Review: Neighborhood apocalypse
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 8, 2012
After a satellite crashes to earth, a deadly virus is released into the atmosphere - Wormwood. Infecting those who have already died, the dead rise and for the residents of Quail Street, there is only one option - to barricade themselves in their homes and work together as a community and try and keep themselves alive and survive.Beginning with news footage of the virus spread and it's gory symptoms, one of the men living on Quail Street tries to rally his neighbours to defend their homes. As the story is based around a neighbourhood trying to survive, there is a large cast of characters. Some of them are easily distinguishable, others play a more minor role and don't have any really outstanding features. Told in multiple POVs, it was a great way to get into the minds and hearts of the characters.The book, understandably, does begin quite slowly - the actual infection itself doesn't start to really kick the pace up until about a third of the way in. And it certainly doesn't gloss over any of the realities - this is a pretty gruesome read, with a high level of suspense.Overall the writing is very good, and the shifting POVs is done very well in that it is easy to distinguish the voices of the characters. There are some preemptive lines at the end of chapters (e.g. ''It was a decision he'd later come to regret''), which does dilutes some of the surprise factor.