Hunting for the Lamb of God by Jamey O’Donnell

When enemy nations execute a plan to destroy the United States, the population is completely unprepared. Multiple EMP blasts are set off over the main continent, causing everything electronic that was not kept either below ground or in a Faraday cage to be rendered useless. In the early days, many people die, and only those who are lucky, prepared for any emergency, willing to help others, or who prey upon other survivors seem to find ways to survive. But for how long?

This book begins by painting a grim picture for humanity. But there is always hope if you know where to look for it. In this book, for many people much of that hope comes from religion. (The title of the book should suggest that religion is a big part of this story.)

I received a review copy of this book, and I had a little trouble getting into the story. It begins with what felt to me like partisan politics. Had the author used a fictional current and previous president, it likely wouldn't have bothered me, but I disliked the representations used of the actual people. (And to be fair, it would have bothered me no matter which way the apparent political leanings went.)

That being said, once I got past the opening set-up, the story became more interesting and entertaining, and mostly without the political aspects that I found so distracting. At that point, the characters and their survival took center stage and captured my interest. While much of it is a bit dark, it also contains a great deal of hope. And watching the two main families come together as one extended family, helping each other to survive, and coming up with a plan together did hold my interest through to the end. 

This book ends with a bit of a cliffhanger that clearly leads into a sequel.  If you enjoy post-apocalyptic novels with a strong religious theme, once you get past the political opening background (Or if you don't mind the apparent partisan politics), then you'll likely enjoy this book. 

Rating this one for Amazon was difficult for me. I would consider it a solid 3.5 stars, but Amazon only allows reviewers to give full stars, so I had to spend some time considering whether to post it as a three or a four star book. After a great deal of thought, I decided that I had to give it three stars. My reason as to why being that when comparing the enjoyment this book gave me with the many other books that I chose to give four stars to, while I did enjoy this book (once I got past the opening setup), that opening setup made it less enjoyable for me than the four star books that I have reviewed. It was a good book, but had it used entirely fictional characters rather than the actual people who were elected, I don’t believe that it would have contained the issues I found distracting, and I would have given it four stars instead.

https://amzn.to/3T39vzb (Amazon link)

https://books2read.com/u/mZY6vy (Books2Read link to other vendors)

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