POD

Two things to quickly summarize the novel:

1) This book is like 8 parts survival horror & maybe 2 parts sci-fi. That might be generous to the sci-fi content.
2) 12-year old Megs has the survival skills of a trained marine, & 16 year old Josh is borderline (not quite, but close) too dumb to live.

There really isn't much of a plot to speak of for this particular novel, aside from: Find a way to live for 28 days while trapped in a house with your dad (Josh), or scavenging in a hotel parking garage full of bad men who want to hurt you (Megs). So I'll mostly be discussing the details, and how I more or less felt about them for the review.

The Aliens

They're a plot device. One of the blurbs in the beginning mentioned this was the first in a trilogy, which means they likely have a bigger role later & this was all set up, but in the context of Pods all on its lonesome: They're a plot device.

You could have replaced the aliens with anything that kept folks inside their houses, and I don't think it would have changed what happened survival or plot wise. Maybe minor details would have been different, but the overall core would have remained unchanged. Fog, armed guards, snow, flood, zombies--could have been any of them keeping Josh in his house, and Megs in that parking garage.

My only consolation, is that there was set up for future books with a few little plot points like how the fog affected Josh or what happens at the end.

Megs Story

Of the two, I think Megs had the better storyline, even if I spent a good deal of time debating whether or not spending your life avoiding and/or dealing with an abusive, drug-addicted step-parent would actually result in Megs' mad survival skills. Some of her actions, like learning how to hide in places that your attacker has already looked--yes. I could see her picking that up hiding from her Mother's abusive boyfriend. Some of the stuff she pulls off rationing food and water, knowing when to save things, when to leave them, maneuvering and making pathways through air conditioning ducts, and thinking ahead to put tape on the latch of a door to keep it from locking--that's a little different.

Megs is pretty hard core for a 12 year old, is what I'm saying. I'm sure there are real kids like this though, so its not that big of a deal. You just don't see it as much in more realistic story settings--so it was good. Definitely a plus.

She also got the lion's share of the action-based plot: Megs has to survive in a parking garage attached to a hotel run by a power-crazed security guard & his insane henchmen. The height of her storyline involves breaking into the hotel to save her feline companion she rescued from a car, and how she runs into an awesome ally. Honestly, Megs story was worth reading the book for, so I'll avoid any spoilers and leave it at that.

Which leaves me with:

Josh's Story

The back of the book led me to believe that at least half of this novel would be about a kid trapped with a parent steadily going insane. That, really didn't happen (until like the last two chapters--don't get me wrong, Josh's dad has a breakdown--it just happens at like, the last possible moment). What I got, was a teenage boy who has absolutely no grasp of the situation, and a father who has survival skills up there with Megs.

Don't get me wrong, when Josh starts questioning why his dad is filling containers with water & rationing food, I agreed with his original "What's the point?" attitude. I had the same one when my folks prepared for hurricanes by doing the same thing. The difference is--when the power eventually went out, I stopped and went "Oh, right. That's why" - Josh sort of never quite gets to that point, and it's a little head-bang worthy.

His dad, for all intents and purposes handles things pretty darn well. Everything he did after realizing their situation was pretty normal survival stuff: Fill containers with water while you can, ration food, keep an eye on the enemy outside. He took charge, clearly tried to take care of his son first, and was reasonably paranoid considering the circumstances. He has a coping mechanism that hints at cracks in his sanity, but I'd be more worried for his sanity if he hadn't been doing something to ground himself. Really, up until he has his breakdown and loses all hope--he was absurdly rational, and I wanted to smack Josh for not noticing..

I also pretty much hated how Josh's storyline ended. The following rant has spoilers, so read on if you like--or read the book and form your own opinion:

I think how Josh's father ended up felt like a cop out--just a way to get rid of him for a future storyline concerning Josh and his dog on their own. I never thought I'd say this, but I preferred it when I thought the neighbors killed the dog. I would have taken that as my punch to the gut. The book takes the "If he had only hung on for a few more hours he would have made it!" endings and I hate those. Don't get me wrong, I had a feeling Josh's story would end depressing, and Megs with hope, but this wasn't it. In fact, I almost would have preferred it if they had both died in the car. The fact that after Josh's dad ends up dead, that Josh gets a hopeful ending was a bit--cheap. It felt cheap. Maybe I'm just speaking out of frustration because I liked Josh's dad--he was a fine example of an amazing fictional parent. Killing him off that way, just a few hours before the world was 'safe is just--well, like I said before: A few more hours and he would have made it! Ending. Maybe if they'd had this happen a quarter of the book earlier I would have been okay, but it was just so close to the novel's 'happy ending' that it drove me crazy. Pods didn't need to end happy, but Josh got over it a little quick when he found his dog, is all I'm saying--if there's a book two, there better be some serious grief.

But, moving on.

Josh's half of the story was mostly around to make observations about the aliens since Megs' half was preoccupied with surviving Richie and co. So, pretty much all your sci-fi content is in this half of the book.

Conclusion

Overall? Despite my complaints, I enjoyed it. The writing is solid, the pacing was decent, and it doesn't pull its punches. More importantly, once I came to terms that the aliens were just there to move along the survival horror I enjoyed myself. There's some great moments, involving both sides. And my favorite was one toward the end that explains why Josh's Dad didn't say anything about the boy's birthday on his birthday--got a little choked up myself during that scene and I'm glad I can think fondly of when trying to block out what came immediately after.

I'll probably give the sequel a read, if only to see how our Plot Device alien friends progress.