Amy Thorstenson

The Planets Amy Thorstenson

The end of the world was just the beginning.

In a small Midwest town, a young woman desperately wants to become a concert violinist. But nothing-not being attacked by her crazy drug dealer, not even a rollerskating Tesla cult-can distract her from her own gut-wrenching failure.

Nothing, that is... until the world ends.

When the bombs begin to fall, she moves into an off-the-grid bunker with her survivalist boyfriend. Suddenly her fears of career failure seem quaint as she's forced to endure starvation, radioactive fallout, homicidal strangers, and pooping in a bucket. But in a world where Armageddon has already come, somehow things just keep getting worse.

The novel jumps between snapshots of her life Before The Event and her fight to survive afterward. And intertwined throughout are excerpts of a darkly funny self-help book, Keeping It Cute at the End of the World. Chapters like "Who To Bring Back To Your Bunker" and "Gear & Gizmos for the End Times" provide genuine tips for surviving an apocalypse in a sassy entertaining style.

This funny, weird, and heart-breaking novel explores love, music, memories, survival... and how we can all keep it cute at the end of the world.