This story is about a military outpost in post-apocalyptic England. You don’t really get all the details right away, so I won’t ruin it. I can say that it’s a “zombie” story, but I put zombie in quotes because it’s not your regular zombie story.
I’m listening to this audiobook in my car, and I’ve never wanted to drive places more than now! I can’t stop listening. I’ve ended up parked outside my house just finishing listening to a chapter multiple times. I’m keeping notes of all my favorite parts. So far, Melanie’s first real meal is one of my top faves. And this line: “the liquid snuffling sounds of the monster’s banquet”. Something about that line really got to me. Two more lines also made me write them down because they were cool. At one point, the scientist in the book (I want to call her the evil scientist, but draw your own conclusions) is looking at a slice of infected brain tissue under a microscope. She calls the vision a “fine fractal froth of spores”. I’m a sucker for alliteration. She also calls her observation “a tropical BRAINforest”. I’m also a sucker for puns!
The book is read by a lovely British woman. Something about the way she says the main character’s name “Melanie” is just really neat. I’d probably listen to anything she read to me! Also, I love that the “zombies” are called hungries.
I don’t want to give anything else about the story away, because it really is great to be surprised and delighted/horrified at each discovery. The ending was not something I ever expected, but it really was perfect.
This is a really tough one to review because you don’t want to give anything away. I five-starred it on Goodreads in 2014 and basically said “yeah, just read it”. Really awesome way to turn the genre on it’s head.
That’s exactly how I felt! I tried to just go over the stuff that I liked that didn’t give anything away. I’ve been recommending it to all sorts of people who aren’t technically into zombies, because this isn’t technically a zombie story!