CHILLING DYSTOPIAN NOVELStories like this one get me very excited for today’s young adult reader!DEENA PETERSON, Blogger, ReviewerA POST-APOCALYPTIC TALE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULTSSUSAN K. STEWART Author, Vine Voice GRABBED MY HEART AND NEVER LET GOHad me spellbound! You won’t want to miss this gritty and powerful series. NORA ST. LAURENT, CEO, Book Club Network BURKARD DOES NOT DISAPPOINT! … series.
NORA ST. LAURENT, CEO, Book Club Network
BURKARD DOES NOT DISAPPOINT!
Excellent writing, pure and simple! Warning: Do not begin this series if you have urgent things to attend to, because you WILL have difficulty putting it down!
R.KAYE, Amazon Reviewer
Andrea, Lexie and Sarah are ordinary teens until the day the world shut down.
In this chilling Christian YA tale, the girls and their families must develop faith and grit to survive.
But can they find the strength when society collapses and technology fails?
PULSE takes readers into a heart-pounding future for America, while affirming the power of faith in the darkest of times.
COMPELLING
A must read for people of all ages! I look forward to reading the sequel.
DOUG ERLANDSON, Top 50 Amazon Reviewer
REALLY ENJOYED IT!
It’s a unique twist to the post-apocalyptic genre.
CHRIS RAY, PreparedChristian.net
GRIPPING!
PULSE is carefully researched and fascinating, with gripping subject matter and compelling characters. Highly recommended!
DONNA J. SHEPHERD, Author, Pastor’s wife
FRIGHTENING!
“I loved this book! L.R. Burkard takes a realistic and frightening look at what would happen if an electromagnetic pulse hit the U.S…Carefully researched details make you really feel what it would be like to go through this!”
CAROL RIFFLE, High School Science Teacher
A PAGE TURNER!
You won’t find all happy endings in this book but you will find a story-line that makes you think and consider.
JOY BICE, Author, Pastor’s Wife
HAD MY WIFE READ IT
Just finished the book and had my wife read it as well. Definitely a page turner
to pick up as soon as you can! Characters are really well developed and draw
you into the story.
BRIAN B., The SouthernPreppers.com
AMAZING STORY OF SURVIVAL!
Pulse is a great name for this book, because your pulse is
racing all through! I highly recommend it.
LEE BROOM, Book Reviewer
SUCH AN EXCITING READ!
I absolutely loved this book! I kept reading and reading and reading.
I just couldn’t put it down!
LYNDA, Amazon Reviewer
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This is a really good very enjoyable end of the world story! Great ideas & characters, good adventure! Grabbed me from the start & now I want to read the rest of the series!
I like this story a lot and I am not a young person. I am a 62 yr old Christian female, so this book is for teenagers to old-timers. It is told by the voiices of 3 teenage girls, even though their lives are different, they are friends.
Andrea, Lexie & Sarah. Andrea’s family is very wealthy but they were not at all prepared for something like this and it is obvious, later in the book that they are not Christians. They live the furthered away from Lexie and her family.
Lexie’s family are not only Christians but they are prepped. They have been saving, food, water, wood and anything else they would need if something like what happened. They even have a safe room in their house. They live on a farm, have horses, chickens and grown food and put it up as well as buy food when it is in season.
Sarah and her family live in an apartment that it is never really said, but it must be close to the small city center. Her father works about a fourth five minute drive away from home and is at work when it happens. We never hear from him, that would be a long walk home in Ohio winter. Sarah’s family is also not at all prepared and then there is a fire in their apartment complex and they are all evacuated to a library.
It is very interesting how each family and some of Lexie’s parents handles the EMP. They still have prayer meetings at their house. This book is very thought provoking to consider what you would do if something like this really happened. I think it could and that we should all save water and food and have ways to stay warm if it happens in winter or cool if it happens in summer. I think this is a MUST READ for teenagers and adults. I plan on getting the next two books in the series L. R. Burkard did a great job with this book.
Darn you, L. R. Burkard! Now I have to read Resilience, Pulse Effex #2, to find out what becomes of Lexie, Andrea, and Sarah.
This is YA fiction, but since Suzanne Collins and J. K. Rowling blurred the lines on audience boundaries for YA fiction, and since I enjoyed this novel so much, I will from now on consider YA fiction to be stories about young adults rather than stories for young adults.
The pulse in Pulse is an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP, or epic solar flare) that wipes out all post-nineteenth century technology. Unless it’s caged in special material – maybe lead, I can’t recall – to protect it. Who would think of doing that? Preppers, that’s who. Those odd, march-to-their-own-drumbeat people who seem out of sync with reality until the apocalypse hits.
Lexie’s family are preppers. Andrea’s family are upper middle class. Sarah’s family are just trying to make it day to day. Ms. Burkard did a fantastic job of imagining the effects of a total shutdown of everything, even automobiles, in the middle of a brutal Ohio winter. As day piles upon day, the community degenerates into every man for himself paranoia worthy of Cormac McCarthy. This EMP is a particularly nasty apocalypse, simply because absolutely none of the technology we’ve become absolutely dependent on works. It’s the equivalent of asking the flight crew of an Airbus to hang a pocket watch from the panel and bring the ship down safely in a snowstorm. You’ll need either Charles Lindbergh or Sully Sullenberger for a successful outcome. In other words, you need someone pretty unusual on your side.
There is a heavy spiritual theme to this book because of Lexie’s family, the preppers, who go to the Lord for just about everything. Some readers may take exception to that, but we need to remind ourselves that some people do walk out their faith every day, publicly and privately, and these characters reflect that. In that respect, they are true to life.
Ms. Burkard knows how to keep a reader turning pages, and buying her next book. I’m headed to Amazon now. Well done.
What I think you should know:
Pulse is a Christian Young Adult , Apocalyptic Suspense novel. It is based on what could happen to American society if an EMP hit and fried all electronics. The book follows three teen girls and their families, one from the city, one from a suburb and another from the country.
From an Adult reader prospective:
As an adult who had been reading young adult fiction since I was a preteen I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was very honest about what *could* happen if our society suddenly lost electricity and transportation. The book did not paint people’s behavior with rose colored glasses and showed how brutal people could become under circumstances where they feel like it is your life or theirs. Each family faced their own challenges many of which left me wishing I could change the story for that girl. I was very inspired but each girl’s journey of faith however I had issues with one of the girl’s feelings that she saw Jesus, I would have been understanding of Angels but prefer not to have character seeing or thinking they see Jesus.
From a Mom of a Young Adult reader:
As the mom of a preteen who has started venturing into Young Adult material I would caution that I would want them to be over 13 to read this book. L.R. Burkard did a great job of writing the novel from teen girls perspectives, it was clean although it did mention how many of their peers had sex at a young age. It also contained violence relevant to the story, but was not gory about it.
I am going to continue to read the series to find out what happens to the girls and families.
I received a complimentary copy for this book from Celebrate Lit, this in no way influenced my review. All opinions are my own.
Would you be prepared if am EMP happened? I know I’m not and I guess like most people I just don’t think about it. When we have hurricane season the news is always giving us directions to get prepared if one was to come our way. I have done that since I have been through several hurricanes. But an EMP just doesn’t seem as worrisome to me. That is my silly way of thinking that it could never happen. But in reality it could happen at anytime.
The book takes us on a journey with three different young girls and their families as they face the aftermath of an EMP. Everything is shut down including electricity, phones, stores and even basic needs like water. Each family deals with the crisis in different ways. One family who are very prepared have been stock piling food and essentials knowing that one day a disaster could happen. It was interesting to read how desperate people became and were willing to kill for food.
There is one part in the book I had a very hard time with. The family is out of food and an offer comes their way to have shelter and all the food they need for a price. I won’t spoil the story and tell you what the offer was, but I will say how disgusted I was reading it. Other parts of the story are a bit one sided and almost political to the point of becoming offensive to some people who disagree with statements made.
I did enjoy the book and getting to know the three girls and how they each found ways to survive. There is a faith element in the story but not too much that it is preachy.There is a lot of violence in the book which was a bit graphic at times. I have to say it fit with the story because people will do anything to survive. I can’t tell you what I would do if faced with this crisis but I know I would be doing a lot praying.
The author does not sugar coat anything and it made it realistic and almost scary at times. No one wants to think about the end coming, but as we see in the story, if you aren’t prepared you could be scrambling for necessities that we take for granted. I may not agree with everything in the book but I will say that I thought it was interesting and made me want to get the next book in the series.
I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.
In Pulse, a disaster strikes much of the US that knocks out anything electrical. Cell phones, cars, landline phones, heating. We don’t think about it, but if the grid goes down, we eventually lose water, too. The story is told through the journal entries of three teen girls in wintery Ohio. One friend lives in a 10th-floor apartment, one in an out-of-town neighborhood, and one on her family’s farm. It’s a chilling tale of how these families fight for survival when their normal means of heat, food, and water go down with the rest of the infrastructure.
What I Loved About Pulse
I really enjoyed watching these girls navigate faith questions in the midst of disaster. Disaster or distress of any kind tends to amplify the heart issues and force a response. I loved the reminder that what would seem absurd to us in the US, where we seem to have everything, is tragically normal in other parts of the world. Most of us don’t think about fighting for survival against cold and starvation, or what we might give up to survive. Most of us, outside of our law enforcement and military, don’t have to wrestle through those “awful but necessary” decisions.
The journal style was well done, and though we don’t always fully understand how something like an EMP would actually impact our lives, I felt this novel was well-researched. More than that, though, it successfully pulled me in. I found myself thinking about it when I was doing the dishes or driving to work, and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
What I Didn’t Love About Pulse
There were a few times where it got a little preachy, or a little too politically long-winded. I work with teenage girls, and even if their dads were long-winded, even if they agreed with their dads, I don’t see them writing that much about those political opinions in a journal in one sitting. As a reader, I’d rather you subtly walk me into that way of thinking by observing the challenges the characters are going through than go at it head-on. I found myself skimming over these sections because they got kind of old. And I wanted to get to the next part because the rest of it was so good!
Would I Recommend Pulse?
Yes – to teens or adults. This book definitely had a YA flavor because of the point of view, but it didn’t bother me or come across as “young.” Note: Pulse touches on some adult material. Survival kind of does that to you. But as I’ve shared elsewhere, our teens need to read books with mature content. If it’s one of my girls that finds herself in a tough situation when disaster strikes, I don’t want that to be the first time she’s thought through how she would respond.
I received a review copy of this book; all opinions are my own.
Pulse by Linore Burkard is a Christian young adult/Apocalyptic suspense novel. One morning Andrea, Lexie and Sarah are preparing to leave for school when the families notice that there is no electricity. Upon further investigation, they discover that the cars will not start, cell phones are not working and there is no wi-fi. It is a cold winter in Ohio and these three families must find a way to survive. The story is told by the three teenage girls through their diary entries. Sarah lives in the city, Andrea lives in a large home in suburbia while Lexie lives on a farm. We get to see what it is like for each of them after the unthinkable happens. They must find a way to stay warm and cook food. Difficult times have a way of bringing out the best and the worst in individuals. Pulse is an interesting story as we see what happens to society when there is no government to regulate people. I did like how Lexie felt God nudging her to help her friend and how she responded to it. I thought the first half of the book was better than the second. It descended into political and theological rants especially regarding the right of gun ownership. Pulse does contain extreme violence and foul language. I do want readers to be aware that there is a disturbing area where one of the girl’s parents wish to “sell” their daughter to the neighborhood letch for food for the family. While I felt the author gave an accurate portrayal of what could happen in the event of an EMP, it was not what I expected from a book that is listed as Christian young adult novel. A wanted to share the following phrase from Pulse “human pain is hard to hear, hard to share, hard to endure.” How would you act in similar situations? Would your Christianity have you act differently from other? Pulse is a book that will have you thinking as well as planning for the future.