Damn, this was a fun, up-all-night and cool read!
Jennifer is turning 24 the day of the apocalypse. The government had tried to hide it, but a deadly virus is spreading. The ones who get it are marked with their death, but that’s not all: The host will have urges to bite and infect people.
This was such a cool mix of zombie apocalypse with awesome characters! (Wright, I’m looking at you, babe.)
But you know, it’s still a zombie apocalypse, which is not unheard of. I didn’t feel like there was anything new to this take, but boy-oh-boy was it enjoyable. (Especially the British touch to it *chef’s kiss*)
The writing is the absolute best—probably one of the best I’ve ever read. It’s straight forward and describes emotion so… real.

To me this was advertised as a “lgbtq” read—which it’s not. The main character is bisexual and has a little crush on a French soldier, bur that’s kinda it. I liked it that way though. This book definitely didn’t need some big romance. (Except for the tension between James and Wright. They are to die for.) Besides that, i really liked this book.

Final rating: 4,5/5. Full review is Goodreads.

This was a solid debut novel by Amy Marsden and I definitely enjoyed it which is why I’m giving it 4 stars.

Review

The book “Survivors” by Amy Marsden is book one in a two part series. It follows the point of views of Jennifer, Victoria and James, in an almost apocalyptic world where an infectious disease runs rapid.

From the minute I started the first page Amy Marsden had me hooked. If you’re a fan of somewhat apocalyptic and survival stories then this book could totally be for you! With lovable characters, an interesting plot and a twinge of both humor and angst, this provided a good reading experience.

Jennifer is a 24 year old photojournalism student and is actually the kick starter of this book as we see how she loses her friends one by one to this virus and it’s implications.

We meet James not too long after as their storylines intertwine. He’s been tasked with guiding and protecting the group of survivors that Jennifer and Victoria finds themselves in. Victoria is an English teacher battling with what she did to her sister who was infected by the virus.

Jennifer is an immediately likable character, charming, caring and as the story goes on you find that she’s selfless to a fault. She also happens to be immune to the virus. I struggled to connect with her in the first few chapters but I’ll get to that in a bit.

James is a bit of an asshole in his first few appearances and you can’t help but wonder, what’s his deal? James reminds me a lot of Zuko from the Avatar series. A lost solider looking to regain his honor. After a while he melts the cold exterior and starts getting more and more comfortable around the group.

Victoria is also very likable, in my opinion, she did come in a bit too late in the story. I liked her backstory and the author did a good job and presenting how that backstory shaped her.

There are other characters in this book, including Dan, who Jennifer immediately forms a protective sister role over, and Sergeant Wright, who’s snarky and provides the comedic relief in this story.

Overall I liked the plot and the characters but I did have just a slight problem with the writing. It was a bit awkward. Justifiably this is a debut novel so I didn’t expect it to have the most perfect flow or feel and even in that this book had better writing than other authors who’re on their 20th book. However I felt like this book could’ve used more descriptive writing to help set the scene more. This did slightly affect how long it took me to connect with Jennifer.

This book was also a bit short which doesn’t really give much insight to the characters but this is only book one so I didn’t really expect that much since book ones are normally just introductions and openings to characters.

There’s a twinge of romance as well, Jennifer clearly has the hots for a female French solider and James also has the hots for a certain snarky sergeant, but if you’re reading this book for that, there really wasn’t much too it but I imagine that will also find itself in the next book to come.

So do I recommend? Yes! This was a pretty simple short read and I definitely need to see what happens next in this two book series.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for the honest review.

I love a good zombie apocalypse book and this did not fail to deliver. I really enjoyed the way that it deals with how each of the main characters (James, Jennifer, and Victoria) processed the anxiety and grief that comes along with being thrown into such a high-stress situation. It seemed as though James and Jennifer were given more time in their POVs compared to Victoria (which could be a good or bad thing depending on how much you like her character). Also, it felt like all the other supporting characters besides maybe Wright and Dan were not really given too much depth or development to feel invested in their survival. I am still looking forward to the next book in the series to see how everything develops!