Title: Living After Life

Author: Ice-rocks0990

Genre: Horror/Romance

Rating: MA-15

# of chapters: 7 (ongoing)

# of chapters I've read: 3

Summary/Blurb:

"Admit it, we're all going to die anyway!" He scowled.

"Don't be so pessimistic, Adrian. The moment we lose hope? THAT'S when we're dead."

•-------------------------------------•

Siblings Victoria and Ethan went to sleep one night and when they woke up, the world as they knew it was gone.

Death, chaos and destruction is all what's left.

Finding a map in her basement, they set off on a quest to safety, teaming up with any survivors they find on their way.

But something sinister lies in wake for Victoria, something no one could predict, not even her.

Can they find a way to survive in this crazy zombie laden world before they, too, join the ranks of the walking dead.

Review:

Cover (has been updated, so this no longer applies):

Interesting title for a zombie novel, considering that people who 'transform' are called undead, rather than...alive dead people. You'd think by the title that we'd be talking about ghosts and stuff, but nope, zombies.

I like the font for it, it's reminiscent of doomsday and all the other movies/novels revolving around zombies out there, but it's kind of hard to make out what's going on in the background. I can kind of tell that at the bottom there are hands reaching up to the sky, but is the section above the title a city on fire? There's also some sort of 'crack in the camera lens' thing going on, as well as tornadoes in the background. There is way too much going on here, and the photos are manipulated to the point where you can't even tell what's going on. (Also, the bottom of "life" is cut off.)

Overall—The covers seems like a snapshot from the movie 2012. 

Blurb:

I like how you have both an excerpt and a blurb. I'm assuming that the first piece of dialogue belongs to Adrian, while the second to Victoria, perhaps, but I'm not completely sure.

My suggestion would be that if you're going to include dialogue with the names of characters included, make sure you're going to talk about them in the blurb as well. Because in the blurb we're only given the siblings—there isn't any mention of a guy called Adrian. Whoever said "Don't be so pessimistic, Adrian. The moment we lose hope? That's when we're dead." doesn't sound very bright. I mean, if you have a horde of zombies coming at you, no amount of hope will save your ass.

One of my pet peeves is also to see paragraphs broken up into singular lines. You only have stand-alone sentences as a way to add emphasis to something, such as "Death, chaos, and destruction is [are] all what[that]'s left." That is important, very dramatic, and deserves to stand on its own. But everything else should be in a paragraph.

The first line "Siblings Victoria and Ethan went to sleep one night and when they woke up, the world as they knew it was gone." In all the zombie movies I've seen, an invasion didn't just happen overnight. It happened over the span of days, weeks, even months, but in only a couple of hours? That doesn't sound realistic to me. You may want to give a credible justification for this to happen. (Also, if it did happen overnight, how weren't Victoria and Ethan aware of this? Do they sleep through bombs going off, earthquakes, and alien invasions?) 

Another line: "Finding a map in her basement, they set off on a quest to safety, teaming up with any survivors they find on their way." Hold up. So does every household keep a map in their basement in case of a zombie apocalypse? Like they have several maps for different safe areas: "This map has been made for a natural disaster, this is for an enemy invasion, and yes...this is for zombies." This further adds to the unrealism of the previous statement, that a zombie threat happened simply overnight. I don't believe for one second that these people were hiding a map for safety against zombies this whole time. 

I suggest that you check out the American documentary called Doomsday Preppers. It talks about people who spend their entire lives 'preparing' for the end of the world. Each case is different. I've seen people prepare for everything; from nuclear explosions to solar flares, to natural disasters. Hey, maybe in your story the family could have prepared for a zombie apocalypse (because there had been talks about crazy scientists experimenting sketchy cures for cancer) and they prepped ahead (having the last laugh when everyone else died). Just an idea, but it makes things sound more realistic, at least in the case of your world. 

First Impression:

A romance with zombies. This should be hella interesting.

OKAY. To be 100% honest, the blurb does not do justice to this story! I breezed through the first and second chapter, I almost forgot I was reviewing this until I got to the end of the second! It was heart-breaking, gripping, exciting—it had me on the edge of the seat the whole time! But seriously, I never would've imagined that this book was this good if I would've judged it by the blurb—the blurb is nowhere as sophisticated as the story itself, in fact, it gives people a bad first impression. So PLEASE, fix it asap, especially since it makes such an awesome story sound so lame and unexciting.

There are a lot of things that made me enjoy this—first of all, each chapter opens with an excerpt from a news broadcast, which is crafty, you know why? Because instead of including it in the story itself, by having the character stop to watch TV/tune into the radio (because it says somewhere in the second chapter that the main character watches the news only at night, as to not put her younger brother on edge), which would slow down the story considerably, it instead allows the plot to be more fast-paced and adrenaline-filled. It behaves as background information since everything is written in the first person POV, without 'info-dumping'. Here we have a protagonist that doesn't know what the heck is going on—they are a normal citizen that are just as in the blue about the entire situation as the reader. You give us enough information to put the story into context, without overdoing it. Good job for that. 

Also, even though zombie stories are considered hella "cliché", you've done a lot of things to move away from that and make the idea your own. For example, the protagonist is 21, which, in America, is true adulthood. She doesn't behave like an idiotic teenager, she's actually old enough to realistically act on her feet and take responsibility for her younger brother (someone other than herself) and herself. A 15/16-year-old (even 18!), no matter how mature they consider themselves to be, will never be to the level of a 21-year-old, and that's a fact. This also gives the character leeway to do typical "grown-up" things, like driving, etc.

The author also takes your typical psychotic zombie and adds a twist to it. In this story, zombies aren't cold-blooded, heartless, dumbasses, that act on instinct like animals with rabies, but they are, actual-fact, 'sentient' to a certain point. In fact, someone very special to the main character comes back in the second chapter and admits that they 'love them', before the protagonist is forced to bash them with a lamp. The person was already in the advanced stages of the infection, so it's not even a fact that they were just turning into a zombie. Anyway, just how in World War Z you have zombies that run as fast as Usain Bolt, here you have zombies that are kind of aware of what they're doing (and feel remorse for it), but unfortunately cannot help but rip you to shreds.

There is also some kind of conspiracy theory going on (secret passageways, ancient writings, the whole jazz), so that's an added bonus. I knew it had to be something more than "finding a map in the basement" as it was put in the blurb. This is much cooler than that. 

The writing is clean, the language is simple, and the protagonist has a strong voice. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of zombie stories but is also searching for something credible and not generic.

Writing Style:

There is a good balance between description and narration—you use figurative language (metaphors/onomatopeias/similes) properly, and it enhances the writing rather than burden it. Your characters are well-rounded, and all have distinct personalities—you don't rely on a physical description to tell them apart, but give them 'life' through their dialogue and actions. There are a couple of grammatical errors here and there, but nothing which cannot be fixed through a quick round of editing. The vocabulary is variegated, as are the sentences, both things which aren't easy to do in the first person POV. Also, each chapter ends with a sort of cliffhanger, which spurs the reader to read on and on, without stop. I could devour this book tbh. In fact, I will. 

Characters:

Victoria—The protagonist. She's 21-years-old and the oldest of three siblings. Manages to be sarcastic in the direst of situations (aka while getting attacked by a zombie) as well as humourous through her narration. I particularly loved how she immediately took charge of the situation, as well as took on the responsibility for her younger brother, Ethan, without a moment's hesitation. She's a strong female character, and even though as of now I can't see any glaring weaknesses in her personality, these will most likely surface later on. 

Ethan—He's Victoria's younger brother, is seven-years-old, and most definitely acts like one (which is shocking, because for some reason people are obsessed with making children sound like adults). He's quick-witted, like his sister, and adorable. He's the only male sibling, so at times he tries to act "grown", but it's cute, rather than annoying.

Amanda—The middle-child, and is (was) sixteen-years-old. From what Victoria said, she was a bit of a rebel (she snuck out of her room every night, to do God knows what) but it backfires. Horribly. Again, I won't give anything away, but you'll find out soon enough how in the second chapter. I feel bad for her, no one deserved her fate.

Parents—Went on a never-ending date. Most likely dead.

Axel—The only character that isn't related to the protagonists so far (we meet him in chapter three). He's handsome (*scoffs* why would you want an ugly love interest) butts heads with Victoria right from the beginning, and is 25 years old. For some reason, I can't help but think of him as a frat boy, but something tells me that he's more than that.

Diamond rating ♢ (1—10): 8

This story deserves at least a 9, but because of the cover and blurb department, I had to give it an 8. Part of getting exposure is having a smashing cover and compelling blurb, so even though your story may be amazing, if you're lacking in those two areas, people will never know about it. 

This was a great read, though, so not only will I be reading on, but I'll also add this to my Diamond In The Rough reading list. 

Great work!