Narrated by Liz Brand
Summary:
Renna’s the quiet, good sort looking to branch out and have a more exciting senior year of high school. But she lives in a world where curfews are strictly enforced because a virus has turned a small set of the population into killing machines (figuratively). When an outbreak happens near her home, she’s forced to flee.
Additional Comments:
- World-building 4/5: The idea of a half-pocalypse is unique to me (It might be very common, but the genre isn’t my usual fare). The story has an interesting take on zombies. (It tries ridiculously hard not to make the Wilders zombies, but it’s a car of protesting too hard.) Wilders are essentially the Reavers from Firefly in the way they behave. Things that deter Wilders are loosely plausible.
- Main character 4/5: The reader can sympathize with Renna’s desire for normalcy.
- Side characters 3/5: They’re all very well fleshed out but Alyssa annoyed the heck out of me by the end. She was offset a bit by Sidney.
- Performance 4.5/5: Gonna admit to starting out biased on this one. I already knew that I loved the narrator’s voice. That usually goes a long way in making me like an audiobook. The narrator distinguished all major players and rendered the scenes believably.
- Plot 3/5: Started in a strange spot with the kid sneaking off to a party, went into way too much detail there, then skipped to some action and solid world building, got bogged down in navel gazing and stupid decisions, then wrapped up.
- Closure 4/5: You can tell it’s the setup to a series but there is a. Ice feeling of this phase of the story being concluded.
- Content Warnings: 6 f-bombs, plus quite a bit of casual cursing
Conclusion:
Light (in gore but not language), this is a YA dystopian zombie tale that’s surprisingly workable. Yeah, yeah, they’re not zombies… just similar.
Associate links to follow…
Available Audiobooks: I have free codes for almost everything.
New Release: The Shadow Council Series 1: Money Makes it Deadlier – An FBI agent gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong. (Narrated by Liz Brand)
The Collins Case – 2 FBI agents track down a kidnapped family. Kid friendly.
If fantasy’s more your thing, go Redeemer Chronicles. The first, Awakening, is available as an audiobook.
Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – a kid deals with her parents’ divorce, bullies, and the wonder of discovery.
Try The Dark Side of Science – Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live.
Beyond Broken Pencils – Contemporary literary tale of a school shooting. Ian unleashes his inner demons on his classmates and teachers…
Scratched Off – FBI agent vs a serial killer. When Sam Kerman sets out to hunt a serial killer, he has no idea how personal the case will become.
Nonfiction:
5 Steps to Surviving Chemistry – A primer for chemistry students. Breaks down concepts into simple terms.
5 Steps to Better Blurbs – A book for writers looking to improve their book descriptions
