The Trouble with Good Ideas by Amanda Panitch

Zara's instincts are often in the form of her dad's admonishing voice in her head, telling her to be 'ruthless' and that 'survival is about the individual,' but Panitch skillfully uses Zara's physical and emotional journey to show the importance of teamwork and that 'it's okay not to be okay all the time.' Panitch also deftly shines a light on what it's like for disadvantaged groups during a disastrous event with 'safe' communities created by 'men's rights' fanatics and chronically sick people left for dead. Gone Dark by Amanda Panitch (The Trouble with Good Ideas) is a complex look at mental and physical abuse, the treatment of marginalized people and the way it all manifests during a large-scale catastrophe. With supplies in short demand and the real reason she left the compound haunting her, the journey isn't easy, but Zara looks to her past to help pave a path for her future. Amid the ensuing chaos, the only person she can find is her best friend's brother, Gabe, and the two set out to find their families and travel cross-country to Zara's apocalypse-proof off-the-grid homestead.

So when a nationwide blackout occurs, survival tactics Zara learned earlier immediately kick in. Seventeen-year-old Zara grew up in a 'self-sustaining home in the thick of the woods' in New York with her doomsday-prepping parents, until she and her mother fled to civilization in Los Angeles. This absorbing survival story shows what could happen if the entire United States lost power.

Drawing upon a resilience she didn’t know she had, Zara leads a growing group of friends on an epic journey across a crumbling country back to her father’s compound, where their only hope for salvation lies.īut with every step she takes, Zara wonders if she truly has what it takes to face her father and the secrets of her past, or if she’d be better off hiding in the dark. In the wake of the disaster and the chaos that ensues, Zara is forced to call upon skills she thought she’d never use again-and her best bet to survive is to go back to the home she left behind. Until a malware attack on the United States electrical grids cuts off the entire country’s power. When seventeen-year-old Zara escaped her father’s backwoods survivalist compound five years ago, she traded crossbows and skinning hides for electricity and video games…and tried to forget the tragedy that drove her away.

Dry meets Hatchet in this thrilling tale of survival following a teen girl who must lead her friends across the country to the safety of her estranged father’s survivalist compound after a mass power failure leaves the country in chaos.

The Trouble with Good Ideas by Amanda Panitch