carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found Carole's Random Life in Books.

Wow! This was a bit of a surprise for me. I don't really know why it was a surprise since I have heard wonderful things about it but it was. I guess I went into this book thinking that I would probably like it but I had no idea how much I would end up enjoying it. Once I started listening, I was hooked and I wanted to know more about Melanie. I spent hours at a time listening to this book and enjoyed the experience immensely. This is a zombie story that I will not be forgetting anytime soon.

This book is told from Melanie's point of view. She is a very bright girl but her experience at the start of the story has been very limited. I really enjoyed seeing the world she know through her eyes. Melanie's entire existence is limited to her cell and her classroom. She knows the rules and how things are supposed to be. She knows exactly what to expect from day to day.

Melanie was a fantastic character. I would never have imagined that she would turn out to be so easy to relate to but she was. I loved the way she worked out problems in her mind and how observant she was of everything going on around her. She was able to work things out very quickly and made the people she was around re-think some of their beliefs. All of the key characters in this book were really well developed and added something important to the overall story.

I thought that Finty Williams did a fantastic job narrating this book. This was the first time that I have listened to her narration and I wasn't sure of her voice as the book first began. I was over any reservations that I initially had pretty quickly and her voice became Melanie's voice. I thought her voice was very pleasant and she brought a lot of excitement to the story. I was able to listen to this story for hours at a time and never tired of her narration.

I would highly recommend this book to others. It is a different kind of zombie story that was highly entertaining and hard to put down. I would not hesitate to read more of M.R. Carey's work in the future.

Initial Thoughts
This falls somewhere between 4 and 5 stars for me. I was really pulled into the story from the very beginning. Melanie really got to me early on in the book. All of the key characters in this book were really well developed and the story had a lot of excitment. This book really kept me guessing until the very end. Finty Williams did a wonderful job narrating this wonderful book.

Book source: Audible purchase