I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.
This wasn’t a bad story but it could’ve been a lot better. Matthew is a former soldier and while he has PTSD, a lot of the things he and the others do just seem stupid. They take stupid risks and don’t seem to always think things through when they do plan. They drive around the city without any plan on where to go and they don’t bother trying to look up a way to get to where they want. Granted there aren’t phone books or anything anymore but there are maps. All they had to do was stop at a gas station or a library and grab some.
The zombies in this story don’t seem like zombies either. They are infected, they do try to chase people down and try to eat them, but you can kill them the same way you can a normal human. Slit their throats, stab them in the chest or head. They just didn’t seem like the normal zombies I’m used to and while that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it did make it harder to understand why they were having such a hard time surviving. There was a mother with a baby wandering the streets with just a knife, how hard could it really be? And where are the police and military? This is supposed to take place in New York but it didn’t feel like New York. There were hardly any people, alive or zombies, and there just seemed to be convenient buildings nearby all the time. An office building, a bodega, a grocery store and a hotel and they all seemed to be in the same few blocks. Just seemed odd to me. Maybe it’s possible but it didn’t feel right as I read it. Also, Matthew, Surge, and Carl seemed way too trusting when they run into the girls and even when they’re at the gated community. It all seemed too easy when they were in the community and why on God’s green Earth would the mayor tell them what she did! That really made no sense!
Also, how convenient was it that Ellie was the one that created the virus? How did she and Matthew even run into each other? I can’t see how a scientist, doing what she was doing, would be in New York. There just seemed to be a lot of things that didn’t fit right, especially the timeline. Everything seemed to have been going on for a long while but the way everyone was talking it sounded like it was actually just a matter of a few weeks, months at the most.
I was happy to hear Mr. Wehrlen’s voice though. He narrates a few of my favorite zombie series and hearing him is always a treat. He manages to bring life to the characters and make me interested in them and what happens to them. I like hearing his unique take on things.
Overall, this isn’t a bad book or even a bad story but I wish it had been written a little bit better and the problems with it had been straightened out and tweaked so they made the story stronger. If you love zombie series, there are better ones out there but this isn’t too bad if you’re looking for something to add to your collection.