Book Blurb:
In Sam's world there are two rules. Rule #1: Nobody dies. Protect the living at all costs. Rule #2: Everybody dies. At least once.
The Waking was a global event in which a force called the Lifeblood invaded all humans who died. The few strong enough to control it came back as powerful immortals. The rest let the bloodlust take over and awoke with one goal - to kill.
Newly appointed Watch Guard Samantha Shields has a legacy to uphold. Her father died a hero defending their city and now she wants to follow in his footsteps. Except for the dying part, of course. Unfortunately, fate has other plans as she discovers deep dark secrets that make her choose between her loyalties and the lives of everyone in her city. Both rules are in play as Sam is forced to make hard decisions that could cost her everything - including the person she cares about most.
My Review:
3 Out Of 5 Stars
Genre: Dystopian, Romance, Survival, Suspense, Zombies--
The world the author created was the absolute best part of the story. For some unknown reason, people stopped staying dead. Instead they would rise from the dead and most turned into mindless flash eating things, the Woken, that had to be stopped. But a few lucky and strong-willed people would rise from the dead as Chosen, an elite super soldier (for the most part). There is the human Watch which consists of teams of humans and Chosen who protect the city from the Woken as well as the terrorist groups around. And then there is the alarm that goes off if someone dies, to alert people of an imminent potential threat of a turn. It was such a unique idea for a world and I am a huge fan of anything having to do with zombie so I was instantly intrigued.
This is listed as a teen book but the only thing teen about it was that the main character was 18. She is apparently bisexual, or so it hints at, but she never calls someone her boyfriend or girlfriend, only lover. What teen book uses the term lover? Anyway, Sam currently has a female lover and a good majority of the first 60 pages deal with her intimate relationship with that girl, as well as describing how hot she found her and exactly what she is wearing at all times. Honestly, it made me uncomfortable. I don’t care who does what, I just don’t want to read about it. Or maybe make it known that there is same sex sexual encounters in the synopsis so I could be aware before I chose to read the book. It would not have been a problem if the story was not constantly bringing it up, but it felt more like a romance than the zombie dystopian I was hoping for.
Anyway, I did not really care for Sam as a character. I thought the side characters were detailed, interesting and compelling, but Sam was more an idea of a character than a real one, more a robot who went through the motions. She lacked emotional responses to a lot of things that I felt were warranted one, such as the death of her mother or her own near death, or the killing of her “ex-lover”. But then other times she freaked out on her leader about other things that were pretty reasonable (to me). As harsh as it sounds, she was pretty blah. I really wanted her to die, which is a terrible thing to wish on a main character (but understandable in this world where people rise from the dead with some potential) so she could be a Chosen.
The book has some interesting turns that I did not see coming which I appreciated, but I probably won’t be reading more in the series. Maybe if the second book was narrated by a different character I might be interested, but I have had enough of Sam unfortunately.
I received this title in return for my honest review.
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