Overview:
Hig’s wife is gone, his friends are dead, and he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper, and a mercurial, gun-toting misanthrope named Bangley.
But when a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail, only to find something that is both better and worse than anything he could ever hope for.
Would I Recommend It?
Yes, but if it’s the first one you’re going to read of Heller’s then The River is the one you should grab instead (unless you’re specifically wanting post-apocalyptic scenery).
Thoughts:
Peter Heller has become my go-to favorite when I want to read a book by a male author. When I want frou-frou descriptions of the outdoors. When I want to read about action scenes that I sometimes will have to read twice over to create a visual of it. When I want tear jerker moments.
I dislike fishing. Find it utterly boring. Yet. Here is Heller making me enjoy even the fishing descriptions. In Dog Stars also throw in hunting, riffles, and aircrafts–just a myriad of more things I don’t care about–and he pulls them off in a weirdly harmonious way. It has to do with his style of writing or something. I end up enjoying all of it. I don’t gloss over his words. If I don’t get it the first time around, I don’t mind going back and reading it again. I’m absolutely fascinated by how Heller is able to pull me into his world.
Many can’t stomach his style of writing. (I find it to be really neat. The last couple words of the sentences become the words that go with the next sentence. There’s probably a name for this, but I’m no English major, so I’ve no clue and Heller’s books are the first for me with this writing style.) It took me some time to get used to it when I read The River. But I’m simply hooked.
I enjoy post apocalyptic stories. They’re definitely my jam. I like them even more when authors, like Heller, focus on the human aspect–how a person is to deal with the aftermath. I don’t have to have the nitty-gritty details about what killed off humans to enjoy the story. (Unless the storyline is taking place while the world is in the process of dying then I want details cause the thing is still happening.) Whether wiped out by aliens or the flu–who cares! What happens after. How does one survive? Those are the parts that fascinate and intrigue me.
You’ll cry over man’s best friend. You’ll cry over what Hig had to do to honor his wife’s wish. You’ll nearly cry over the crotchety old man, Bangley.
It’s a book about the love and the connections that we seek. That even those of us who are comfortable being alone, will still secretly seek the company of at least one other person. That some of us can’t just accept our current circumstances and rather take the chance to embark on an expedition that has no planned safe return to find other survivors who are like you. To actually live and not just merely survive. That human connection are so incredibly important even when it seems that all of humanity has died.
It’s also a book about how as*holes and idiots will likely end up roaming the earth should the world end and only a small percentage were left to reboot it. That the good and kind people will get killed off cause we are just too darned nice. But perhaps my feelings on this are just fueled by how ridiculous people are acting about COVID.
Heller’s books in order of favorites for me:
The River
The Dog Stars
The Guide
Quotable Quotes:
“Is it possible to love so desperately that life is unbearable? I don’t mean unrequited, I mean being in the love. In the midst of it and desperate. Because knowing it will end, because everything does. End.”
They bred dogs for everything else, even diving for fish, why didn’t they breed them to live longer, to live as long as a man?” – page 25
Book:
The Dog Stars
Author:
Peter Heller
Genre:
Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Drama, Action, Tear-Jerker, Outdoors
My Rating:
4 Stars
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