Odd Billy Todd

I have been waiting for this for four years (since the author posted the first chapter on his blog) and he has not disappointed. Billy Todd has a way of sticking with you and have you thinking about him and the rest of the survivors for a long time to come. Now I can't wait to see if Citadel will be made into a full length book.

Well dang it, Billy Todd is about the most likeable character I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. What a pleasant surprise this book was, I'm so glad I decided to try it. I really really didn't want it to end. On first glance it looked to be the usual end of society as we knew it scenario - but not with Billy involved! The characters were well developed, the storyline fast paced at times but slowing when needed. I loved Rhonda, Pete, Todd, Jerry and the other main characters - each brought something unique to the story, and there were lots of twists and turns and surprises.

I enjoyed the way it was written, it was honest and real. Some reviews have pointed out errors, but presumably there has been an edit because I never really noticed anything. I would heartily recommend this as a damn good read to anyone that enjoys a good tale. Good work N.C. Reed - please write a sequel, please!

Love odd billy and all of the characters. Really like the idea of decency surviving and flourishing in such difficult circumstances and morality and courage are always appreciated. Good people are always inspiring and we could only hope to know some like bill

This is not the typical fast moving, shoot 'em up, apocalyptic novel. Billy Todd has lived his life with the label of being "slow, different" in spite of his parents best efforts. It takes the end of the world, and a whole new circle of friends, to make people appreciate how wonderful he is.
Don't pick up this book thinking it will be a quick read - I'm a speed reader and this one still took some time. However it is worth it. The writing is solid, I stayed involved in the characters and plot, and most important to me, I was satisfied with the ending.
This is a solid novel that just happens to have an apocalyptic setting. Read it, I'm pretty sure you will enjoy it!
PS - No Zombies!!!!!

I understand what the previous comments meant about the constant use of a particular name and incorrect spellings, however don't let the comments deter you from reading this great story. I loved the characters and recommend this book. I

This author understands human nature. Good character development. Billy had awesome parents! I especially appreciated the perspective that people who don't "fit in" with our current fast-paced tech culture can nevertheless have an important impact, and that education should include more than reading, writing, and 'rithmatic. Thanks to the author for respecting people with "disabilities" as well as people of the Christian faith. Neither is common these days.

This is the best Post Apocalypse stand alone novel I have read since Lights Out by Crawford. Well written, excellently edited and a total page turner I just finished my 3rd read recently. Characters are well developed, world building is reasonable, thorough and situations are realistic as can be imagined in a PA environment. Made my Favorites Collection on my Kindle and those are few and far between.

I read this book over the course of several camping trips during this summer of 2015. It kept me interested and I like the story of triumph over the odds. The only downside for me, and this is just me only, is it about three quarters of the way through too many characters were introduced for me to keep straight. Id recommend this selection.

Story line was a little generic but well written, and it kept my interest. The characters were likeable and believable. All in all it read like a B rates movie on the syfy channel but one I would watch. Had a lot of good points about life after a pandemic, though at times I felt like I was reading a book written for young teens. Over all I liked it.

I enjoyed the story overall, but the author's persistent misuse of apostrophes, as well as many other grammatical and spelling errors were annoying. I found more than 100 errors, many of them repeated multiple times. Her's instead of hers, and the use of the apostrophes when trying to indicate a plural are just a couple examples.

I highly recommend this book. The story loneliest me interested l the way through. I felt like I was there with Billie all during his experiences.

If you like "end is the world" books this is for u

The book was decent; good story line. There is way too much of the country-spun dialogue and it gets in the way of the story I think. But it adds a lot of words to the story and without it the book would be a lot shorter. The action is good and mostly believable, just not very much of it.

Story-wise, this is an excellent one. I never allow editing issues to influence my opinion of a story, & this one is no exception. What I DID find irritating was the language of the characters....all of these characters went to school- even the older ones, yet they all spoke like illiterates. Even in the civil war era in the US, the language used by the soldiers (both north & south) in letters home were grammerically correct, with correct spelling & beautiful handwriting. The language used by these characters was horrible, & grated mightily on my nerves. This would have been a 5 start review for the story, but the illiteracy of otherwise intelligent people was just too much.

On the story, I loved the way the characters grew and developed, some finding their own worth, some finding their own "niche", some softening, finding other's worth & value, & all of them finding a value in a true living experience. Kudos on the story. Yuck, on the language.

The idea of Billy as a mentally challenged character is completely gone, early. Not because he overcomes something, it just seems that he never was Odd to start with. Meanwhile, every possible good thing happens to these characters. They somehow find the stuff they should need, they meet the perfect combination of skills one needs in a plague situation.

The author managed to slaughter every rule of grammar and punctuation in existence.

Every dialogue sounds like morons speaking.

Tons of wrong tense verbs, wrong words, misspelled words...enough to write a book.

For a book of this genre, it is unbelievable. No real strife. Only one of the characters is injured, and minor at that!

The story plods along at best with repetitive information thrown out to the reader.

I read it to the end hoping there was some saving grace, but there was nothing redeeming.

Re edited? Nope.
This book is childishly written. Errors everywhere. Apostrophes where they don't belong, misspellings, punctuation errors etc, etc, etc. I'm halfway through and I dropped it like it was a Highlights for Children magazine in a dentist office. An unedited version.

Billy Todd is a thoroughly enjoyable character. Sweet and assuming and far smarter than he gives himself credit for, though those at the farm appear to be ! Nice long end-of-the-world read. I loved the focus on surviving and rebuilding even though there is conflict and violence between Billy's group and outside groups. There's some predictability in terms of the people they pick up (i.e., each person they pick up happen to have a unique specific skill) and at one point I might have needed a spreadsheet if it would have been necessary to track the weaponry attributed to each character (Mr. Reed ascribes weaponry to characters like most writers describe the characters' physical appearances and clothes they wear and as my knowledge of guns and rifles is minimal, it became a blur of numbers). That aside, I really enjoyed the ingenuity of Billy and his Farm family. I loved how they built their own community, and Billy's unassuming leadership. This is a world I could actually read more about as they build their community but I do think that Mr. Reed left it off at a very lovely place.

I will note, as other reviewers have, that there are a myriad of spelling and grammatical errors throughout the book. It could use a good edit but I found the story engaging enough that I wasn't as put off by the errors as I usually am. But it would not have been amiss for Mr. Reed's publisher to put a little more effort into the editorial process.