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When the zombie apocalypse begins outside the windows of her residential treatment centre, Quinn doesn't freeze or hope everything will be okay. She starts making the hard decisions immediately - and discovers she might be better suited to surviving the end of the world than the one that came before.
📚 Pre-Reading Thoughts
Sourcebooks Fire has become one of those publishers I keep an eye on because their YA thrillers are consistently entertaining. Whether they're writing mysteries, horror, or survival stories, they know how to keep the pages turning.
A zombie apocalypse set inside a residential treatment centre felt like an especially compelling premise. With the characters already isolated before everything falls apart, the tension is built in from page one.
📖 Post-Reading
As I thought...
This is a genuinely tense survival story. The danger never feels far away, and every attempt to escape brings fresh obstacles.
Quinn is a fascinating protagonist. She's pragmatic to the point of ruthlessness, constantly thinking several steps ahead and making decisions that other characters struggle to accept. It's refreshing to follow someone who understands the reality of the situation almost immediately.
The friendships are just as important as the horror. Quinn and Keisha's determination to survive together gives the story an emotional core that balances the action well.
It surprised me by...
How quickly Quinn settles into this new reality. In many zombie stories, characters spend precious time denying what's happening or refusing to make impossible choices. Quinn doesn't. She recognises the stakes almost immediately, and that makes her both compelling and, at times, unsettling to follow.
The creativity behind the zombies themselves. Without giving anything away, there are some clever ideas that make encounters feel fresh and force the characters to think carefully about every move they make.
How invested I became in the wider world. By the end, I wasn't just interested in whether these characters survived - I wanted to know what was happening beyond them and where the apocalypse might go next.
I'm already looking forward to seeing how the series develops.
🎧 Music Pairing
🎵 Featured Song:
Run Boy Run – Woodkid
🎶 Vibe Album:
How to Be a Human Being – Glass Animals
🎧 Artist Recommendation:
Paramore – energetic, urgent, and emotionally charged enough to match the constant fight for survival.
🌈 Vibe Check
Colour Palette: concrete grey, emergency red, sickly green, midnight black
Soundtrack: distant alarms, hurried footsteps, whispered plans, doors slamming shut
Season: a sweltering late summer that somehow makes everything feel even more oppressive
Mood: relentless, tense, adrenaline-fuelled
Scent: disinfectant, smoke, damp concrete, rain on hot tarmac
🃏 Tarot Pull
Knight of Swords
Quinn charges into impossible situations with remarkable clarity. She's decisive, fiercely intelligent, and rarely hesitates once she's chosen a course of action. The Knight of Swords isn't always gentle, but in a world where every second counts, speed and conviction become strengths.
👀 For fans of
The Walking Dead
At the End of Everything
fast-paced zombie stories that focus just as much on difficult choices as the undead themselves
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