I liked this a lot ... instant action, right out of the gate. Although, that's one of my complaints, regarding the Table of Contents. If you start at Chapter 1 ... you've missed stuff.

Yes, I'm a TOC snob. I notice them, use them as I switch between formats. Here, I had the Kindle copy (when I first borrowed it from the library, I thought it was only available in Libby ... sigh. I'm also a Kindle snob. But when I checked again, there was the Kindle option, yeah!) and the audio. I didn't have a physical copy - physical copies generally don't even bother with a TOC at all.  ANYWAY ... in the TOC, there's the Author's Note, then chronological chapters. Headings (a countdown to zero hour) is included in each chapter, but not in the TOC ... I think I would have preferred to have the info right there in the TOC too (seeing the timeline more clearly/all together. I realize at times it can be a spoiler). ANYWAY ... In Kindle, the starting section doesn't have a "label" (chapter 0, prologue) ... if someone just looked at the TOC, decided to skip the Author's Note and just went to Chapter 1 - they have just missed an essential opening. In audio, the Author's Note isn't listed, it's there in the "Dedication" (again, people might skip that) ... the "Title" section has important details, and then there's the sentence/portion list "Two Hundred and Ninety (misspelled in the audio edition as Ninty) Lives ... I just wish TOCs were always included (in print) and that they were actually as helpful (list headers ... dates, povs, locations) and were CONSISTENT between formats. Here, it was only the beginning that had inconsistencies. 43 chapters and a Coda (epilogue). 

This really kept my interest - just non-stop action. This is one of those books that kind of plays in your head like a movie. I could almost visualize the scenes happening (I'll have to examine my imagination to see if I actually assigned any particular actors to any roles). In a way, there was a little TOO much action? So many characters! So many shifting scenes. 

One storyline that hit hard was the family whose van crashed ... single survivor (still trapped) a little five year old boy. Back in 2021, I remember hearing the news of a horrible crash, our son's basketball coach, his little boy in a car seat the sole survivor. Just hard to read/visualize such a similar scene. And the scenario ... stay and save one or continue on and all hands to save everyone? There are several more chapters dedicated to this situation, but then other chapters follow the nuclear plant, the nearby school, the president watching from afar, the people who are trying to find a safe spot, some specialists who are coming in to try and help.

There was an "underwater" scene ... it felt a little too similar to some of the situations in the Drowning book (like the author had learned some scuba stuff, so figured she'd put it in again). Much of the nuclear talk is above my pay grade, but to make the possibility here sound worse than Chernobyl ... that does paint a picture (the HBO series really brought that to life).   There were some heart stopping moments that were really well done, brought on the feels. 

Overall, there was so much happening, and so quickly, I don't know that I really got to know the characters ... there are a few that made more of an impact. Little Conner, Dani, Matt (wanted to slap him at times), Matt's dad Steve, Joss ... Nice to have a President of the US who is appears calm and capable (just imposing Trump or Biden in this role ... don't really want to think about that). 

ProFanity x23.  Other words I note: roiled (x5) a couple careen (occasionally I see career used in the same way, but careen is 90% of the time), 5 smirks, 1 scowl.