Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater
Book Stats:
Reading level: Adult
e-book: 365 pages
Genre: Dystopian/Zombies
Publisher: Tor
Release date: November 8, 2011
Series: As The World Dies #2
Reviewed by: Stéphanie
Source: Personal e-book shelf
Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository
It’s time to clear the hotel.
The fort has grown crowded as survivors of the zombie apocalypse have found safety between its walls. Winter is coming; soon it will be too cold to live in tents and other makeshift shelters. The leaders of the survivors—Katie, Jenni, Juan, Travis, and Nerit—decide it’s time for an assault on the zombie-occupied hotel that looms over the town square.
A pitched battle in the banquet room is the start of a harrowing, room-by-room struggle from Reception to roof. As the sun sets, the people of Ashley Oaks gather in the hotel’s rooftop ballroom and gazebo to celebrate their survival. Gazing out over the beauty of the surrounding Texas countryside, it’s hard to believe that death and danger lurk around every corner.
The fort’s search and rescue teams have attracted unwanted attention from bandits who see the fort as competition for food . . . and as a ready source of women. The first attacks are minor, but everyone knows there is worse to come.
And beyond the fort’s walls, the zombies shamble, moaning, eyes fastened hungrily upon the living.
Rhiannon Frater is the type of writer that never fails to entertain me. From the books I’ve read so far, I would definitively recommend all of them to fans of their genre. With FIGHTING TO SURVIVE, I was expecting a sequel slump, but as I read on, every scene seemed to keep feeding my addiction for the series.
What I enjoy the most about zombie books is not really the zombie killings and zombie attacks. It’s the stories behind each survivor and how, as a whole, they’re able to survive something completely out of the ordinary. This series is definitively more than just stories about zombies. It’s obviously about human survival after a zombie apocalypse, but I think the main attraction is the human relationships that bloom in this tragic world Rhiannon Frater has created. She’s a genius when it comes to creating original characters and it’s obviously her main characters that hold the series together.
The two main female characters, Katie and Jenni kind of remind me of Buffy and Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but instead of fighting vampires, they’re fighting zombies. The actual characters aren’t similar to the televised slayers but they both definitively come with extra large baggage. Katie is fighting the attraction she has for Travis since she feels by loving him she’s betraying her dead wife’s memory. As for Jenni, her coping mechanism for losing her two young sons to zombies is chopping up every zombie that gets in her way. Her dedication to fighting them gives everyone the impressions she’s a bit crazy and she gets called loca multiple times because of her ability to chop away. Her lover Juan is attracted to her loca behavior but I think it also scares him that she might get herself killed for taking too many chances. These four characters are central to the story but so many of the secondary characters are detrimental to the whole of the book. And all of them have been expertly created to fill their role.
Despite the undead dangers that lurk outside the fort the survivors have created in the middle of a little Texan town, it’s the dangers within the walls that are central in FIGHTING TO SURVIVE. A vigilante has taken upon himself to avenge people that have been wronged and to kill anyone who is a threat to everyone’s safety. Conflicts and betrayals within the group of survivors kept me entertained until the very end. While there are many good things that happen in this sequel, like clearing the zombies from a hotel and taking over the building and the relationships that blossom, many people die throughout the book. One thing’s for sure, the author isn’t afraid of killing off her characters so be prepared for some deaths.
It’s not just about surviving the zombies anymore. It’s surviving each other. Because of the turmoil brewing within the group of survivors, I personally enjoyed this sequel a lot more than the first book of the series. And that’s saying something, because I thought THE FIRST DAYS was an exceptional novel. FIGHTING TO SURVIVE will absolutely take you on a ride that you won’t forget and if you haven’t already check out this series, you don’t want to miss this one!
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To celebrate the release of the FIGHTING TO SURVIVE paperback (which released January 29th, 2013), Rhiannon Frater is promoting her book with a book blitz blog tour and a tour-wide giveaway.
Enter for your chance to win either the mass market paperback copy of book 1 of the series, THE FIRST DAYS, or a mass market paperback copy of book 2 of the series, FIGHTING TO SURVIVE. There will be one (1) winner for each book.
Open to US & Canadian addresses.
Ends February 10th, 2013
To enter the giveaway, fill out the Rafflecopter form below.
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