Review: YA Zombieish Fiction
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 25, 2011
This book was OK, not horrible, not fabulous, and I really wish Amazon would allow half ratings, because I'd probably give it 3.5, but not 4 stars. It was decently written (though could use an editing pass) and flows pretty well with a lot of action. It starts out with the lone survivor of the apocalypse of the entire country of Australia (a 16-ish year old American girl) reaching America and being hounded by reporters to tell her story.Most of the rest of the book is the story of the beginning of the outbreak (manmade virus, purposely tested on "collateral" humans, of course it gets out into the general population), living through it, and her escape. The characters are fairly well drawn, and the story is told through the eyes of the main character.I think my quibble is mostly that it just wasn't believable. I know, like a zombie-ish apocalypse is totally believable, right? This group of 4 teenagers, one a soldier, and the sister of one of the teens (a cop) manages to maintain and stay safe through all kinds of messes, when others are dropping like flies left and right. Stuff happens to them, yes, but they seem to have better luck than all of the rest of the entire population of Australia...Though the infected are converging upon others and spreading their disease like mad, they are more of a background story than the soldiers, who are hell bent on containing the virus and gunning down everyone, infected or not. This good luck group of kids, though, are smarter than the average bear, of course, and have greater fortune than anyone else.There is good explanation of the advent of the virus, the escape, and containment efforts, and the main character tells her story well.Worth a read, if you can stand a group of teenagers who survive through hell and back with little adult assistance in the midst of an out of control virus.