Devour (Death & Decay #1) in Apocalypse Whenever

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Jan 25, 2017 Netanella rated it really liked it

Shelves: zombies, horror, chicks-who-kick-butt, 2017-january-reading-challenges

First lines: The branches of the trees reached for Olivia like sharpened claws. Each one tore at her matted, coffee-colored hair and the protective layers of clothing that covered her body. They scratched at her face as she crashed through the forest of silver maple and black oak in an attempt to escape the ferals.

Our story begins 5 days into the zompoc, with our heroine Olivia racing through the woods, her 18 month old daughter Ellie strapped to her back. She's been trying to reach the safe har First lines: The branches of the trees reached for Olivia like sharpened claws. Each one tore at her matted, coffee-colored hair and the protective layers of clothing that covered her body. They scratched at her face as she crashed through the forest of silver maple and black oak in an attempt to escape the ferals.

Our story begins 5 days into the zompoc, with our heroine Olivia racing through the woods, her 18 month old daughter Ellie strapped to her back. She's been trying to reach the safe harbor of a friend's outlying farm, safe from the death and decay of the big city of St. Louis. Overall, Liv is a badass supermom, and she makes the right, smart decisions as the world falls apart around her. With child strapped to her back, Liv has no problems taking out the ferals with a sledgehammer, cleaning up blood and gore, creating personal body armor out of duct tape and magazines and a turtleback shell for her daughter out of a sled and bungee cords. Hell, she even ambushes a zombie cop for the usefulness of the tools in his dutybelt. Yup, she's a regular McGyver type. I had to like her, despite some of the annoying things she did.

Yes, she did do some annoying things, but I need to learn to live with the fact that fictional characters are human, too, and allowed to make mistakes. And Liv had her freak out moments. Yes, you are allowed to freak out during the zombie apocalypse. You can scream and cry and have a melt down. You can break the phone in a fit of anger. You can have a panic attack after you ambush the zombie cop and bash his head in with a sledgehammer. You can jump out of a perfectly safe house once the danger (a murderous and suicidal Nate) is gone, but you're freaking out. Because, overall, Liv is a Badass. Despite the fact that she's carting around an 18 month old who screams so loudly I'm surprised that there isn't a loud announcement about the Blue Light Special in Aisle Ten for the zombies, Liv keeps on keeping on. Yes, some weird things happen (the flaming zombie who suddenly appears on the doorstep and sets the azaleas on fire comes to mind), but Liv perserveres. She is SuperMom and SuperZombieKiller. With deft agilitity, she swiftly switches the sledgehammer from right to left hand, reaches behind her and pops a pacifier into the screaming mouth of the toddler strapped to her back. You know that's a good binkie!

And so, as I sit here on a cold January day with two warm dogs at my feet and ponder the awesomeness that is Olivia, I find I must change my star rating from 3 to 4 stars. Go, Liv. And, of course, Kudos to the Author! ...more

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Oct 07, 2016 Gertie marked it as got-it-unread

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