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Friday, February 5, 2016

Book Review: Life After the Undead by Pembroke Sinclair


My Rating:
Book: Life After the Undead 
Author: Pembroke Sinclair
Pages: 248
Release date: October 27th 2015
Publisher: Booktrope
hhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0172HWSGW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0172HWSGW&linkCode=as2&tag=readiculoupea-20&linkId=W7IHA5GHY6CPPRMB
Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Krista must quickly figure out how she’s going to survive in the zombie-destroyed world. The one advantage humans have is that the zombies hate humid environments, so they’re migrating west to escape its deteriorating effects. The survivors plan to construct a wall at North Platte to keep the undead out, and Krista has come to Nebraska to start a new life.

Zombies aren’t the only creatures she has to be cautious of—the other survivors have a dark side. Krista must fight not only to live but also to defend everything she holds dear—her country, her freedom, and ultimately, those she loves.

Join Krista in her quest to survive in this thrilling apocalyptic novel by Pembroke Sinclair.


My Review:

I received a copy from the author to read and review in return.

Life After the Undead was a very interesting read! I haven't really invested my reading time much in the 'Zombie-genre", so I welcomed this book request with open arms. There were many aspects of the book which really intrigued and which enticed me to breeze through the pages with ease. Despite this, there were some aspects which wavered my opinion of the book just a little here and there.

The story starts off with no interruptions. Krista, our seventeen-year-old protagonist is about to board the school bus when something eerie happens; a student is attacking the bus driver and the other students! At first no one knows what is going on, but as the story moves along the reader is plunged head first into the entire new apocalyptic world Pembroke Sinclair cleverly created. The book is written in first person, and I really liked how Krista told the history about how the apocalyps began from her perspective and how actually no one really new when or how it began in America.

The pace is quick in the beginning, where Krista runs from the dangers of the zombies with her mother and father and she eventually ends up in Florida (in the resort of Walt Disney World). In order to keep the society in tact, the survivors are governed by rich families which have taken it upon themselves to coordinate and reconstruct the remaining civilization. Krista's new life and job as a cleaner for one of the rich families does not match well with her brave and bold personality, and she quickly discovers this is not the life she wants to lead for the rest of her life.

It is too her greatest surprise that she somehow manages a way out, away from Florida. The rich family she works for discover that her cousin, Liet, survived the sudden attacks of the zombies and that he is currently working as Luitenant in the newly formed military. She decides to join him on his mission to contribute to building a wall between Florida and the rest of America. Krista realizes that also this life is not what she expected, and the people she trusted are actually complete strangers to her her. Someone's prolonging the process of getting the wall built and keeping secrets from civilizations; Krista is bound to reveal them and save America from this dreadful happening.


Krista's relationship with her Liet is extremely peculiar. In the beginning it seems like Liet is super protective and happy to have Krista by his side, and then another moment he's this explosive frustrated and angry control freak! This gave me the obvious signs that Liet must be suffering from Schizophrenia, which left Krista many times clueless on what to do our how to react towards Liet. Because of this extreme and strange relationship the plot became very unpredictable, it was simply impossible to determine what Krista's fate would be as long as she was under his control. This was one of the reason why the book became more and more addictive to read and I found myself looking forward to their encounters.


In the duration of Krista's stay, Krista skills leveled up to near perfection. She is a bold, strong, talented and brave character who knows what she wants. During her dangerous excursions of finding new equipment for the wall, she meets Quinn, a survivor and fighter from the zombie-infested wildlands of the West. Their relationship and it's development is genuine and very believable, considering everything Krista went through the chemistry and actual adoration wasn't immediately there. The overall characters were in my opinion very 'silent'. There wasn't much of their personality or their presence revealed throughout the book. I felt that this prevented me from building a solid relationship with the accompanying characters, and that is quite a pity.


Once the excitement of the apocalyps was over, and Krista was merely sent out to look for new equipment and materials, I felt like the story dragged on a little too long and everything became a little too repetitive. The mood of the story dwindles and the attacks become brief and quite staccato. It was as if Krista was absolutely invincible and no matter in what situation she landed herself in, she found an impossible way to wriggle out of it. Even her moments with Liet became very brief and insignificant to the story, I was hoping for a grand scene with the two of them, instead it was rounded up quite swift and slump.


Despite this sudden slothfulness, the ending was again quick and exciting. I am not sure if I am keen on reading the second book, but who  knows it will make a complete turn around!

I say if you are a zombie and apocalyps fanatic (like I am!!) then you should definitely give this book a a good go!