After The Ending By Lindsey Fairleigh & Lindsey Pogue
Series: The Ending #1
Publisher: L2 Books
Source: Netgalley
ISBN: 9780988715417
Release Date: February 22, 2013
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When people started getting sick, “they” thought it was just the flu. My roommate, my boyfriend, my family…they’re all gone now. I got sick too. I should have died with them—with the rest of the world—but I didn’t. I thought witnessing the human population almost disappear off the face of the earth was the craziest thing I’d ever experience. I was so wrong. My name is Dani O’Connor, I’m twenty-six-years-old, and I survived The Ending.
The Virus changed everything. The world I knew is gone, and life is backwards. We’ve all had to start over. I’ve been stripped of my home, my dreams…all that is me. I’m someone else now—broken and changed. Other survivors’ memories and emotions haunt me. They invade my mind until I can no longer separate them from my own. I won’t let them consume me. I can’t. My name is Zoe Cartwright, I’m twenty-six-years-old, and I survived The Ending.
We’ve been inseparable for most of our lives, and now our friendship is all we have left. The aftermath of the Virus has stranded us on opposite sides of the United States. Trusting strangers, making sacrifices, killing—we’ll do anything to reach one another. Fear and pain may be unavoidable, but we’re strong…we’re survivors. But to continue surviving in this unfamiliar world plagued by Crazies and strange new abilities, we have to adapt. We have to evolve.
And more than anything, we have to find each other.
Overall, I liked this book. It had a good concept and somewhat likeable characters. I thought Dani and Zoe each had a distinctive voice in the narrative, which sometimes with multi POVs they end up sounding the same. I liked how Dani and Zoe wrote emails to each other for most of the book. I did find it unlikely that the power would be down, but the internet would still be up? But this is fiction and sometimes requires a little imagination. The emails were where I felt the most emotion from Dani. For example, when Cam died it just felt like bad acting on Dani's part. She said all the right stuff, but I didn't feel anything for her until she wrote to Zoe and told her about Cam dying.
When you actually think about the concept that 90% of the population is dead it is just saddening. Everyone who has survived has lost multiple loved ones. There were no children in the book, because the young didn't have the antibodies to survive. One of the survivors lost her kids and husband. You can see why none of the survivors wanted to talk about the "Before."
The Crazies were psychotic. You could tell there was something wrong with them even before they did something. They were creepy and unstable. But what kept urging me on reading was what they did. Each Crazy was unique and reacted to the situation differently.
Dani's ability was awesome! I didn't know how I was going to feel about the Abilities spin to this book. It definitely was different, but I think I really liked it. When she was attacked it was amazing how the animals circled around her to protect her. She really was like a Disney Princess.
Even though both women were separated for the majority of the book they overcame similar hurdles and both found a relationship. I liked how Zoe's relationship slowly developed. It wasn't just love/lust at first sight. Dani's relationship seemed sudden as she did lose her boyfriend, and she didn't seem to grieve that much, but that could be thanks to Chris' ability.
I thought the ending was great and I can't wait until the second book is out.
