wendylee's review against another edition
5.0
Not your typical Zombie book! I loved everything about it. Very well written. Even though it was about zombies, there was not a lot of gore. The ending is amazing and emotional and I couldn't wait to get my hands on the second book.
toxicmasquerade's review against another edition
5.0
I completely loved it. The characters were great, except for a few quirks from some. Also a good zombie story. It isn't set in the beginning of the zombie outbreak, but about 20 or 30 years after, I forgot. It shows how people are dealing with the zombies running around. They have high level security checks where you have to be pricked with a needle, or several, to check your blood just about everywhere you go. The story had humor, action and some parts where you just feel bad for the characters. Definitely has a twist at the end. Overall, a great story and I can't wait to read the sequel.
sweetleilani's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
hanniegracie95's review against another edition
3.0
Somewhere around a 2.5 or a three. The characters are terribly bland and cliche, and the main character is terribly bland and cliche AND annoying AND unlikeable. There are too many attempts at witty dialogue that just seem immature and the writing is incredibly cheesy almost all the time. Also, and I'm saying this as someone who loves zombie media, there are way too much politics and far too little actual zombies in this book. Also, it's extremely predictable.
The relationships between the characters leave a lot to be desired. The reader never gets to see how much they mean to each other, the author just kind of says they care about each other a lot, even though the characters never act as such
It really bothered me how the author just lumped every bad stereotype she's ever heard about Texas into one character who was her attempt at a good villain. It wasn't creative or shocking, and it's been done to death (hopefully one that won't be reanimated).
All that aside, I loved the world building. I really really appreciated how to story took place AFTER the initial rising of the dead, and chose to focus on how society is trying to overcome a zombie infestation, and how day to day life would change.
Despite all the things I didn't like, I still found myself intrigued and constantly turning the page. Is it a good book? Nope. But it is an entertaining book, if you can look past allllllll of the flaws.
(On a side note the main characters, who are brother and sister, are a little too close... like, creepy close.)
The relationships between the characters leave a lot to be desired. The reader never gets to see how much they mean to each other, the author just kind of says they care about each other a lot, even though the characters never act as such
It really bothered me how the author just lumped every bad stereotype she's ever heard about Texas into one character who was her attempt at a good villain. It wasn't creative or shocking, and it's been done to death (hopefully one that won't be reanimated).
All that aside, I loved the world building. I really really appreciated how to story took place AFTER the initial rising of the dead, and chose to focus on how society is trying to overcome a zombie infestation, and how day to day life would change.
Despite all the things I didn't like, I still found myself intrigued and constantly turning the page. Is it a good book? Nope. But it is an entertaining book, if you can look past allllllll of the flaws.
(On a side note the main characters, who are brother and sister, are a little too close... like, creepy close.)
scottneumann's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
shontellereads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Interesting, very unexpected last quarter.
laurenbenedicto's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
dresswaltz's review against another edition
4.0
Apparently for my spooky month this year, it's all zombies--playing (and replaying in some cases) the newer Resident Evil games, finishing up the iZombie TV show, and reading the Newsflesh series.
I don't like writing reviews; I prefer to just exchange thoughts directly with friends. I don't like how permanent things on the internet are, I guess (after all, I change, so my thoughts are likely to as well). But I don't know of any friends that have read this book, so I went to check the reviews and find others' thoughts--and was surprised at how highly Liked so many negative reviews were. And over some really inconsequential things, too.
Like how the main character isn't into sex, which some claimed made her/the author juvenile ("icky no sex!")--y'all, ace people exist lol. Other people in the book have sex, just not the main character. Grant/McGuire's main characters in other books have sex! Is a book lesser because it doesn't have sex? Those are your preferences, but it's a weird ding. I saw someone else was mad at how the specifics of firearms are used in this book--which, I mean, there are guns in this book, but it's so far from the focus that it seems like another weird thing to be upset over. But I guess that's just the crux of it: A lot of zombie media focuses on the immediate outbreak and the action. Which is fine sometimes, but I appreciate it when another angle is used. In this case, the outbreak happened a couple decades or more ago, and it's more about epidemiology and how humans restructure society around a pandemic than it is about the zombies themselves--something that certainly hits different in 2021.
So to any friends reading (or anyone else really): This isn't a zombie action book. This is a book that has zombies...and is concerned about corruption in news media, and politics, and epidemiology, and how humans make a new normal in extreme circumstances. The villain is a little obvious, and the writing is not her absolute best (this is one of her first novels after all), but I was hooked on the worldbuilding and characters and very much want to find out what happens next.
I don't like writing reviews; I prefer to just exchange thoughts directly with friends. I don't like how permanent things on the internet are, I guess (after all, I change, so my thoughts are likely to as well). But I don't know of any friends that have read this book, so I went to check the reviews and find others' thoughts--and was surprised at how highly Liked so many negative reviews were. And over some really inconsequential things, too.
Like how the main character isn't into sex, which some claimed made her/the author juvenile ("icky no sex!")--y'all, ace people exist lol. Other people in the book have sex, just not the main character. Grant/McGuire's main characters in other books have sex! Is a book lesser because it doesn't have sex? Those are your preferences, but it's a weird ding. I saw someone else was mad at how the specifics of firearms are used in this book--which, I mean, there are guns in this book, but it's so far from the focus that it seems like another weird thing to be upset over. But I guess that's just the crux of it: A lot of zombie media focuses on the immediate outbreak and the action. Which is fine sometimes, but I appreciate it when another angle is used. In this case, the outbreak happened a couple decades or more ago, and it's more about epidemiology and how humans restructure society around a pandemic than it is about the zombies themselves--something that certainly hits different in 2021.
So to any friends reading (or anyone else really): This isn't a zombie action book. This is a book that has zombies...and is concerned about corruption in news media, and politics, and epidemiology, and how humans make a new normal in extreme circumstances. The villain is a little obvious, and the writing is not her absolute best (this is one of her first novels after all), but I was hooked on the worldbuilding and characters and very much want to find out what happens next.
simonlorden's review
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
yeah, overall I ended up liking this book more the second time. I still can't forgive the way the female candidate was written, though
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, and Murder
zombiecats's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
5.0