There's such a lot to like about this series. The zombies are genuinely creepy, but the world that springs up around them is potentially even scarier. There's a fantastic example in this book about a religious group that considers becoming infected as the path to immortality, and ritually infects their kids. There's also their tendency to remove the teeth and lower jaws of zombies and treat these essentially neutered creatures like pets afterwards, walking them on leashes and everything. (The image of those jawless zombies is absolutely incredible.) I'd love to rate this 4 stars, but as with the first volume, Ryan's insistence on shoe-horning in yet another sodding love triangle is undercutting all that lovely horror. I cannot tell you how little I care - her romantic subplots are consistently the weakest, most repetitive part of this universe yet she can't seem to resist undermining her heroines by turning them into indecisive weepy messes over boys. I really wish she would resist. The books would be a lot stronger for it.