The Smiling Sickness leaves people dead in a few days with a smile from ear to ear like they died doing something they loved. Before then – they are mysteriously gray and unknowingly passing the disease among family and friends. There are a few who have managed to come out of it without the sickness but having lost everyone they loved.
The virus in Fight To Survive was pretty well written. I’m usually someone who wants more about the disease and less about the preparedness (I love Bio-Thrillers), but I thought that Bowman gave me just enough to be curious without giving too much that I could shoot holes through. I love that the little girl knew the percentage of people it had killed off before anyone else did. I can’t imagine what a world that lost 96% of its population would be like.
At first, all I could think is “oh no, is this going to be one of the stories where everyone is completely nice and they pick everyone up on their way to the lodge?” Thankfully, Bowman cut that out after the beginning (it was a nice set up to get everyone in one place though). It’s hard with how many post-apocalyptic books for me to not find something I dislike – in Fight To Survive it might be just how quickly things hit the fan. I think that dealing with what was described would take a little while for people to even realize what was going on – let alone turn to the dark side. Sure, for the pacing of the book, it’s totally understandable though.
Bowman did a nice job at creating characters that were unique to each other with their own strengths and weaknesses. I like that a “city girl” was thrown into the mix who wasn’t familiar with guns, homesteading, or farming. It’s not to throw a wild card into the fire like that because then it’s not 5 people who know what they’re doing against the world. It was also nice to see a bit of naivety shown by everyone in the group. Most of the time people just know what to do when everything falls apart but the reality is that most people would be scared to death and make mistakes.
Overall, Fight To Survive could be the start of a really interesting series. Adding Andrew Tell’s narration – I’m betting that this series will surprise me.
I was voluntarily provided with a free copy of this book. It has not affected my review in any way. If you enjoyed this review, please vote for it! Every vote helps.