Jenny Ahmed’s By Dawn’s Early Light is a gut-wrenching thriller that throws readers headfirst into a world unraveling at the seams. It begins with a seemingly routine shipment at the Port of New York, just another night, another job, and another cargo manifest listing the mundane: kitty litter, hazelnuts, and bananas. But beneath that everyday veneer, something sinister lurks. As the story unfolds, the stakes skyrocket in a terrifyingly plausible doomsday scenario. A nuclear attack on American soil shatters life as we know it, leaving behind a silent, scorched wasteland where the rules of survival have changed. What follows is a gripping tale of chaos, fear, and the desperate fight to understand what happened and, more importantly, what comes next.

What struck me first was the sheer weight of the opening chapters. The eerie calm before the storm and the quiet tension as Jack picks up an unassuming shipment build an undeniable sense of dread. Ahmed’s writing is visceral, immediate, and cinematic. She doesn’t just tell you that something is wrong; she makes you feel it, in the tightening grip of Jack’s paranoia, in the silence that feels too thick, in the way shadows seem to stretch just a little too long. The moment of impact, when the bombs detonate, is nothing short of breathtaking. The descriptions are brutal: New York reduced to ash, people vaporized in an instant, the sheer force of destruction wiping away lives like they were never there. It’s horrifying, yet impossible to look away.

Beyond the spectacle of destruction, the book shines in its portrayal of human resilience, or lack thereof. Take Mohammad, a character whose inner turmoil is as gripping as the apocalypse itself. His finger hovers over a button, the weight of an entire country’s fate pressing down on his trembling hand. He’s not a villain in the traditional sense. He’s a man consumed by forces bigger than himself, trapped in a web of manipulation, fear, and a desperate, misplaced sense of duty. His final moments before he presses that button are some of the most chilling in the book, not because of what he does, but because of how painfully real his thought process feels. His story isn’t just about terrorism; it’s about desperation, coercion, and the terrifying ease with which someone can be turned into a weapon.

Then there’s Sasha and Jake, two people thrown into a world where nothing makes sense anymore. Their journey through the ruins of a dead city is filled with haunting imagery, the sky an unnatural shade of orange, the streets eerily silent, entire cities wiped clean of life. But what makes their story compelling isn’t just the horror; it’s the uncertainty. They don’t know what’s happening. The world they knew is gone, and all they can do is run, searching for answers, for safety, for something that feels real again. The tension is persistent, especially when they encounter the sheriff, sick, hollow-eyed, and barely human. The realization that this isn’t just about bombs, but about something far worse, hits like a gut punch.

If there’s one thing this book does masterfully, it’s keeping the reader on edge. Every time you think you understand the scope of the disaster, Ahmed pulls the rug out from under you. It’s not just New York. It’s not just Washington. It’s everywhere. The slow, horrifying realization that civilization as we know it has ended seeps into every page. And then there’s the creeping horror of what comes next—the people left behind, the sickness, the way death lingers in the air. The world doesn’t just collapse in fire; it unravels, leaving behind something unfamiliar, something wrong. And yet, in the middle of all this destruction, the question remains: who did this? And why?

By Dawn’s Early Light is not for the faint of heart. It’s raw, relentless, and deeply unsettling. But it’s also one of those books that sticks with you long after you’ve turned the last page. If you’re a fan of apocalyptic thrillers with a razor-sharp edge—think The Road meets Tom Clancy—this one’s for you. Just be prepared: it doesn’t pull its punches. And once you step into this world, you won’t come out the same.

Pages: 229 | ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DPLKXNYY