Book Review: Noise by Darin Bradley

'In the aftermath of the switch from analog to digital TV, an anarchic movement known as Salvage hijacks the unused airwaves. Mixed in with the static's random noise are dire warnings of the imminent economis , political and social collapse of civilization - and cold-blooded lessons on how to survive the fall and prosper in the harsh new order that will inevitably arise from the ashes of the old.

Hiram and Levi are two young men, former Scouts and veterans of countless Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. Now, on the blood-drenched battlefields of university campuses, shopping malls and gated communities, they will find themselves taking on new identities and new moralities as they lead a ragtag band of hackers and misfits to an all-but-mythical place called Amaranth, where a fragile future waits to be born.'


That is what you read when you pick up Noise by Darin Bradley the first time, trying to get a feel for the book. But its nothing compared to what you find inside nor does it prepare you for just what your about to pick up. The story follows Hiram, and Levi by fault as his best friend, through the preparations for the Collapse, for the Event and as they execute their Event Exit Strategy. As they move from First Place to Second Place and finally to the Place, Amaranth. As they pick up Outsiders as Secondaries. And it pulls into question everything you've ever thought was 'right'!

One of the big things in this story is the Book. They all live by this book but the different groups within Salvage have different books. Its all about what they picked up from airwaves and what they wrote down. This book outlines that when the collapse happens you are to get to your Place with your Group and do whatever is necessary to do so. Nothing but your Place and your Group matter. But not before the Event because then you start with criminal acts and you don't go into this clean. So they wait untill the Event and they take what they need not steal and so forth. They use force to get what they need because laws don't matter anymore......

Its a really hard book to talk about because at times things are explained in such detail that you know everything thats going on down to the last detail and six sentences later everything you thought you knew has been torn to shreds. People are dead and you don't know how or they're out saving people that aren't part of their group. And next thing you know there is a flashback to his past, sometimes just middle of the sentence is from the past but the rest is present. Either way once you get use to the style its easy to read, you just end up reading small sections a couple times to make sure you got it. I would say its kinda like reading Chuck Palahniuk's stuff.

What really shook me about this book was its relevance though. It put me into the mind that if the Occupy Wall Street had been an underground operation as well as quite a bit less peaceful then this could be the world that we  would be living in. Or even still a world that we're heading towards now. That the collapse of things as we know them could lead to this very world. Where in order to survive your gonna need to find people and a place and just whole yourself up there and hope for the best. Where there will be people more willing then I to kill someone just to keep their place or their stuff. Or to kill to get more stuff. What struck me about this book is that this could really happen and its not just some fantasy.......a story.

Those are my thoughts on the book!! Hope you liked them!!

Thanks as always for reading <3