A kick-ass book about zombies, family, and survival.

It took me a bit to read this one, I have had this one on my e-reader for almost 2 months now, but I am still not 100% sold on zombies again. But last week (writing this in June) I was waiting for a friend at IKEA and had a bit of time + felt in the mood for some action/horror.

In this awesome book the zombies are everywhere! There is a virus around and it turns people into rotting corpses who are hungry for some fresh meat (and to spread the whole virus, as is always how it goes). We follow mother Amy and her daughter Lila as they try to fight their way to safety. I loved how we immediately got in the midst of something. I have read plenty of zombie stuff and a lot of them begin when things go from OK to shit hits the fan, but in this one we are right at the shit hits the fan stage. We see that Amy’s boyfriend is being eaten, she is stalked by what used to be her mom, and oh yes, did I mention there are more zombies around? I loved it! I was immediately into the world of the book and I was desperate to find out who would be safe and who wouldn’t be. And I was curious to learn more about Amy and Lila. And the book keeps up the strong action vibes for quite a while with some very scary moments as well. There is a small lull but after that it is non-stop action again. The author also writes the surroundings so well that you at moments you were, just like Amy, looking for a place of safety. To see where to go and what to skip.

I loved reading about the zombies, or the virus that turns people into these things (it isn’t just the bite it seems). It was interesting to learn how people changed. How at first they were fine, but slowly they would just rot. Necrosis would set in. And they would get urges. Violent ones. Hungry ones. The author really wrote the zombies well. From the ones who have just changed and are still quite cognizant and have more knowledge of things to the corpses that are just bones and small bits meat keeping it together. And how hungry they were. How desperate they were to find some fresh meat. There was one part that will stick with me and that was the story of Phil. I am not entirely sure if it is true given Phil, but that part of his story just haunted me. I am sure it will haunt other readers as well.

I loved reading more about Amy, about her family, about her bad dealings in life. It didn’t distract from the zombie parts, in fact, it just makes you root for her more. You want her to succeed.

The addition of Marcus to the story was a fun one. And I, despite knowing that this is a zombie book and you can never really do this, was already shipping them. Marcus was such a sweet character.

But the last part of the book just PISSED me off. For many reasons which I will put under spoiler tags, because I seriously need to vent. The whole air raid stuff? I mean, seriously, I get it army  you want to be pre-emptive about shit given the zombie parade in the city, but you know that there are survivors there as well, why not at least give them a chance to evacuate. Now you have ruined so many more lives with your shitty action. And then the whole OMG the metro tunnel thingie is blocked and I cannot do it all alone (because of course no one helps out) so I have to be bitten by a zombie to gain superpowers. What the fuck. No. It would have worked for me, or at least I would have accepted it, if our MC turned out to be immune. Like she would have the superpowers but she wouldn’t turn into a zombie and have to kill herself and leave her 9-year old who has been through a lot already all alone. I was just so angry and I wasn’t one moment of sadness, yes, maybe for the poor girl who has lost everything and then her mom as well. Fuck that, it felt way too convenient to have this happen.

Other than those two things I did have a lot of fun with this one but yeah, those two things did dampen my enjoyment so I am given a lesser rating. 3.5 stars is still a great rating but yeah, it could have been 4.5 stars.