Here's a few short reviews of books I've read recently.
The Strain/The Fall/The Night Eternal by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan: First off, I love a good vampire apocalypse book, whether it's small scale like Salem's Lot or global, as in this trillogy. No sparkling vampires, no romances between the dead and the living...just lots of fangs and blood and action. The first book of the series, The Strain, starts off on a high note, as a vampire arrives by plane to New York and mass death and chaos follow. The Master, as he likes to call himself, aligns himself with rich old man who wants to live forever and begins a quick takeover of NYC. Eventually, everything gets very, very bad for people in the city. Vampires are everywhere, nuclear explosions in other parts of the world have created an endless dusk for them to run around in, and the Master is getting ready to dominate the globe. It all ties up with a (sort of) satisfactory ending. Highly recommend the series.
This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers: Oh, my Glob...I loved this book. Loved it. Read it in one sitting. It's a YA title, but don't let that keep you from reading it. The premise is one of my favorites: zombie apocalypse. But this story is told through the point of view of a suicidal 17 year old girl who keeps on surviving despite her attempts not to. She and a group of her friends end up at the high school, which makes a nifty temporary shelter from the throngs of the undead. But of course, get a bunch of teenager together and there's going to be drama. Lots of it. Especially when there are zombies thumping at the doors. Extremely well written. Highly, highly, highly recommended.
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker: Another YA novel, another highly recommended book. I loved this one too (maybe I'm going through my second adolescence...only this time there are much better books to be read). In this one, the Earth, for some reason, is slowing its rotation. Time begins to lose all meaning. People begin to divide into two groups: those who remain with time as we know it (24 hours days, regardless of day or night) and those who follow the sun, literally. If a night lasts 48 hours, then that's one night, etc. and so on. The main character is a young girl who is witnessing the slow end of the world, watching her family begin to fall apart under the stresses, experiencing her first love, realizing that she might not become an old woman. The writing is extraordinary--this is another one that I read straight through. Don't let the YA label keep you from reading this.
