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Starting in the Middle of The End
A young mother dragged from her house by men with guns. The image of high chair legs sticking up out of a dumpster wouldn’t leave her mind. The image of two small girls huddled in a dark closet haunted her thoughts.
There must be a way to get the baby out of the dumpster, and a way to save those little girls who had been left alone in an empty house.
Mamma is a hostage.
Penny will have to be the one to do it.
Penny is 7.
Penny performs.
There must be a way to get the baby out of the dumpster, and a way to save those little girls who had been left alone in an empty house.
Mamma is a hostage.
Penny will have to be the one to do it.
Penny is 7.
Penny performs.
142 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 24, 2018
5 people want to read
About the author
Paula Shablo
17 books22 followersPaula Shablo is an American writer. Born in Idaho, she moved to Wyoming with her family at the age of six and grew up there. She currently resides in Colorado.
Paula is the mother of four and grandmother of nine, and is happiest when surrounded by family and close friends.
Paula enjoys writing in many genres. She is an avid reader and a staunch supporter of public libraries.
Paula writes a blog, which can be found at https://pshablo.blogspot.com/
Paula is the mother of four and grandmother of nine, and is happiest when surrounded by family and close friends.
Paula enjoys writing in many genres. She is an avid reader and a staunch supporter of public libraries.
Paula writes a blog, which can be found at https://pshablo.blogspot.com/
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 5, 2019
My rating 3.5
The book "Starting in the Middle of the End" by Paula Shablo is a good novel, on which it could use some work. Through the book, we are led by a seven-year-old girl Penny, but I think the story could be even more elaborate because there are so many characters that could thrill the story through their perspective. There are plenty of places in the book where the characters of her mother, father, and grandfather who could better elaborate and the story itself would be more powerful. We do not know anything about the bad guys at all. What are their goals and what do they want? I think that the story could be expanded to find out why her grandfather did what he did. I think the book has a lot of potentials that could be better explained and elaborated. I am convinced that a writer with his own imagination could write another hundred pages and create an excellent story because I like her writing style. All in all, this is a good post-apocalyptic story that should have a sequel. I would recommend a book to all lovers of science fiction of the story the post-apocalyptic genre.
The book "Starting in the Middle of the End" by Paula Shablo is a good novel, on which it could use some work. Through the book, we are led by a seven-year-old girl Penny, but I think the story could be even more elaborate because there are so many characters that could thrill the story through their perspective. There are plenty of places in the book where the characters of her mother, father, and grandfather who could better elaborate and the story itself would be more powerful. We do not know anything about the bad guys at all. What are their goals and what do they want? I think that the story could be expanded to find out why her grandfather did what he did. I think the book has a lot of potentials that could be better explained and elaborated. I am convinced that a writer with his own imagination could write another hundred pages and create an excellent story because I like her writing style. All in all, this is a good post-apocalyptic story that should have a sequel. I would recommend a book to all lovers of science fiction of the story the post-apocalyptic genre.
March 27, 2019
I enjoyed the second half much better than the first, when the survivors recount the changed world that they now live in. It was interesting to hear the gritty details of a post-apocalyptic world as made real as possible, and not fictionalized with any science fiction or drama. The first half I couldn't relate to since it was from a child's point of view, a very young one at that. I'm sure the fictional catastrophes would be horrible for a child but they gave no me joy or insight to read about them; nor is this book written as middle grade.
Some questions remain. Didn't the government of the country attempt to communicate with all survivors? I'm sure they would have protected some helicopters and military planes which would have spread leaflets among the population, like they did in the old days. Or send out jeeps throughout the country to reassure survivors that there was some semblance of government. Also it wasn't entirely clear who was behind the apocalypse. I know the first half was from the child's point of view, cut off from the world, but in the second half the child does have all the information that is also available to the adults who run the survival camps.
It does make us think, as countless survival and apocalypse books have done before, just how we can continue our fragile advance civilization without power, manufacturing, air travel, access to satellites, large scale food distribution, television, or production of gas.
I enjoyed some nuggets in the book, such as the shell-shocked girls bonding with a baby boy, and also the child discovering the joys of a collapsed library.
Some questions remain. Didn't the government of the country attempt to communicate with all survivors? I'm sure they would have protected some helicopters and military planes which would have spread leaflets among the population, like they did in the old days. Or send out jeeps throughout the country to reassure survivors that there was some semblance of government. Also it wasn't entirely clear who was behind the apocalypse. I know the first half was from the child's point of view, cut off from the world, but in the second half the child does have all the information that is also available to the adults who run the survival camps.
It does make us think, as countless survival and apocalypse books have done before, just how we can continue our fragile advance civilization without power, manufacturing, air travel, access to satellites, large scale food distribution, television, or production of gas.
I enjoyed some nuggets in the book, such as the shell-shocked girls bonding with a baby boy, and also the child discovering the joys of a collapsed library.
June 16, 2020
The timing of this story was perfectly frightening at this time in American upheaval. It spoke to me on many levels. Frightening, and utterly possible in our present divided times. I've been in Penny's place of taking care of younger kids while still a kid. Her creativity and dedication to her sisters is beautiful. I finished this book last night, and my first thoughts were of it this morning in this world out of balance.
April 28, 2019
A twist on a well-known genre.
Nine-year-old Penny lived through the end-times. Now, as an adult, she uses her experience to teach the offspring of the survivors about the world and the country that's long since disappeared. The horrors begin as she tells the story about a group of men that break-in, drag away her mother and throw her infant sister into a dumpster. Penny and her middle sister rescue the baby but have to survive alone cut off from their parents, society or any other source of help. Together the three girls use what was left behind and try to keep from becoming victims the chaos happening just outside their door.
This novel takes the typical apocalyptic survival story and adds a twist. It is the world collapsing as seen through the eyes of a child. In that, there is a real sense of unknown forces tearing apart everything normal in the world. Through simple, clean, direct language the author manages to convey a sense of existential terror. Not fear of anything specific but just a Fear. As a young girl, the narrator is still learning about the world even as that world is going away. She doesn't know the details about the politics or the socio-economic forces that are tearing the country apart nor does she even know or understand the motivation of the men that kidnap her mother and attempt to murder her sister. That mystery adds a lot of feeling to this novel.
It started to lose me by the end, however. About mid-way through the book, it didn't feel like a continuation of the story as much as just a very long, extended epilogue. The main character essentially provides a summary of what it was like to grow up in a post-apocalyptic society. It lacked any of the feeling or depth the first half of the book had. It was all telling and not showing, to use the over-repeated writer maxim.
Furthermore, while the lack of context added to the feeling of foreboding in the first half of the book it feels more like a giant plot hole in the second half. Telling the story as an adult, it was hard for me to see why she couldn't at least start to understand what happened to the world she left behind. There are no newspapers left behind (for reasons that are never explained) but one would think that oral history would help to fill in some of the blanks. But the author leaves it to the reader's imagination which left left me unsatisfied by the time I got to the ending.
I don't think I would recommend this book to fans of the post-apocalyptic sci fi genre because it lacks a lot of the elements they expect in those books. I would recommend it to those who like the 'cozy mystery' genre or those who like historical fiction about the simple life on the American frontier. I think it could also find some fans in the YA crowd as an apocalyptic novel without some of the graphic violence and despair that is a feature in some others.
Nine-year-old Penny lived through the end-times. Now, as an adult, she uses her experience to teach the offspring of the survivors about the world and the country that's long since disappeared. The horrors begin as she tells the story about a group of men that break-in, drag away her mother and throw her infant sister into a dumpster. Penny and her middle sister rescue the baby but have to survive alone cut off from their parents, society or any other source of help. Together the three girls use what was left behind and try to keep from becoming victims the chaos happening just outside their door.
This novel takes the typical apocalyptic survival story and adds a twist. It is the world collapsing as seen through the eyes of a child. In that, there is a real sense of unknown forces tearing apart everything normal in the world. Through simple, clean, direct language the author manages to convey a sense of existential terror. Not fear of anything specific but just a Fear. As a young girl, the narrator is still learning about the world even as that world is going away. She doesn't know the details about the politics or the socio-economic forces that are tearing the country apart nor does she even know or understand the motivation of the men that kidnap her mother and attempt to murder her sister. That mystery adds a lot of feeling to this novel.
It started to lose me by the end, however. About mid-way through the book, it didn't feel like a continuation of the story as much as just a very long, extended epilogue. The main character essentially provides a summary of what it was like to grow up in a post-apocalyptic society. It lacked any of the feeling or depth the first half of the book had. It was all telling and not showing, to use the over-repeated writer maxim.
Furthermore, while the lack of context added to the feeling of foreboding in the first half of the book it feels more like a giant plot hole in the second half. Telling the story as an adult, it was hard for me to see why she couldn't at least start to understand what happened to the world she left behind. There are no newspapers left behind (for reasons that are never explained) but one would think that oral history would help to fill in some of the blanks. But the author leaves it to the reader's imagination which left left me unsatisfied by the time I got to the ending.
I don't think I would recommend this book to fans of the post-apocalyptic sci fi genre because it lacks a lot of the elements they expect in those books. I would recommend it to those who like the 'cozy mystery' genre or those who like historical fiction about the simple life on the American frontier. I think it could also find some fans in the YA crowd as an apocalyptic novel without some of the graphic violence and despair that is a feature in some others.
June 9, 2019
Starting in the Middle of the End starts off strong, starting, in the middle of the end. The main character’s mother is abducted by strange men and she and her younger sister must save their baby sister from a dumpster and hide out and survive on their own. I enjoyed the openings mysterious feel and the story pulled me in. Don’t expect a lot of answers however. The who, what, and why behind the fall of civilization is left vague, which can be realistic. We don’t always know what is going on in the world beyond our own lives, but some readers may find this disappointing.
The novel is written from the perspective of an older woman remembering what it was like to be seven years old. In the first half of the novel the girls are hiding out from the bad men, and our protagonist being the oldest, bears the brunt of worrying about their survival. It is clear she is a mother now as she recalls her story she empathizes with her mother is a way that a seven year old would not. I found her to be very astute at surviving in a crisis- at one point even thinking to run extra water from the taps in case the water is shut off. It is possible in her situation she grew up trained to think of such things, but without background explanation of why this would be the case I found this unrealistic for a seven year old. She also spends an excessive amount of time recalling the food they had available and mundane details relating to their survival that read more like a survival manual than a novel.
The second half of the novel the narration shifts in a way that no longer feels like we are experiencing the story with our narrator but are witnessing it afterwards, with her telling us what happened, not showing us.
I did care about the girls and their mother and their plight.
The novel is written from the perspective of an older woman remembering what it was like to be seven years old. In the first half of the novel the girls are hiding out from the bad men, and our protagonist being the oldest, bears the brunt of worrying about their survival. It is clear she is a mother now as she recalls her story she empathizes with her mother is a way that a seven year old would not. I found her to be very astute at surviving in a crisis- at one point even thinking to run extra water from the taps in case the water is shut off. It is possible in her situation she grew up trained to think of such things, but without background explanation of why this would be the case I found this unrealistic for a seven year old. She also spends an excessive amount of time recalling the food they had available and mundane details relating to their survival that read more like a survival manual than a novel.
The second half of the novel the narration shifts in a way that no longer feels like we are experiencing the story with our narrator but are witnessing it afterwards, with her telling us what happened, not showing us.
I did care about the girls and their mother and their plight.
February 8, 2019
This is a post-apocalyptic tale presented with the the voice of a teacher, remembering and sharing the details. This approach makes this both an easy read, and a terrifying one.
Everything horrifying is told through the eyes of a child, that allows the reader to think about the worst, without the graphic details.
The part I liked best was learning of the emotions in the pre-apocalyptic days. How everything was slowly breaking down from fear and misplaced priorities rather than than an outright attack. How people allowed their fear of losing what they have to paralyze them so they let it slip away.
It isn't said how the attack that brought on the apocalypse happened, but there were hints that like the sacking of Rome the final attack was just the end of the long slow decline of America.
Even though there were some disturbing scenes of the attackers dehumanizing people, what fueled my nightmares about this book was looking out my fellow countrymen and seeing them give into blinding fear of “others”, willing to needlessly suffer as long as the “Right People” suffer worse, people who will sacrifice the greater good if it means that they don't get 100% of what they want. Seeing that makes the apocalypse Paula describes a cautionary tale, not a flight of fancy.
Still through it all she manages to show how people will still work together to do the right thing. So no matter what, if there is life, there is hope.
Everything horrifying is told through the eyes of a child, that allows the reader to think about the worst, without the graphic details.
The part I liked best was learning of the emotions in the pre-apocalyptic days. How everything was slowly breaking down from fear and misplaced priorities rather than than an outright attack. How people allowed their fear of losing what they have to paralyze them so they let it slip away.
It isn't said how the attack that brought on the apocalypse happened, but there were hints that like the sacking of Rome the final attack was just the end of the long slow decline of America.
Even though there were some disturbing scenes of the attackers dehumanizing people, what fueled my nightmares about this book was looking out my fellow countrymen and seeing them give into blinding fear of “others”, willing to needlessly suffer as long as the “Right People” suffer worse, people who will sacrifice the greater good if it means that they don't get 100% of what they want. Seeing that makes the apocalypse Paula describes a cautionary tale, not a flight of fancy.
Still through it all she manages to show how people will still work together to do the right thing. So no matter what, if there is life, there is hope.
February 10, 2019
I loved the beginning of the book most, as I felt the horror of the children when their quiet street is attacked and their mother is taken. Those few days, with the very simple writing coming in the first person voice of the oldest daughter, were gripping in intensity.
Penny and her little sister Mae have to rescue their baby sister from the dumpster, and then find a way to survive without their mother or father while being super quiet in an eerily quiet world.
Their fear of discovery along with their fear of the loss of their parents is something everyone can relate to. What if that had happened to you, to me? The story lost intensity for me after those first few days as the following years are glossed over, but I still found this novella a very worthwhile read and it left me with a lot to think about in an uncertain world.
Penny and her little sister Mae have to rescue their baby sister from the dumpster, and then find a way to survive without their mother or father while being super quiet in an eerily quiet world.
Their fear of discovery along with their fear of the loss of their parents is something everyone can relate to. What if that had happened to you, to me? The story lost intensity for me after those first few days as the following years are glossed over, but I still found this novella a very worthwhile read and it left me with a lot to think about in an uncertain world.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews