My friend let me borrow this book, and I knew next to nothing about it when I cracked open the cover to give it a whirl. For instance, I had no idea the whole thing was about a zombie apocalypse. However, I’m always game for these kinds of novels, so I jumped right in.

Right away, Melanie’s character drew me in. The young “hungry” as they call these undead has the ability to learn and speak, unlike a majority of the other hungries on the loose. Melanie is a test subject at a heavily guarded research lab, and goes to “school” with other children like her. Her favorite teacher is Miss Justineau. Miss Justineau has been instructed not to get emotionally attached to these children, because they are often carted away and dissected by the head researcher, Dr. Caldwell. But she forms a strong bond with Melanie, anyway.

To divulge much more would spoil what ultimately happens, but the book has lots of action, character development and plenty of hungries waiting around every corner.

This book clocks in around 450 pages but I was so into it that I could read about 100 in a sitting without getting distracted. And that’s huge for me because I have the attention span of a tsetse fly.