HAPPY DOOMSDAY

Sosnowski (Vamped, 2004) follows three teenage survivors of a global apocalypse as they struggle through a ravaged America empty of other humans.

Dev is an autistic teenager fascinated by vacuum cleaners, astronomy, and other things that make more sense to him than humiliating interactions with other people. Mohammad is a star football player who nevertheless feels out of place in Trump's America—enough so that he listens to Internet “friends” seeking to radicalize him. Lucy is a pregnant teen mourning the death of her best—and only—friend, the baby's father. The only thing they have in common? They were all preparing to kill themselves when everyone else died first. For Dev, the sudden and unexplained demise of seemingly every other human on the planet is a relief and a blessing; for Mohammad it's a wake-up call that rouses him harshly from his uncertain martyr's faith, prompting him to change his name to Marcus. And for Lucy, it's a desperate hope that perhaps she was spared for a higher purpose. Initially alone, each of these troubled teenagers works to survive the challenges of a world filled with such hazards as wild animals, food spoilage, freezing winter storms...and body decomposition on a massive scale. Part dystopian survival novel and part coming-of-age journey, the tale weaves back and forth between the three leads as they try to make sense of the catastrophe and create a new normal for themselves. Marcus and Lucy meet first, but will Dev welcome these intruders into his blissful solitude or treat them as interrupters of his own personal heaven? Are there other survivors out there? Will these three be humanity's last dying gasp or the creators of a new, more humane world?

A sharply topical and well-researched apocalypse narrative that shifts among black humor, grisly details, and moments of poignancy.