Apocalypse Yesterday by Brock Adams

The zombie apocalypse is over. The humans have won. Life is back to normal. And Rip is bored as hell. It's not much of a life sitting in a call center in the poor town of Spanish Shanty, Florida, answering emails like a drone and listening to customer complaints.

Rip was ruler of a tiny kingdom in the Lazy River waterpark, killing zombies by day and making passionate love at night. He misses the danger, the camaraderie, and the blistering love he once knew. He longs to feel Santana--his trusty machete--in his hand, and Davia--the fiercest woman alive--in his arms once again. He can still picture it-- life on the razor's edge--and he would do anything to get that feeling back.

But what if Rip could get it back? He's totally desperate. Not normal desperate--more like ready-to-restart-the-apocalypse desperate. Condemning humanity to a repeat merely for an adrenaline rush is probably not a good idea. But life at the call center is nothing more than a slow death, and Rip might not be able to go on without trying to find out.

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It's the first time I've ever read a zombie novel that takes this tack; the humans win. (This isn't a spoiler, it's right there in the summary.) I've never read a novel where the zombies are defeated.

Written in two time periods, this book covers the outbreak, skims loosely over the  actual fighting, and covers Rip's desolation afterwards, when things are back to 'normal'. He's suffering a type of PTSD, desperately missing the straightforwardness of life during the outbreak - fight, scavange, kill or be killed - and it drives him towards an unthinkable decision.

I didn't like him, but I don't think I was supposed to. I very much enjoyed the read, although the time skipping was a bit confusing at first. Although each chapter is labeled with it's time period, there are times in the 'current' chapters when he would think about the past for a couple of pages, which always threw me a little bit.

It's a fascinating read and a really interesting concept - how do you go back to normal after something as massive as that? Sadly, I don't feel like Rip was the right character to explore it with, but I did really enjoy the read anyway. I'd love to see more books about other characters in the same situation; there's lots of throwaway bits of background, lots to explore in future novels.

A good read overall.


Apocalypse Yesterday publishes on the 6th October, 2020.