Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of – Part 12
Don’t Dream It’s Over by Matthew Cormack
Every now and then we all come across a stellar book. One that grabs us and resonates with us like few others have.
Don’t Dream It’s Over is a hefty post-apocalyptic novel, coming in at over 700 pages. Such a length is not my normal cup of tea. I don’t particularly like long books. Inevitably there are parts that are just plain old boring and others that are tedious at best.
So imagine my surprise when I didn’t encounter any of those negatives in Mr Cormack’s book, and it grabbed me as few others have. It was a very pleasant and welcomed surprise.
There are many types of post-apocalyptic novels. There’s the very popular zombie apocalypse and it’s aftermath. There are the prepper PA novels. The EMP novels. The pandemics. Alien invasions. Cozy catastrophes (my favorite). And the list goes on.
However, Mr Cormack’s novel isn’t so easy to categorize. It comes closest to being a cozy catastrophe. A cozy is a PA novel that focuses on rebuilding the world to make it a better place than it was before the disaster. They are essentially utopian in character.
Classic examples of the cozy catastrophe are Earth Abides and The Day of the Triffids. Terry Nation’s BBC TV series, Survivors, and the book he wrote later on, also titled Survivors, fit nicely into the cozy catastrophe category, as well.
Yet, Don’t Dream It’s Over isn’t 100% cozy catastrophe either, because there isn’t a lot of focus placed on rebuilding the world. In fact, there is an interesting section where a wise old thinker postulates that the visionaries will die out and it will be the ones who think of nothing but expansion that will survive. A touch of dystopia there.
What Don’t Dream It’s Over primarily is, is an extended character study. A character study of the narrator as he goes about his business of day-to-day survival and trying to figure out what to do with his life. Don’t Dream It’s Over is primarily a novel of self-discovery and personal growth.
Mr Cormack’s book is an engaging story. He grabs your attention, holds it, and doesn’t let it go.
The format is that of the epistolary novel, using journal entries instead of letters. What can be a difficult format, Mr Cormack handles exceedingly well. He knows how to pace the story and knows when to introduce thrills and spills to keep the narrative from getting boring.
I’ve read the book twice, and I don’t usually re-read novels. And I thoroughly enjoyed it both times.
I encourage you to buy a copy (it’s only 99¢ as of this writing and is in Kindle Unlimited). Support this fabulously talented indie author. He has another novel set in the same universe: Ganbaru. It is on my reading list.
Don’t Dream It’s Over is very highly recommended. Don’t miss this one.
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