The First Days by Rhiannon Frater

The First Days
Rhiannon Frater
Published July 5th, 2011 by Tor
Source: Swapped

The morning that the world ends, Katie is getting ready for court and housewife Jenni is taking care of her family. Less than two hours later, they are fleeing for their lives from a zombie horde.

Thrown together by circumstance, Jenni and Katie become a powerful zombie-killing partnership, mowing down zombies as they rescue Jenni's stepson, Jason, from an infected campground.

They find sanctuary in a tiny, roughly fortified Texas town. There Jenni and Katie find they are both attracted to Travis, leader of the survivors; and the refugees must slaughter people they know, who have returned in zombie form.

The First Days is like an awesome zombie movie times ten. I was originally worried that the zombie genre wouldn't translate well into book form for me as I am a huge fan of pretty much all zombie movies. However, this book was all that I was expecting and then some.

It's not really a new idea for a zombie book, as it is pretty straight-forward zombie killing and surviving, but I feel that Rhiannon Frater really made it her own. One of the greatest aspects of this book is that the protagonists are two women. It is a wonderful thing to read about two strong women doing what they must to survive and battling back zombie hordes on their own. These two ladies, Jenni and Katie, are lucky to make it through the first wave of the zombocolypse. After living under the thumb of a domineering and abusive husband, Jenni has difficulty standing on her own two feet. She clings to the safety and strength that Katie provides for her as they travel across Texas looking for a safe haven away from the big cities. While Jenni is determined to rescue her stepson, Jason, to make up for the loss of her other two sons (which she witnessed being eaten by her former husband), Katie is dealing with the regret that she harbors over losing her beloved wife Lydia that same morning. These two women quickly form a bond that is insurmountable by anything going on around them. They are their new family now and will take care of each other no matter the cost.

Once they get to the refugee town of Ashley Oaks, the reader is introduced to a whole new cast of characters. Every one of them is so distinct in their personality. The group tries to form a new life as best they can in the fortified town, but as time goes on, there is a distinct personality shift in both Jenni and Katie. While Jenni turns into female Rambo, wanting to kill everything in sight and ask questions later, Katie becomes extremely depressed once she actually has time to breather and realize that she has lost her one true love.

The First Days is an action-packed, no frills, zombie novel. I think that if you are a fan of zombie movies, than you will most certainly love this book. It is disturbing and gory at times, but what can I say, that's what I love about it. It isn't afraid to be real, and I can't help but feel that when the zombocolypse does come, this is how its going to go down. I am happy to have this book right next to Zombie Survival Guide on my shelf, and I absolutely cannot wait until the next in the series comes out to find out what happens to the people I feel like I've been through this entire ordeal with. I applaud Ms. Frater for never giving up and her original fans for getting the word out on this amazing internet sensation.

Matched by Ally Condie

Matched
Ally Condie
Published November 30, 2011 by Dutton Juvenile 

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. 

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow. - Goodreads

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A world where all your decisions are laid out before you. Who you will marry. Where you will work. Even when you will die. A strictly regimented Society where everything that you have ever done and ever will do is predicted by the Officials and their computers. Almost everything from the past is destroyed. Only one hundred poems, songs, and movies that were chosen long ago, remain as a window to the creative minds that once were. This is where we meet Cassia on the day she is to be Matched.

At the beginning, this book was really slow going for me. Even though I felt it was quite predictable, it took its sweet time getting to the good stuff. At first, I felt the love triangle was just another overused ploy, but then I started to actually get to know (and love) all the characters. Cassia, the dreamer, was Matched to her best friend Xander. It is very unusual occurrence to be matched with someone in your own province, so she is both surprised and thrilled that she gets to spend forever with Xander. Oh Xander, how I love that name. I can only think of Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and even though the descriptions don't fit, I go with it anyway. Xander is a great guy; exuberant, lovable, sweet, all things that a girl would want. Then Ky comes into the picture (quite literally) and surprises Cassia with his deep, introspective ways. He holds so many secrets and Cassia can't help but find out what lies behind his eyes.

I was so angry at Cassia. How could you do this to Xander!! He's so great. But I suppose if she did just settle then what kind of story would that make? So then I got to know Ky along with Cassia and I think I can see why she fell for him. You can't help but wonder. And that is a main theme throughout this book. What if?

The only problem that I really had with the book was the writing style. It was filled with short, non-descript sentences that just fell flat. I enjoy adjectives now and again. The author also seems to flip flop in writing style. Sometimes I need more of a description of something. For example, I wanted to know more about the school, her neighborhood, etc. I felt like I really got no good details about Cassia's surroundings, so that made it difficult to picture being there, which I like to do. Other times she describes unimportant events too much which makes me impatient and bored. Overall, I enjoyed Matched, and I am thoroughly glad that I stuck it out through the rather stagnant first half of the book. It ends on a somewhat cliffhanger. I'm not throwing things around the room in aggravation or anything, but I'm certainly wanting to know what happens next in Crossed.

★★★★