I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Sloane Price knows there are worse things than the end of the world, so when the zombie apocalypse happens, the opportunity to escape her violent home life offers no relief. She’s already lost the one thing that matters most—her sister—and now seems like the perfect time to give up.

But when she inadvertently ends up barricaded in her high school with five other teens, their desperate and volatile bids for survival force a series of impossible decisions. As the days creep by and the dead close in, Sloane must confront everything she thought she knew about life, death, survival, and sacrifice and—once and for all—make a choice.

Short and Sweet Review

The zombie apocalypse has started and all it takes is one bite for someone to change, and that doesn’t sound too bad to Sloane. Sloane has lost her will to live so when she ends up barricaded in the high school with five other teens it’s weird for her. Sloane is waiting for the barricade to fall but she’s also with five other people who have a reason to live. The dead are getting closer and Sloane is now questioning what she really wants.

This was an interesting book, we’re getting two books in one and I’ll talk about that more later. Sloane is our main character and after losing her sister she really feels like there’s nothing left for her. Sloane ends up taking shelter with five others in the high school and we can see her going through her thoughts about wanting her life to end but she also sees everyone around her with hope and fighting to survive and make it back to their loved ones. Sloane definitely takes risks and unfortunately it may get the others hurt and that’s the point she realizes that in this situation she can’t just think about what she wants. One of the other people she’s in the school with is Rhys and this is important because like I mentioned earlier in this version of the novel we get the second book as well. I was confused when the second book started and I don’t know if it’s because I was reading an ARC but it just felt so disjointed. In the second half we get both Rhys and Sloane POV and see what life outside of the school is like, I won’t go into more detail to save from spoiling anything. I will just add that these two end up splitting up and I feel like we get more of Rhys POV and he was an okay character he thinks more with his heart and Sloane more so with her head.

Overall, I thought this book was okay. The first book is better than the second. Sloane is a complex character and it was interesting to follow her from the beginning and seeing where she was at the end. I didn’t love this book but I could see others enjoying it.