This one just wasn’t for me. The main character wasn’t likeable at all, but not in a way that was done purposefully. The writing was clunky and it just wasn’t my cuppa.

There were also parts that felt not finished and extremely rushed. Unfortunately the cover is beautiful but the contents inside weren’t as good.

I was incredibly excited about receiving this ARC and tried very hard to get into it, but unfortunately, I ended up feeling disappointed. While I'm a fan of zombies in fiction of any form, I found the characters in this novel hard to sympathize with and struggled to get through much of the beginning. I kept reading with the hopes that the characters would grow and I would like them more over time but unfortunately that was not the case.

DNF’d at 23% for being egregiously fatphobic. It was sprinkled heavily throughout the book, but the line that got me was one character calling a fat Black woman “heifer” in reference to her weight when alleging someone could never be attracted to her.

The book had a plethora of flaws, but this was really the breaking point. It was off-putting, alienating, misogynistic, and downright gross. I would never recommend this to anyone and would actually recommend individuals steer very far clear of this author’s work due to the unnecessarily derisive language used.

Quiver by Jason Fischer follows a teen girl named Tamsyn Webb as she journeys with her bow and arrow to find a cure to combat the zombie outbreak.

First off, I was really excited for this one because I was drawn in by the gorgeous art nouveau cover and I adore the post-apocalyptic zombie sub-genre. I love it because I find it interesting to explore the group psychology of people stuck in desperate survival situations.

However, the decision-making in this story is baffling. For instance, Tasmyn makes impulsive decisions that get people killed and endanger everyone around her throughout the story again and again, and yet she’s continuously given leadership and command positions simply because she’s the protagonist. It did not make any logical sense to me.

Overall, the characters didn’t feel believable enough for me to find the story compelling

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC for a honest review.

While the description of the book made me hopeful (British zombie apocalypse? Count me in!), the book left me in a major reading slump. The characters lacked depth and development, the story itself got boring and the main character just annoyed me. During the first part of the book I had hope that situation would get better, it just got worse. It seems that the author had grand plans for an epic heroine that could take out zombies with a bow while at the same time surviving everything, but it ended up being a story about a teen that doesn't know anything, but sonehow always get put in leadership postions where she only makes everything worse.

1 star

Possible Triggers:
Death | Mutilation | Torture | Gore

Characters:
The story follows Tamsyn Webb as she navigates her way to surviving a zombie apocalypse.

Negatives:
- The main character was immensely disagreeable. It was difficult to follow along in not only her reasonings for doing things, but her intense anger and hatred towards others when she had done her fair share of crap anyone would feel guilt-ridden by. This is the last character I would follow in ANY kind of drastic situation as they are perfectly happy to destroy any and all plans, including ones they made themselves, at the slightest provocation. There is a character in the book that Tamsyn has a very painful history with, this history I can completely sympathize with. However, she has such varying emotions depending on the time of day and how much they are currently making her life easier? Often Tamsyn puts aside her role in making crap hit the fan. While she does briefly acknowledge this a few times, it doesn't stop her from making the same stupid decisions over and over again.
- There were a lot of things about the story itself that made no logical sense. While I don't need every detail to be correct in order to enjoy a story, I do think it's important to have very large things, that are pretty common knowledge, to be correct in order for immersion not to grind to a halt. As a broad example, just because your job has something to do with modes of transportation, does not mean that you have the innate knowledge to work on any mechanical aspects or, depending on the vehicle, can actually pilot the thing. Other important nods go to: radiation, how electricity actually works, how bodies decompose and why that might cause many problems immediately in regards to a certain aspect to the story, and most importantly FUEL. Storage, how fast you go through it, the fact that there are many types, really all aspects of fuel because travel was such a large theme in the book.

Final Thoughts:
I went into this story very tickled. The author is not located in the USA and, delight of all delights, my home state makes an appearance; it's ALWAYS fun to read about what other states/countries perceive your home to be like. While I am not a zombie fan, I was interested to see exactly how a teenaged bow-wielder was gonna fare and the premise sounded so bleak. I was half expecting her to croak or something in the first chapter.

This book was not my cup of tea. I struggled to continue reading the story. While the action was intense and constant, a lot of the content of the book was basically at the whims of a teenager that did NOT learn their lessons over and over again, often given power (why?) and causing a ridiculous amount of casualties. Aside from not enjoying the point of view the story was told in, there were a few extremely unbelievable aspects of the story that just suspended belief too much. Not being able to cheer on the main character AND not believe 90% of the scenarios, makes for a difficult read.

This book reads like a serial publication, where the beginnings of new chapters have throwback information to remind you of the main character (accomplishments, names, and oftentimes the things they are known for). The reason for this is BECAUSE it was a serial publication at one point (it's in the acknowledgements, i believe it said magazine). This isn't a problem per sei, it just stands out a lot while reading; I was actually a little surprised it wasn't edited out when the collection was republished in book format.

If you are a zombie fan and enjoy the graphic gore, cut-throat survival, irrational choices made by terrified people, and how different cultures might react to a zombie apocalypse. This book is probably in your wheelhouse.

I loved the concept of this book! The zombie plague from a British perspective? A heroine that combats the undead with bow & arrow?! Amazing!

Unfortunately the concept was better than reality. Tamsyn continually makes mistake after mistake that ends up killing her friends and loved ones. She’s haunted by them in her dreams…. But still puts herself in positions to f*ck up again. Who keeps giving this girl her bow back??!!

Overall the book was good up until they made her in charge of the Texas Republic, then I felt it started to get a little off pace, kind of slow.

The end was bizarre, and felt very rushed. As if this random 19 year old girl would be Prince H’s right hand. It just left me a little unsatisfied.