Five Books About Bad-Ass Moms in the Apocalypse

American parents are infamously obsessed with our kids’ well-being. If you’ve had the experience of raising a child, you’ve probably also had the experience, at least once, of lying awake at night contemplating the particular obligations and terrors of parenting in a world that—while not literally threatened by monsters or aliens or imminent collapse—often feels, well, shall we say challenging. Unsafe. Threatened.

once described his monster-apocalypse film, , as a “love letter” to his kids. It’s not every horror movie that’s described by its director as a love letter, but we live in interesting times. All good stories about the future touch upon the world isn’t really a story about aliens or the end of civilization. It’s a story about trying to be a good person—a good —under impossible circumstances. Being tested and discovering what you’re made of.