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  • What's Left of My World: A Story of a Family's Survival
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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
1,415 global ratings
5 star
56%
4 star
28%
3 star
11%
2 star
3%
1 star
3%
What's Left of My World: A Story of a Family's Survival

What's Left of My World: A Story of a Family's Survival

byKevin Pierce
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Top positive review

All positive reviews›
claudette valliere
5.0 out of 5 starsA home run
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 13, 2017
Damned fine read. Spoiler alert.

This one starts with Lauren Russell. Lauren, her Mother Michelle and sister Grace have survived the collapse. In order to do so they had to leave their home and live in the cabin that's in a valley in West Virginia. Everyone in the valley is a survivor. They hunt, fish and raise gardens for food and many have large amounts of freeze dried food, rice, beans and other dry goods. The whole valley is full of survivors. Survivors who have to fight off the takers now and then.

Takers are people who didn't plan for a catastrophe and steal to survive. Any of them caught in the valley are shot.

Right now Lauren is doing one of her walkabouts which is patrolling the trails that are all over the area. On a high spot Lauren hears and explosion. From where she is she can't see and decides a longer trip will be needed to see exactly what happened.

Laurens Father is the man who trained her to survive in any situation. She has an AR-15 and her Glock for weapons and a back pack full of food and items she might need. Lauren misses her dad.

Alan Russell went to work in DC like always but never made it home. Both Lauren and her Mother wait for him every day. Knowing Alan like they do they expect him to make it home.

Once Lauren gets to a point where she can see smoke rising she heads down to investigate and find a vehicle that has been blown up and several bodies. After surveying the area she finds a blood trail and knows someone made it out. The bodies are to badly burned to identify anyone so Lauren heads for that long walk home to let all the valley people know what she's found.

On the way she stumbles on a guy at a campsite with a fire going. The man is dressed in a black uniform with DHS patches and Lauren knows he's an enemy. The man is Christian and he tells her that he and those with him, the other dead men, were under cover in DHS and he is actually a member of a militia. Lauren decides he's telling the truth.

Christian has been shot in the calf and after throwing him a med kit he bandages his leg and tells Lauren they need to leave because DHS will be back with dogs to track him. Lauren agrees and they head for her home.

So begins one damned fine read.

This one has Lauren, Christian, Michelle, Norman, John, Lee, Fred a biker gang the DHS, death and Lauren Russell and those with her doing their best to survive and stay alive.

Five Stars.
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6 people found this helpful

Top critical review

All critical reviews›
Kiss Balazs
3.0 out of 5 starsfell just short, but promising
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 14, 2017
I really would have liked to give at least a 4 star, but to me this writer fell just short. I liked his honesty, about bringing his ow life to the story to frame it. However. Sometimes it just drags on and on without a point. And there are the absolutely unnecessary details of depicting a scene. Without further details, I like this guy, i hope he gets some serious upgrade in storytelling and he will be good to go. And, oh, it is the population vs the DHS. Where is the military? Where are the vets? And since when are thousands able to control millions of the "armed" population?
Remember, when the nazi's have taken Germany, it took them years to disarm the population, otherwise they would have been screwed. And before disarming, the Weimar Republic had to create a log of who had what. Since this book is centered around an EMP event, there was zero disarming. There would have been a civil war before the camps - if the DHS came out on top, that is. Please consider the vets, militias, active duty and all of those "lost" forces in you sequel. Wish you all the best!
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6 people found this helpful

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From the United States

claudette valliere
5.0 out of 5 stars A home run
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 13, 2017
Verified Purchase
Damned fine read. Spoiler alert.

This one starts with Lauren Russell. Lauren, her Mother Michelle and sister Grace have survived the collapse. In order to do so they had to leave their home and live in the cabin that's in a valley in West Virginia. Everyone in the valley is a survivor. They hunt, fish and raise gardens for food and many have large amounts of freeze dried food, rice, beans and other dry goods. The whole valley is full of survivors. Survivors who have to fight off the takers now and then.

Takers are people who didn't plan for a catastrophe and steal to survive. Any of them caught in the valley are shot.

Right now Lauren is doing one of her walkabouts which is patrolling the trails that are all over the area. On a high spot Lauren hears and explosion. From where she is she can't see and decides a longer trip will be needed to see exactly what happened.

Laurens Father is the man who trained her to survive in any situation. She has an AR-15 and her Glock for weapons and a back pack full of food and items she might need. Lauren misses her dad.

Alan Russell went to work in DC like always but never made it home. Both Lauren and her Mother wait for him every day. Knowing Alan like they do they expect him to make it home.

Once Lauren gets to a point where she can see smoke rising she heads down to investigate and find a vehicle that has been blown up and several bodies. After surveying the area she finds a blood trail and knows someone made it out. The bodies are to badly burned to identify anyone so Lauren heads for that long walk home to let all the valley people know what she's found.

On the way she stumbles on a guy at a campsite with a fire going. The man is dressed in a black uniform with DHS patches and Lauren knows he's an enemy. The man is Christian and he tells her that he and those with him, the other dead men, were under cover in DHS and he is actually a member of a militia. Lauren decides he's telling the truth.

Christian has been shot in the calf and after throwing him a med kit he bandages his leg and tells Lauren they need to leave because DHS will be back with dogs to track him. Lauren agrees and they head for her home.

So begins one damned fine read.

This one has Lauren, Christian, Michelle, Norman, John, Lee, Fred a biker gang the DHS, death and Lauren Russell and those with her doing their best to survive and stay alive.

Five Stars.
6 people found this helpful
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Brian
VINE VOICE
5.0 out of 5 stars A family's struggle after the apocalypse
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 20, 2017
Verified Purchase
4.5 out of 5 stars

A post-apocalyptic story narrated by Kevin Pierce and an intro by the author explains the books that he read that made him want to get prepared (and write a novel). I mean, how could I not love this? Well, I did. It was totally different from most of the post-apocalyptic books that I've read but had a lot in common too.

What's Left of My World follows Lauren after the world has already started to fall apart. We aren't told what happened and we're only left with small pieces of what is going on outside of their camp, but you can tell that things have gone bad quickly and everyone that has made it out alive so far is stronger because of it.

The story follows Lauren (for the most part) as she is navigating the world without her dad and the world that is unforgiving. She is an incredibly likable main character and not your typical post-apocalyptic hero or heroine. She's young and should be making mistakes left and right. But, her dad made sure that she was prepared for almost anything and that she was the strongest person she could be emotionally ("turn it into something else").

This story was much more focused on the family and how they were surviving than the actual apocalypse or even the people who were out to get them. Sure, there were some fast-paced attacks and issues near the middle and end, but the story is a little slower than my average PA book. I'm not complaining. I know that Rudolph is setting up the world and main characters so that I understand what will happen next.

I think that overall, I enjoyed What's Left of My World as a change of pace post-apocalyptic book. Lauren is easily one of my favorite main characters in a PA book in quite some time, and her story is one that I definitely want to follow. If you liked stories like The Hunger Games or Divergent for the strong female lead, then you should check out What's Left of My World. Lauren will make you wish you were her (even though her situation really stinks).
16 people found this helpful
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PMSteve
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly Depressing
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 18, 2017
Verified Purchase
Thoroughly depressing, but that's good!

Whenever I read a post-apocalyptic novel that's worth reading, it makes me depressed. What's Left of My World had me completely depressed... but totally captivated.

The story is about a family living in their cabin in the backwoods of West Virginia, after an EMP has obliterated the electronic infrastructure of the country. They live as their ancestors lived. Gardening, hunting, hauling water from the stream and lighting with candles and cooking on a wood-fired stove.

They have to protect themselves from varmints, both the four and two legged variety. There's the takers. Those who find it easier to steal from their dead victims than work to support themselves.

Now there is an even bigger threat. The Homeland Security and FEMA camps have sprung up. They turn honest citizens into criminals because they choose to defend themselves and have supplies of food to help themselves through the crisis. If these folks don't submit to the DHS authorities, they're executed and their property seized.

Like I said. This is a depressing story, but one that I can see happening in an uncertain future. The tone the author sets is one of urgency and hopelessness. But also one of deep patriotism.

The protagonists are ordenary people who seem to thrive in harsh circumstances. They are more than able to protect themselves in the new world they find themselves in.

The main character, Lauren Russell is 18, and has been taught and trained by her father to shoot and keep her head in trying circumstances. She's a tough young woman who fights tooth and nail to protect herself and her family.

My favorite characters are a senior couple in the FEMA camp, Faith and Sam. They're smart, brave and have an unbridled faith in God. They know that the camp has a policy of executing troublemakers, even if the 'trouble' is questioning authority. They call it 'Humane Execution'. Others call it murder.

This book is depressing. You'll love it.
6 people found this helpful
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Frequent Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Story Worth Telling and Reading
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 20, 2017
Verified Purchase
This novel is worth five stars from the standpoint of good story-telling, strong character development, very good pacing, and originality within a genre that has certain constraints that most readers consider reasonable. I found the lead female character plausible and interesting, developed enough to imagine her as a real person and to care about her decisions and her fate. The supporting characters were also good, even the bad guys. The author's use of flashbacks was well-done and added a lot to the depth of the female lead. Clearly the author has some strong political opinions, but these were not pressed on the reader through narration but rather via dialog and inner thoughts of the main character.

I find some of the critical reviews of this novel to be amusing but pretty worthless. For example, several of them object to profanity. This novel definitely does not have excessive profanity, and what is used only adds to the realism of the dialog and circumstances under which the dialog occurs. Complaining about violence in a SHTF novel is a bit naïve, and particularly in the case of this novel which does not go into explicit detail. I commend the author on the balancing act he succeeded in mastering to make the story believable without making it inappropriate for younger readers. This book is not over the top in technical details, religion, or politics. Yes, the government is part of the problem in this plot, but that possibility is not as outlandish as some people wish it were.

One way I judge whether or not a book deserves 5 versus fewer stars is how much I look forward to resuming reading it when I have to set it aside for a while. If I were rating this among a group of good works of literary fiction, I might not give it 5 stars, but rating against other well-told stories, it has earned the full 5. I look forward to reading the next one.
2 people found this helpful
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Deeds
4.0 out of 5 stars Off to a good start
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 16, 2022
Verified Purchase
I've been reading this kind of book for a while and I love how this one reinforced some things from other books and introduced new scenarios. Looking forward to more from this author.
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L. Liberty
VINE VOICE
4.0 out of 5 stars good APOC book
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 3, 2019
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next in this series. The story is a plausible possible future senario. Rudolfs story stressed the importance of having high powered fire arms and the knowledge to use them. We see situations involving really bad guys and the necessity for good guys to act decisively and not be afraid to use deadly force in this new world. One thing that bothered me in this story was the fact that community knew there was an imminent threat and yet they didn't pull together is a smaller location for protection and put watchers out. The evil biker gang just came upon them through the woods and no one noticed until they were attacked and the house was on fire? I expected the "prepper community" where basically everyone was armed to be better prepared for security. The scene with the gang member killing the little girl was brutal. Because of this, I would say this is more of an adult only book and not really fit for YA readers. Thanks for having several strong females in your story. On to book 2, hoping to find out what happened to Lauren's dad.
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Brahmabull5
5.0 out of 5 stars Great story!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 8, 2022
Verified Purchase
Awesome story! Likeable and relatable characters. Nothing exaggerated. The story flows well. Well written! It's a must read if you're into the survival stories!
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Ira Pickard
5.0 out of 5 stars great book
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 8, 2022
Verified Purchase
This is book is about what happens when a EMP his is now.
Looks like something we are currently experiencing in the leadership we have in the nation we live in.
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Daniel Fenti
4.0 out of 5 stars So close
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 14, 2020
Verified Purchase
It's a great story line and a pretty decent read, but the editing really needed some help. I struggled with the pace and flow of the story and eventually had to give up as it was such a drag at times to try and read. It's unfortunate because I like the concept and the story, but the book never developed the way I'd hoped it would.

That being said, the author deserves the credit for the story and he bones... Thank you for offering up a very good time!
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Charles A. Helm
4.0 out of 5 stars Survival and Self Defense after an EMP takeover attempt! Very Dystopian!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 2, 2020
Verified Purchase
A bit more pass straight libertarian but coming up to a full Militia and heavily Self Defense orientated leading you fighting Homeland Defense and FEMA forces tossed in with some over the top Bikers, all which are supporting a quickly formed authoritarian corporate oligarchy. I decided on reading the series, well because it seems more probable these days with a President who seems determined to stay in office no matter what the election says! It’s entertaining, and under the circumstances helping me look at a life that my younger brother embraced completely at odds with my life choices!
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