Admittedly, I really disliked Beautiful Disaster, so I have to say that I didn't have particularly high expectations for this book. To be honest, I hadn't even read the synopsis and therefore didn't realise this book was going to be a zombie book. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I liked this book much more than McGuire's other novels- although it still wasn't particularly amazing.

While I did like the book overall, there were definitely quite a few flaws that I could pick up on. One in particular is that there really is nothing new about this novel. The plotline is a rather typical zombie novel- weird virus infecting people, sudden outbreak of people all zombie-like, BRAIIIIINS! In terms of the romance aspect, which was surprisingly not really the focus of the novel, I've read a couple of reviews where people have said that the romances aren't typical ones, but they kinda are...it's the whole people getting bonded by escaping together from danger cliche. Also, despite the imminent danger of being devoured by zombies and what not, the book is actually pretty slow.

I really didn't like the reason behind how the zombie apocalypse started- the flu vaccine?! Seriously?! Also a rather unbelievable fact was that the ENTIRE apocalypse started at the same time in one day in the US. I mean, seriously, what happened? Despite everyone being inoculated at different times, did the vaccine/virus magically activate itself in everyone at the exact same time? PLOT HOLE.

For some reason, I felt really invested in Nathan's story. I don't even know why. I mean, he was okay as a character but I wouldn't say that he's particularly engaging or original. I guess I really liked the relationship he had with his daughter. In fact most of the family type relationships were quite interesting- and they were the main reason why I continued reading the book. They were a lot more interesting than the various romances or action or whatever.

The ending was pretty unsatisfying. I mean, I get that it's difficult to solve the problem of the apocalypse in one book, but the ending was just so....open. THE WORST KIND OF ENDING. Basically it was one of those "we must rebuild humanity in the wake of destruction" cliches.

I can really only recommend this book to people who have never read any zombie novels or watched any zombie movies. That way you won't be smacked in the face by the countless cliches.