This is an amazing book. It's gut-wrenching, it's transcendent, it's gross, it's beautiful....it's practically everything. The writing is absolutely stellar--I found myself highlighting constantly, and I rarely do that with any books. And each of the characters is so exquisitely and carefully crafted--you feel for each of them almost immediately. Leif also heart-wrenchingly shows how our ableist society has infiltrated all of the interior thoughts and actions of the main queer, epileptic character (as well as other disabled and/or neurodivergent secondary characters). It can be very hard to read at times, but the novel fights against those voices so furiously that it's all worth it in the end.

Take All of Us is perfect for those seeking a story following a misfit group of kids saving their town from the apocolypse. Themes, which include found friendship, adventure, horror and romance make this YA novel a warm hug. Even with the gore, I found myself amazed at the way Natalie Leif explains the undead almost in a whimsical, fascination for them.
I wish there was a chapter or two at the beginning of the book going through a day in their life before the events of where the book actually began. I think this would have added context that would allow an easier transition into the first chapter with Mr. Owens. Without understanding the undead and the dynamic of Monica/Ian and Eric/Ian, I think the book was harder to follow and too quick to start because of lack of context.
Even though it was fast to begin, I found myself enjoying following the characters through their town and discovering the truths of the evacuation that left them the only ones left.
My favourite part of the book was the message of 'taking up space'. I especially think Natalie Leif did an exceptional job at portraying this within a disabled persons point of view and even extending it through a queer lense as well. It added an extra strength within Ian, to use his past experiences in the healthcare system to overcome his problems.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of Take All of Us in exchange for an honest review!!

Y’all. This book was so special. An utterly one-of-a-kind take on the zombie apocalypse with empowerment, coming-of-age and found family sprinkled in. I don’t usually cry at books, but this one got me. I literally felt like Ian at the very end, going “no, hold on a little longer, I don’t want to be done yet!!!”

I’ve seen some reviews say that this book is slow. It is, but I believe it’s intentional. It takes a bit to figure out that savoring every second is the entire point of the book, but part that, it’s like a terribly heart-aching warm hug.

What a worthy addition to the queer horror genre, that I give a whole-hearted recommendation for!

This was a very fast read, nice and short. All the characters are very likable. I do wish that there was more backstory or maybe flashbacks with the characters pre evacuation. The beginning was a bit rough for me to get into, almost felt middle grade, but at like 25% it got into young adult feels. Also these teens are more put together than me because I would be panicking like crazy in a zombie like evacuation. Spoiler: I didn’t care for the mountain being alive. I knew it would come back to the mountain but it being alive just didn’t make full sense to me. But it did give us Ian alive again so I guess I can’t complain two much.

A fun but downright spooky at times novel featuring queer, disabled teens left behind in an emergency evacuation. Together this rag-tag group attempt to find out what's really going on in their small town and learn to live selfishly for once. Overall, I absolutely loved this novel.
The disability and queer representation feels real, in fact I found a lot of my own experience as a teen in one of the characters. I loved how characters are described between the tapping of a characters cane, the flat voice of another, or the way seizures are described. The arc our man character goes through to put aside his selfless, martyr ways and take up space for once got me to reflect on my own life. I did feel the end reveal of what's happening to be a bit out of left field but I still enjoyed it as a plot element. I didn't quite understand why oil was so prevalent and it felt at times set up to make the end confrontation easier. But the things I disliked are few and far between compared to how much I enjoyed everything else.
I'd highly recommend this book to any disabled person, queer person, or anyone who just likes fun YA horror. Definitely going to be purchasing a copy on release!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story is as follows something is harming the people within the town of Kittakoop and it has something to do with the towns water. When Ian winds up as one of the undead he must go on a journey to hopefully give his heart to the boy of his dreams while also battling losing himself and his mind. Can Ian make it and will Eric return the feelings for him at the end?

I decided to give this a chance because I loved the overall concept and premise and wanted to read something that felt like a movie I enjoyed Warm Bodies. I think one of the great selling points about this book is that it uses the message of the undead as a Trojan horse to really talk about how we tend to throw away or give up on the disabled community. The main character deals with epilepsy and this unfortunately leads to his death which he struggles with throughout the book even when he finds the love of his life he has to accept that his reaction is valid towards his change as a person. I think the story was mostly romance and inner turmoil with a side of the horror or zombie plot which if you came into this book expecting romance to be at the forefront, much like I did with Warm Bodies, you'll enjoy it a bit better. I will say that the book does plop us right into the thick of the story and we sort of learn through it the characters stories, personalities and everything between is sort of taught to us throughout this book. I found the side stories sort of just present but not all the time necessary. Ian's issues with Monica felt just present but random was interesting because I think it was supposed to give the lead some form of negative traits but it didn't really amount to anything and I would have loved for him to acknowledge how that may have caused harm towards his relationship with her outside of this, but I will say that I enjoyed the relationship that forms between this ragtag group of friends that come from different or diverse experiences and have different ways of handling or reacting to the leads change in dead/undead status. I also found the romantic engagement very sweet and luckily I enjoyed that because that was legit the main point of the story and everything else sort of took a backseat to the pining, the desire for each other, the hurt and the discovery of mutual attraction. All these points were present for a lion-share of the story and we don't really get into the reasoning for why the water is a problem until closer to the third act of the book.

All in all, the book is a great time if you have a taste for romance but you will be disappointed if your expectation was more survival horror and them trying to make sense of their unfortunate situation versus this being a story about romantic engagement and the building of friendships. Don't get me wrong they have a lot of great moments that are directly correlated to the zombie story but romance drives this vehicle.

I’m a little conflicted about this one. I think the premise and concept was pretty great, and i like the overall vibe.
But i’m had a really hard time connecting with the characters, especially during the first half. It was hard to stay engaged.
I think this could be a major win for many people, but i think this read a little too young for my own taste, even for a YA book.

dnfed at 30% 1.5 stars rounded to 2… i think this book has a good concept but i just couldnt stand the main characters sadly:(( this book will find its audience and be a hit im sure! i think its just a little to ya for me and lacked in engaging me into the story

thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an arc for a unbiased review

In all honesty, I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. When I started reading and realized the characters' ages, I was scared that
this book would be more young than adult, and that I wouldn't fully get into the story - however, I actually did.
This novel manages to combine the gore-y and dark bits of horror, and the overall ethical questions that come with any story about life
and death, with the the feel of a found family YA trope. It was a bit slow at some points but once 1 got into it, I actually devoured it.
Of course, it's still YA, which means it has a teenage vibe to it (which is not a bad thing, teenagers also need to have good stories). The
fact that the three main characters were disabled and had honest conversations on what it means to take up space without guilt was
very cool to me - it really is nice to see these topics in YA stories.

This was actually really really enjoyable. I just requested it on a whim cause the cover looked funky and duh, queer zombies. But it really was an interesting concept of disabilities and apocalypse. And the writing was easy too. I really enjoyed it.

The water of Kittakoop is contaminated. Drink filtered water, avoid streams and rivers, and you won't contract the parasite that all but kills you--leaving you as a shambling, oil-filled corpse that needs to consume the parts of other corpses or will begin to rot. After suffering an epileptic seizure when confessing to his childhood-friend-turned-crush, Ian dies, waking up as a black-eyed corpse with oil for blood. Kittakoop has been evacuated, but he isn't alone in being left behind--Angel, an autistic girl with a doomsday prepper mentality and Monica, a girl with chronic pain that Ian has seen as a rival his whole life, become his companions for navigating the apocalypse.

'Take All of Us' is one of the most compelling YA novels I've read this year. I enjoyed Leif's version of zombies. While the parasite itself isn't analyzed much (though I appreciated the cordyceps-like need for the dead to 'go up' to water sources to propagate), the 'not quite dead' aspect is, with parallels to watching your loved ones waste away mentally and physically and exploring how much is really 'there'. This ties in to the book's main themes of disability. Ian, Angel, and Monica are all disabled and left behind in the evacuation, with Ian and Monica especially falling victim to the mindset of wanting to be the 'ideal' disabled teens who don't take up space and suffer quietly and bravely without making it anyone else's problem.

The friendship that forms between Ian, Angel, and Monica is really cute. Ian initially hates Monica, seeing her as a goody-two-shoes who wants to help everyone, but Monica has never held any ill-will towards him, and as the two begin to help each other and Angel, they make up for lost time and strike up a great platonic relationship. I'll confess that my favorite character ended up being Zoey, Eric's mercy-killing partner-in-crime, whose sardonic attitude stems from her own tragic relationship with a dead family member. Unfortunately, the only character I couldn't really bring myself to care for was Eric, Ian's love interest. I understand that Ian's an awkward kid in a small town and can't really choose who he has a crush on, but I feel like he can do better than someone who hasn't even checked up on his dog after an apocalyptic town-evacuation.

'Take All of Us' isn't a perfect book, and those going into it expecting a deeper apocalypse or zombie parasite biology might be disappointed. However, if you want a humanizing depiction of disability and queerness in Appalachia, I recommend it highly. It's both a sad look into what makes us 'us' and a fun, apocalyptic story about loving friends and family members, warts and all.

I’d like to thank Natalie Leif, NetGalley and Holiday House for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my god I loved this. I inhaled it. Near the end I was afraid to finish in case it would make me cry but we got there in the end. Queer apocalyptic horror with found family, I needed this so badly. You have no idea.

Take All of Us follows Ian who wants to profess his love to his best friend Eric, so they go to a mall and things don’t go the way they planned. Ian “dies” and wakes up alone in a fountain in the mall. His goal is to find Eric, but in the process he finds Angel the apathetic prepper, and Monica his old school rival. I love the disability rep in this book, proving people can still survive the apocalypse even if they have to use a cane to move around. The way the dead in this book were created was so cool, love the idea that people can still live on for a little while, and come to terms with their death before they officially die.

This book is like a hug, like a mug of hot cocoa by the fire in the late fall when things are getting cold, and the song Meet You at the Graveyard is playing in another room.

These are the trigger warning I’ve gathered: seizures, body horror, grief, apocalypse, injury detail

Final rating 4/5

Take All of Us is a well written book about the protagonist Ian coming to the conclusion that he’s in love with his best friend Eric, But before Ian can confess his feelings he dies.

The ‘Zombie’ concept was interesting. I enjoyed how different and unique the take on it was. To be dead without fully ‘being dead’. Your body rotting while you’re still conscious enough to know you don’t want it to.

I loved the platonic love in this between Ian, Angel and Monica. A mixed gendered group where no unnecessary romantic love bloomed. The family concept was also heart warming as well as heart breaking - when Ian called his family i was sobbing.

I thought the way the disabilities were betrayed was good and didn’t seem stereotypical.

Despite how much i loved almost everything about this book, i didnt really enjoy/understand the romance between Ian and Eric. I feel like i didnt have anytime to really get to know them or see more in depth feelings from them. I also wish i would have been able to just genuinely know more about Eric instead of just what Ian had to say, he seemed like a great character that didn’t reach his full potential.

The more i let myself sit with this book the more questions i have about it. The ending was confusing and sad and i don’t understand how the dead just magically werent dead anymore - but despite that i think the book was an easy and enjoyable read.

I really liked the way that disability is talked about in the book, and how that impacts a character’s mindset and how they view both themselves and other people. The horror aspect of it was not too intense for the vast majority of the book, and was dialed up a bit for a few scenes near the end, but ultimately not too bad. Personally, I would have liked it to be a bit more horror, even though it is in fact YA, but YA books can go harder within the constraints of the age group. I also thought the aspects of abandonment and how certain people are left by society because they are not always condemned as important enough was something really interesting. I do think that the main character is an idiot, but what main characters in young adult novels aren’t?

Take All of Us follows our main character, Ian, through a series of events after he becomes contaminated and dies as a result of an epileptic seizure. Ian now has to traverse through his limited amount of time left still "alive" in a zombie-esque state, alongside his newly acquainted friends.
I found this read to be simple and enjoyable, with lots of little twists and turns to the very end. I love the concept of being not quite dead and not quite alive, slowly decaying. The details behind how one gets contaminated and the entire cycle were well thought out.
As someone with disabilities represented in this book, I appreciated the representation so much. I found everything to be accurate to someone's experience, even if not entirely accurate to my own. And the information about Ian's seizures in regards to how they feel and the way he reacts once they're over was spot on.
Overall, I really enjoyed being able to check this book out. The only thing that bothered me was that the climax felt a bit rushed, but I also didn't hate it. There's strong messages about friendship, taking up space, and belonging. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey I experienced with our characters and the development I got to witness unfold in front of me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Holiday House for the ARC!

Take All Of Us has an interesting premise promising big moral conflicts and a horror/dystopian world-building, but sadly doesn't commit to either aspect enough and the story produced is lukewarm.

The origins, causes and resolution of the living dead were vague at the start, disregarded as barely important in the middle and went full paranormal in the end - unfortunately it never made an intriguing mystery.

The characters were not really deep (and very childish in the first part), the message about society leaving disabled people behind was in-your-face and I couldn't find myself to care more than superficially.

Overall, the book was built on a good idea with a mediocre execution.

Thank you to NetGalley and Holiday House for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

"I didn‘t know how to feel about being dead or being heartbroken. But I wanted to try figuring it out. I wanted to try doing everything I‘d never let myself do while alive. And if that meant doing it as a messy, rotting, undead corpse…
Fifteen years too late, a couple hours too late, and a town-wide evacuation too late, I wanted it."


Take All of Us is a story about a ragtag group of disabled teens learning to let themselves take up space, set against the backdrop of an Appalachian small town where the dead refuse to stay dead.

There was a tonal dissonance in the book that I struggled with a bit. In the beginning the book reads very young, with the characters being on the lower end of the YA age range. I also noticed that some parts of the dialogue were much closer to actual spoken language, with contractions like "Pro'ly", "Couldn't've" and "Musta" almost disrupting the reading flow. The core moral of the story was also very on the nose, and could have used a bit more subtlety in the way it was communicated, further adding to the juvenile feel of the book. All of this is perfectly fine for a YA book, but led to me thinking that I've probably outgrown the younger end of the genre.

However, the further the book went on the more it grew into something I really enjoyed reading about. The idea of an ancient, almost eldritch thing in the mountains raising the dead and calling them 'home' was amazing, and I loved seeing it unfold and take up more space in the novel.Natalie Leif conveys this atmosphere wonderfully with her prose; gorgeously vivid descriptions and paragraphs that made me pause to re-read or annotate them.

"I wanted to scream at them in holy tongues, scream about something, jamming everything I saw into words too impossibly small for it, like a million people speaking together into screaming noise, like the universe crammed into a single dying body, like a seizure lighting up every part of the brain at once, like a cigarette spark in a room full of oil."


Not only does this theme of eldritch horror slowly twist and grow throughout the book, it was also wrapped up really well. The last 10% of the book shines not only with the way it was written, but also with the amazing end it offeres to a book whose plot could have easily been concluded poorly.

Unfortunately, this part of the novel only comes after the long stretch that is the first 75% of the novel that I struggled to enjoy. I sorely missed a common thread; a more central plot to make it feel less like I had to wade through a book that despite its potential hadn't decided what it wanted to be. Its more youthful traits make it virtually impossible to anticipate the darker, more imposing tone the novel takes on that, while really interesting, ends up fitting like an oversized jumper the book has yet to fully grow into.


"Damn the blood, damn the afterlife, damn death and all its rotting pieces. I loved him like a dog or a soldier, alert and upright before I‘d even thought about moving. I loved him like instinct."


To summmarize, Take All of Us is a diamond in the rough that could have used a bit more polishing in the form of thematic coherency, but nevertheless has some wonderful moments in its prose, plot and characters. It has a core message that I haven't seen before in a lot of media, and is going to mean a lot to people. It's a debut that shows a lot of promise, and I'm interested to see what Natalie Leif writes next.

I really wanted to like this book but for me it was a DNF about 40%. It was hard to get into and I kept trying and just wasn’t engaged. It jumped into the action really quick and it talked about how Ian cared so much about Eric but I felt like we never got to see that. I think I might have liked it better if we got a better sense of their background and relationship before it just dived right in. YA books written in 1st person are real hit or miss for me and maybe I just need to move on from trying to like them. I also felt like the world building was pretty vague and maybe if I had finished it would be better but at 40% through I was still really confused what being dead meant and what caused it.


Thanks to negalley and the published for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review! While this book was not for me there might be others than really enjoy it.

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS





You learn early on that Ian is going to die die and you spend the rest of the book dreading that moment.

This book was excellent. The only reason I didn’t read it in one sitting is because I did not want it to end. It was The Walking Dead mixed in a little bit with Warm Bodies and was reminiscent of Roanoke and croatin. It was just a great read.

This was so much fun! This is my second queer ya zombie read from the perspective of someone infected this year and I am loving this aspect. It really delves into that fear of the things we have left unsaid when you no longer have the ability or opportunity to say them.

Ian always assumed that he would die early, having spent his life dealing with seizures and other health issues, but he never expected to die by cracking his head during an emergency evacuation. When he reawakens changed into what will become a mindless shell of who he once was, he is all alone. His best friend and secret love Eric has left him for dead...

Ian is one of those characters that you immediately fall in love with. He is goofy and relatable. He teams up with a couple of unexpected allies in his search for Eric to confront him before he loses the ability to function properly. The changes he experiences are swift and not anything that I would want to deal with.

Meanwhile, Eric is looking for Ian, too. Instead of a happy reunion, though, Eric is looking for him so he can mercy kill him, like he's done for so many others... I liked the dynamic between Eric and Ian but it was the found friendship with Monica and Angel that I found the most joy in.