Fast-paced and engrossing…
In Greyson’s intriguing debut, a young woman struggles to stay alive while navigating through a zombie-like pandemic and learning about her own strength. It is 2012. The Mayas calendar has ended with a contagious disease that brings the dead back to life. When the boundaries are breached and the cities overrun, 19-year-old Jenna Winter escapes to travel from San Antonio, Texas to New Mexico to be with her sister Hannah who is the head of Information technology at Biogenetics & Disease Control, a medical research company located deep beneath the city of Dulce, New Mexico. At the same time, Julie Mehta, a staff virologist, works diligently to develop a vaccine to prevent the humanity from contracting the infection. Greyson’s cinematic narrative easily pulls readers into this bleak but enthralling story of survival. Through Jenna’s ability to maintain an emotional distance from the horrors around her as her survival instinct kicks in, Greyson explores the boundless capacity of perseverance in human race. Greyson’s prose is simple and accessible, plotting tight, and characterization thoroughly done. The biological research details are intriguing without being over-the-top. Jenna who starts as a naïve 19-year-old college dropout, realizes maturity and strength while trying to survive through months of pandemic, and it’s her character that stays at the heart of the story. Dr. Julie Mehta’s determination and Hannah’s calm demeanor make them thoroughly likable characters. Greyson poignantly portrays people’s fear, insecurities, fickleness, and bitter rage through Jenna and her other characters. Lovers of apocalyptic fiction will be delighted.
