Title: Mortality
Author: Kellie Sheridan
Series: The Hitchhiker Strain, book #1
Published in: 1st, January, 2013
Publisher: Patchwork Press
Language: English only
Number of pages: 271 p.
Age Category: Young Adult
Other books in the series:
End Dayz, novella #0.5
Duality, book #2
About Mortaliy
After surviving a deadly plague outbreak, sixteen-year-old Savannah thought she had lived through the very worst of human history. There was no way to know that the miracle vaccine would put everyone at risk for a fate worse than un-death.
Now, two very different kinds of infected walk the Earth, intent on nothing but feeding and destroying what little remains of civilization. When the inoculated are bitten, infection means watching on in silent horror as self-control disappears and the idea of feasting on loved ones becomes increasingly hard to ignore.
Starving and forced to live inside of the abandoned high school, all Savannah wants is the chance to fight back. When a strange boy arrives with a plan to set everything right, she gets her chance. Meeting Cole changes everything. Mere survival will never be enough. (source: Goodreads)
MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, KAN SPOILERS BEVATTEN
Review
This is my first Zombie read, wow I have been having a lot of first, first erotica, first Zombie, first angel, and that in one year! How about that! Lots of variation which makes reading all the more fun. I like experimenting with the various genres, to see what I like and what I don't. The Amazon freebies are definitely a help to exploring the different genres.
Anyways back to the Zombies, and the Zombie slaying kickass hero Savannah, I really liked Savannah, who's parents where killed, became the undead, and then probably killed, when the first wave of the virus, she lives with the remnants of the town in a school, which they were able to clear of zombies. There Savannah trains together with her friends Alex, Pierce and Zack. They make a great team together, and I like it that she gets along with the guys so well.
Then Alex girl friend show up, to tell them they got a job, to get out of the school for a while. They jump at it and leave the school to find medical supplies for the town. This is when the story takes off, from here it turns into an action packed, fighting Zombies and running for your life kind of story. I would have thought that I wouldn't like zombies or zombie related stories, since I have always found them a bit boring but creepy at the same time. You might think, how the hell did you end up reading a zombie book? Well it was recommended to me by one of my Goodreads friend, she was so exicted about it that I just had to read it! Thank you G.!!!! But this was just great, and eventually we even get a zombie point of view!
This leads me to the other main character Zarah, which I didn't like. Zarah, is really naïve, as an instant crush on the new guy in school, is mostly oblivious of what has happened in the world. She's not a fighter and her stupidity caused her to be turned into a zombie. You can tell that I didn't like her much, but she added an important point of view to the story (the zombie POV). She turns into a second form of Zombie, the ones who are stuck in their own head and have no control over the things their bodies do. This was an interesting point of view and her thoughts were really funny and had me laughing out loud.
Now to my rating, this book was a great action-packed, fast paced book, with 2 kinds of zombies, love, drama, community, politics, wonder serums, military forces and much more, this book has it all! Great world building, great characters which can only mean one thing for me: 5 awesome snowflakes!
Characters
Savannah: is awesome, she is one of the two main characters, but is the more important character of the two mains. She is a real fighter and wants to help in the best way she can. Her goal is to help as many people a she can, since she blames herself for her parents dead and the shock stage she was into when someone of the survivors found her. She has a crush on Alex, but this changes when she meets Cole. The cool thing about there "love" is that it grows steadily, its not instant, at first she doesn't even like Cole.
Pierce: is an exchange student from England, he talks with a British accent and behaves according to the English standards, which makes him adorable! I really like Pierce's character. He is smart and thoughtful.
Zack: is the cool guy, we don't really get to know him well, since he is taken by the Militia (the military forces). I would love to get to know Zack some more. I suspect that he has a secret crush on Savannah.
Alex: is the leader of the pack, he is very bossy, a know-it-all and (from Savannah's POV) very clingy to his girlfriend. I don't like Alex much, not my type. He made a big mistake, that put him on my black list.
Cole: is..... interesting. He started off kidnapping Savannah. Bad start, but he is smart and has an interesting motive for kidnapping Savannah. He is a straight forward person, which I like a lot and he is hilarious at time! Especially when flirting. (see the quotes) I want to see more of Cole in the next book, I like him a lot, maybe he will be come on of my new book boyfriend.
Zarah: Well I already discussed that I don't like her because of her stupidity and naivety. However, I can't blame her for being in the same kind of shock stage as Savannah, the problem with Zarah is, that she doesn't snap out of it. Also because of her ignorance of what is happening in the world, she has a very rosy view of the world. Catch up in romance and ignorance, she doesn't see that the world is falling apart around her.
Liam: is a bit more mysterious, he is the new guy Zarah has a crush on, but we don't really know much about him and ofcourse Zarah doesn't ask many questions since she is far to busy crushing. He is much smarter than Zarah and he is the reason Zarah stayed alive so long.
Quotes
“In case you haven’t noticed, the world kind of ended. There aren’t exactly eligible females all over the place, especially ones who can hold their own in a fight.” - Cole to Savannah
“Ahh, so it is the Asian guy. Bummer. Well I’m sure you two will be very happy together, and make many zombie-ass-kicking babies.” - Cole
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