How to Survive a Sharknado and Other Unnatural Disasters
Author: Andrew Shaffer (with Fin Shepard and April Wexler)
Release Date: July 8, 2014
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Source: Blogging for Books
Genre(s): Science Fiction, Humor, Survival, Horror
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Spoilers: Low
GoodReads | Amazon
If you’re the kind of person who got behind the CDC releasing preparatory information on the zombie apocalypse, you’ll love How to Survive a Sharknado and other Unnatural Disasters, Fight Back when Monsters and Mother Nature Attack. Despite what its title suggests, it is almost pocket-sized (if you’re still living in the 90s, it’ll definitely fit in your JNCOs) and contains a wealth of information to survive not only a sharknado, but a boaricane, a Stonehenge apocalypse, a rock monster, a pteracuda, and so many more things that your nightmares are made of.
Long-time fans of Syfy original movies will recognize movie nods as early as the very first creature mention – and if you don’t already have a contingency plan in place for the antdemic, you might as well be sitting on an anthill right now. Consider the movies to be cautionary tales of what happened to those poor saps who didn’t have this survival guide to refer back to in case of emergency. Then you’ll get to feel smug, with the added bonus of probably-definitely-maybe living through the impending crises because you’re the smartest and most well-prepared member of your group.
In the same way the CDC presented the zombie apocalypse with surprisingly helpful tidbits of information, nestled within each hilarious section are real helpful tips to survive certain disasters. Within the ice twister section, there is a helpful list of tips to remind you what to do in any sort of twister situation – get to the lowest floor, stay in the car if you can’t make it to a building; don’t huddle in a corner or park under an overpass. The section on the Mothman takes a moment to remind everyone how to survive a fall into water from a high elevation. There is even a tourniquet how-to in case a robocroc takes your friend’s arm off.
Each potential threat is shown with an overview of vitals that gives other known names, where it was first observed, the max-speed at which the threat moves, the most at-risk groups, and where it can be spotted. On scales of one to five for their threat to humanity, risk of encounter, and Fin Shepard’s WTF (Wow, That’s Freaky) factors are all ranked. For things most of us will (hopefully) never encounter, every entry is very well thought out and presented.
Gorgeously illustrated, impeccably organized, and surprisingly informational, How to Survive a Sharknado is the book for all of your friends – the ones you want to survive an electrokraken attack anyway, let the other guys fend for themselves. It blends serious tips that can be applied in everyday life to more mundane happenings (dealing with a chemical emergency in the lab is just a practice run for dealing with a chemical emergency in the form of Mongolian death worm spit, trust me) alongside other hilarious anecdotes.
Final Thoughts: I enjoyed reading the guide cover to cover, laughing out loud on more than one occasion and remembering one terrible cgi-Syfy movie after another. This book is practical pop culture at its finest and I want to shove it at everyone I know so that we can plan for the eventual arachnoquake.
English