Audiobook Review: Resilient: Survival is Everything by Toni Cox
Resilient: Survival is Everything
Author: Toni Cox
Narrator: Juliet Jones
Published: June 4, 2019
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: January 12-14, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
My name is Erika and I am the last human on Earth.
The Simian S1 Virus wiped out everyone, leaving me alone in an Africa that is suddenly not as friendly as I remember it.
Amid trying to deal with the death of my parents, finding shelter, and looking for food, I discover horrors I wish I had never seen.
Haunted, hunted, and scared, I only have one thing going for me – I am resilient.
Jessica’s Review:
**Please note that Resilient was published in April 2019, which was before the CoVID Pandemic reached and changed our world forever.**
Resilient is my first novel by Cox and it did not disappoint! I enjoy dystopian, apocalyptic novels where people fight for survival from each other or from other creatures and with Resilient we get both!
Our narrator is Erika and she lives in South Africa as does Cox. Erika tells us her story and I was pulled in the entire time. What seemed like the flu at first and Erika woke up alone and it had been a week and then she realizes everyone is dead. She can’t find another single person! This disease killed extremely quickly. The beginning of Resilient was reminiscent of the first episode of The Walking Dead with Rick Grimes waking from his coma completely alone.
Erika is alone and we experience that with her. Being alone for an extended period is enough to drive a person crazy, luckily Erika is not totally alone after a while: Hello, Morgan the dog!!! Morgan was my favorite character after Erika. And whenever Morgan was mentioned, I feared for him. I kept thinking “Please don’t hurt/kill the dog!’
We see Erika struggle to survive and stock up on supplies for herself. In the beginning for Erika, it was seemingly weird to go ‘shopping’ and not pay for your items. Erika is smart, resourceful (OMG she thought to go to a library to research things she needed to know!), and has a strong drive to survive. In fact, she IS Resilient.
Erika was also very fortunate with her surroundings. If she had not had her parent’s house it would have been a completely different story. Eventually Erika comes across other survivors in various forms and then it becomes a battle to survive against each other. The novel goes in several different directions that I was not expecting that truly shows how much Erika grows over the course of this novella. I really liked Erika and was rooting for her the entire time. Though short, this novella covers a lot and is also a complete story.
I received an audible copy from Cox. Many thanks for it as I enjoyed going on Erika’s journey!
I fully enjoyed Juliet Jones’ narration as she really brought Erika to life for me. She will be a narrator I will be on the lookout for!
If you enjoy dystopian novels, I would recommend Resilient for you!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
