unsure of him but he does earn Karis’ trust and her love he kept her sane and hopeful. I loved this book it was emotional and heart-poundingly thrilling. This is in my top three for apocalyptic genre along with Z for Zachariah and The Wolf Road.
This book really pulls you in. The main character, Karis is not very likable at the start. Life has ganged up on her and she lashes out at others. Then the world gets a major life/death event. Can Karis find her inner strength to survive? This is well written and hard to put down. A tearjerker and thought inspiring. What would you do?
A captivating, well-written, often intense, even scary, but always riveting novel about survival in a deadly pandemic, written well before our current pandemic. This is a kind of post-apocalyptic novel with a big heart–and a dog! The main character is an introverted New Yorker who shut her office door at the first sign of the virus, takes precautions, gobbles vitamins and supplements, stocks up, and lives alone except for her dog, and all that combines to keep her alive. Karis Hylen might start off in the novel more than a bit grumpy (her encounters with people in the crowded city in the first chapters make her seem decidedly snappish), but she is a kind-hearted person and even in the worst of it, never loses her humanity. Zeke, her dog, might initially be her best (and at times only) companion, but Karis’s connection with two girls she only sees in their window across from her own apartment shows readers there’s a tender heart in this cynical heroine. The story takes an Odyssean “hero’s journey” aspect when Karis and a mysterious stranger must leave NYC and cross a deadly terrain if they are to have any chance of survival. Well done, somewhat harrowing, but always on point with crisp, direct narrative.
Published in 2019, before our pandemic, it was probably written 1-2 years before publication, and so the author must be congratulated on her imagination and ability to see what would happen in a city in a deadly pandemic. There are some ripped-from-the-headline moments (the riot by people who refuse to be quarantined even as people around them are dying), but the novel’s virus is far more deadly than covid, and so the book, while scary by design, remains fiction.
The author has a wonderful way with language that makes for some direct hits, such as: “We breathed in the exhalations of those around us on the subway, passing germs around like rumors” and “But trying to start a career in New York City was like trying to be popular on the first day at a new school.”
An exciting, well-done book!
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All I can say is WOW! This author must have had a premonition because this book is about a pandemic and a women who gets stuck in her apartment and cannot leave. The twists and turns are amazingly accurate and made me feel like this is what some of us have experienced in the last several months. You absolutely must read this book!!! Enjoy!
Not normally a fan of post-apocalyptic writing, this novel changed my mind. I cried and cheered with the characters, and the author’s writing sucked me into a different dimension. I highly recommend this book, even to those that don’t think they like end-of-the-word-as-we-know-it literature.