There were parts of this novel that I really, really enjoyed: the overall claustrophobic feel of it, the focus on how a small community fares when they get cut off from the rest of the world, rationing power and food supplies while they don't even know what's happening beyond their borders and dealing with the hardships of winter. It was interesting to see how the cultural beiefs and old history came into play for these survivors. 

At the same time, I fill like there was some missed potential here. On one hand, there's a lot of focus on characters here: most of the plot is driven by dialogue, and there are a lot of character-focused scenes. But on the other hand, there wasn't enough character development. After finishing the book, I don't feel like I know these people I've been reading about very well, and I feel like the journey they went through could have been undergone by any other people placed in the same conditions. I think what makes disaster/survival stories interesting for me is seeing how compelling characters deal with them, grow and fail through them, encounter the darkness within themselves as the darkness from outside surrounds them. There was some of it in this novel, but not enough for my taste, I suppose?