This book is very 2000s in way women are written and handled. Lots of ‘slut’ and ‘skank’ in this book from a very unlikable FMC. I think there was supposed to be humor in this, but either way the writing and I just didn’t jive. 

I tend to (thus far) enjoy reading Mary Kubica and always exit her novels with my brain feeling real damn slimy. She excels at this and that is what makes me enjoy her books! She typically gets a 4 star from me and in this case its a 3.75. 

I cannot quite put my finger on it entirely, but I can say that I found myself really disliking our main character. Then I feel bad, because she is in the middle of incredibly painful life changes. 

Her mother no longer remembers her due to dementia, her husband is dead, she has a newborn baby, and now her four year old is insisting that there is a bad man after her. Clara Solberg is going through hell- I will give her that. However, its often overshadowed in this book due to her outrageous parenting decisions. Such as the decision to force her daughter to interact with a grandmother who does not know who she is and chases the poor girl with scissors!

However, the book is still a good book and typical for MK- you’re going head on a steady mental decline alongside the MC. She does this while also justifying so many of the MC’s concerns or actions through the dual POV we are usually presented with. In this case we are experience present day with Clara as we get windows into the past through her husband Nick’s POV.

Nick- who loves Clara so much, but I think he imagine’s himself a bit more dedicated to his wife than he is. Still, he does is best to care for his wife and children while the world crumbles around him.

Two plot points that were left unfulfilled were:

Conner being incredibly displeased with Nick (who was his boss and best friend) and was presented as an antagonist and yet nothing really happened with that.

Emily’s weird reaction to Clara stating she thinks her husband was killed- though you could also argue that is Clara being an unreliable narrator at that point. </spoiler)

This book had so much promise, but ultimately the execution was a major let down. This book had me ranting and raving to a boyfriend who had no idea what I was talking about at 9pm. I’m sure I’ll be muttering “I’m so mad” in my sleep tonight. 

The author wrote a book where she was juggling so many ideas and managed to drop the ball on all of them. 

There are spiders everywhere for some godforsaken reason (don’t worry, she’ll conveniently wrap that plot line up in the terrible ending), possessed kids, a capitalist overlord, a doctor who’s either hallucinating his wife or being haunted by her, space exploration… the list goes on!

Oh, and they’re in a pandemic, but you forget about it halfway through because no one seems concerned about the pandemic! 

What REALLY got me is the plot line that involves a six year old being tried for murder… as an adult. But no worries, he’ll be moved to a private ward before ever spending a night in a jail cell. 

And then BAM- it all goes away. 

Aaaaaand then comes back and the fucking baby turns out to be the head alien. That’s right- the kids are all possessed by non-corporeal aliens and then pandemic is really human minds being taken over by these guys. 

<i>“I’m afraid so,” said Isaac. “And that’s why we’re going to need to spend a lot of time with you and your family. They have a leader, you see. A strong presence who’s been calling the shots all along. Who was at the forefront of all of this. It wasn’t the girl in India. She was just the speaker. She says the leader is ready to repossess its child and talk to us. It’s essentially the supreme ruler of the aliens on Earth.”</> 

I’m just so mad!

Ya know- I get it. This book requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief considering alllll of the things that are going on. And the ending? I really do get why that frustrated other people.

But considering this is SK’s take on zombies of all things and its supposed to be fantastical and horrifying- I’m ok with both of those things. I dare say I even enjoy the ending. 

I don’t often find that I consider SK’s characters lovable, but most characters in this book are lovable in their own ways. Some stay with you for a while and some leave a bit early, but each one of them made their impact. The relationships between them were particularly enjoyable.

This take on zombies is particularly interesting due to their abilities and the way they function as a group and interact with people. Not all of it makes complete sense, but I am personally ok with that. It made for a fun read with both heartwarming and heartbreaking moments.

Parts of this book were pretty good, but the casual racism and the affair plot line really brought this book down. While you could argue that the racism is ‘era appropriate’ it didn’t actually lend itself to the story whatsoever- so what was the point? 

It’s similar to how I felt about the affair plot line. I suppose it is rather difficult to write an entire book about a shark, but perhaps it didn’t NEED to be a full length novel? Or maybe it would’ve been better to focus more on the politics than the MMC’s wife and her rape fantasies. 

Throughout the book, it was fairly obvious that the author had some weird hangups about sex and women and oh boy did that distract from the plot. 

Overall it was… fine. It was fine. The parts that involved the shark? FANTASTIC! The other stuff… meh. 

I stopped at 12% because the characters in this book are all adults, but act like absolute children! Mid-twenties into their thirties and none of them know how to do more than stick their tongues out at one another and call each other names. 

Beyond that, the way the author chose to describe her characters was with clunky info dumps and odd descriptions. 

Ultimately, it was the completely mean spirited way the FMC described her brother that made me quit. 

I think I’d really like this if I read it vs. listened to the audio book. Unfortunately, I don’t like the narrator. 

This book took me on a WILD ride and by that I mean I spent a little over three hours reading this with tense anticipation roiling in my gut. This is a fast read that can easily keep you entertained the entire time. I have the attention span of a goldfish and while books tend to keep my interest more than other forms of media, I still bounce around a lot.

However, I wasn’t inclined to put this book down once. I was right there with Camille as her grief morphed into madness and then sudden clarity- who exactly is 0001 and what is the Collective doing? 

Are they killing the killers or are the stakes even higher than that? For Camille, they sure are.