Title: Aftertime (Aftertime #1)

Author: Sophie Littlefield

Publisher: Luna 2011

Genre: Dystopian, Zombie

Pages: 384

Rating:  5/5 stars

Reading Challenges:  Zombies; Support Your Local Library

How I Got It: Library Loan

Awakening in a bleak landscape as scarred as her body, Cass Dollar vaguely recalls surviving something terrible. Having no idea how many weeks have passed, she slowly realizes the horrifying truth: Ruthie has vanished.And with her, nearly all of civilization.Where once-lush hills carried cars and commerce, the roads today see only cannibalistic Beaters—people turned hungry for human flesh by a government experiment gone wrong.

In a broken, barren California, Cass will undergo a harrowing quest to get Ruthie back. Few people trust an outsider, let alone a woman who became a zombie and somehow turned back, but she finds help from an enigmatic outlaw, Smoke. Smoke is her savior, and her safety.

For the Beaters are out there.

And the humans grip at survival with their trigger fingers. Especially when they learn that she and Ruthie have become the most feared, and desired, of weapons in a brave new world….

A dystopian world inhabited by Beaters and survivors.  I loved the bleak feel of this novel.  It didn't try to glamorize the end of the world as we know it.  The book showed the stark reality of surviving in this new and desolate world.  The graphic description of desolation is haunting.  We really get a feel for the nothingness that is left.  I appreciate this departure from the fancy dystopian novels I've read in the past.

The characters are memorable.  No one is a clear likable character.  Instead each one has good and bad qualities; much like you find in real people.  Sometimes I wanted to hug Cass and others I wanted to smack her.  She's real.  She has problems.  She has past issues.  She has insecurities.  But she also has a drive to survive and reclaim her daughter.  Smoke is an enigma.  We don't get a huge amount of information from or about him, but we understand that Cass must rely on someone.  I predict that he becomes a white knight in the end.  Hopefully we get more from him in future books.  There's too many other minor characters to list, but they all made an impression.  I can't wait to read the next book.

Aftertime

• #1 Aftertime
• #1.5 Survivors
• #2 Rebirth
• #3 Horizon