Author: Courtney Summers
Format: Paperback
Release Date: October 11th, 2011
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self.
To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live.
But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside.
When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?
My Review:
This book was flat out brilliant. I never thought I would fall in love with a book built solely around Suicide and how Sloane goes about dealing with everything around her, and her desire to just leave everything behind. I couldn't put this book down, and I do notice from time to time, the desire to pick it back up and read it all over again. Yes it's that good; I am not sure if it's got the thing to deem a 5.0 rating, but worth every bit of the 4.5 I'm giving it.
When I tell people that this book has zombies in it, they automatically turn up their lip and tell me to move on. It has nearly NOTHING to do with zombies though, the zombies are there to get that suspense or action/thrill the book needs to keep going. I think they add another dimension to the book that keeps the whole story and every event moving forward and not just standing still.
Sloane, when the book started, I felt sorry for. Even though I still felt sorry for her at the end of the book, there was this added dimension to her character that made you sort of envious as well. I really wish there was a sequel to this book, and there very well could be with the way it ended. So everyone here's to begging Courtney Summers for a sequel to figure out what happens to Sloane and those with her.
The other characters in this book, I wasn't sure about a few of them at first. However, as the group fought and seemed to find their own way of dealing with the zombie apocalypse outside in their own way, they all new the could be a day where one of them wouldn't make it. The characters were very diverse, and well thought out and I felt pulled into them, slowly and enjoyably. I even found myself hoping characters would live through the book and into the next, that maybe one or two of them would survive just long enough.
Now if you want to say that zombie movies or just anything zombie related won't scare you; I will guarantee you now this one will creep you out. The reason I say this is that the zombies aren't the focal point, and when they do take the focal point, you aren't expecting it and they WILL scare you. I will admit there were times at this book where the zombies did freak me out a bit, and then there was one scene that made me smile.
Either way, this book was fantastic. So close to perfection that I am still pondering pushing it over to the 5.0 it probably deserves. I just can't cause novels like Anna Dressed In Blood, Before I Fall, and Sacred Scars just pulled me in and this did as well. I just feel it needed something more, there was something lacking near the end of the book that held it back, I will more than likely have to re-read this and reconvene on this decision later.
