Review: not your typical female heroine--worth the read!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 2, 2014
I completely devoured this novel in one sitting (I think I read Elixir in a about 2 and a half hours.) The suspense was taut between the pages from start to finish--kudos to Abner for penning such a gripping book! I literally sat in front of the computer, glued to the monitor as I scrolled through the pages as fast as possible.The set up isn't drastically different from your typical zombie apocalypse set up: a virus has spread like the plague, making victims to become flesh craving monsters with bloodshot eyes. However, there seems to be a tiny, teensy, weensy fraction of the population that seems immune to this disease.Maya, the main character of the book, is a 17 year old girl whose father works at a lab searching for the cure to the "zombie" disease. As many cities become over run by zombies, Maya's father begin making preparations should it happen to their town. One day, while her father is at work, Maya gets attacked by a zombie and escapes by hiding in the bunker her father had installed for such scenario. After 14 days of hiding underground and no signs of her father ever coming back, Maya ventures into a very different world.Remembering her father had mentioned something about completing the cure the day he disappeared, Maya embarks on a journey to his lab in the city to find this cure. On the way, she (unwillingly) picks up ab 8 year old girl. They soon get pursues by a pack of zombies and is saved by other fellow survivor--including a wannabe soldier named Pollard.I really think Abner did an incredible job with building Maya's character. She's very unique, especially when compared to other heroines of zombie books. First of all, she's not exactly what you would call bad-ass; she's terrified of guns (not good in a zombie infested world) ever since her twin brother committed matricide. However, although no expert wilderness survivalist, Maya does keep her cool and use logic and reasoning to navigate through the dangerous new world. Also, Maya loves music and the author does an excellent job depicting this through descriptions (told from Maya's POV) that make musical reference (ie. footsteps pounded to a staccato beat or something like that.) Also, I am so glad there was no insta-love and that Maya wouldn't take any of that "I'll die for love" kind of crap; no, she's all about learning how to survive.Even though there was no insta-love, there were some attempts of Pollard trying to strike up a relationship between him and Maya. I personally found those scenes awkward; I'm not sure if the author did that on purpose or not (since Pollard being an awkward sort of guy is pretty plausible.)Anyways, final thoughts: Awesome read! You'll fly right through it, especially if you love music and zombies. The book is an on-the-edge-of-your-seat kind of read :-)***free copy was given in exchange for honest review***