The lack of any sense of authenticity. I finally gave up on the books in the second book when Sarah’s baby died and none of the characters could discern the difference in the odor of sewage as opposed to death. The fact the character is holding a decomposing baby in her arms and doesn’t know the child is dead until she unwrapped it and saw the maggots. There were multiple other examples of lack of reality previous to the baby. The series seemed to be going nowhere.