Aftertime (Aftertime #1)
by Sophie Littlefield
Published: 3/11/2011 by Luna Books
From Goodreads:
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….
The Bookish Brunette thought:
Aftertime was recommended to me OVER and OVER again by so many people that I finally decided to read it…
Cass had woken up bruised, bloody and broken with only fleeting memories of the day the Beaters (zombies) attacked her and her daughter, then drug her away. She meets Smoke and he decides to ‘escort’ her the rest of the way to the settlement that she can only hope her daughter is still safely being kept.
Littlefield’s zombies come about by means that I have yet to see in a zombie book… It’s always fun to get a new and interesting take on, “IF zombies were to take over- HOW they would do it!” In Littlefield’s version there is a plant called Blueleaf that if eaten and you survive the fever it induces- you will become abnormally beautiful and experience a high very much like ecstasy for two weeks until you start chewing off your own skin and going after others. Sounds totally worth it right?
The zombies in Aftertime are insanely fast, they also sleep and strategize also. Since they aren’t the “walking dead” or “undead” I suppose this isn’t a cause for concern! They are merely people inflicted with a virus, that eventually evolves into them eating the flesh of others… Not technically zombies at all. More like strung out, cannibalistic addicts.
“They still look like a bunch of fucked-up retards on the dance floor when they walk, and you still see them doing all kinds of freaky shit like they’re trying to remember what it was like to be human.”
Cass and Smoke make it back to the library only to find it overrun by the Rebuilders… An extremist group that think they are God’s gift to the “zombie” apocalypse. And they HATE Smoke, since he’s been rebelling against their efforts to take over. Cass’s daughter was sent to the Convent for safe keeping and Smoke and her are facing the firing squad… Almost literally.
I don’t know… I tried to feel sympathetic toward Cass, I really did. I realize people make bad decisions and then try to get their lives together… But but for all the times I felt a spark of sympathy for her- I also felt irritation. Her logic to ME made no sense. She doesn’t ‘remember’ this… she can’t ‘recall’ that… She pushes this guy away- all she wants is Ruthie…. But all the while she’s having sex with Smoke, talking about her ‘addiction’ to alcohol and all the stupid things she did when she was a drunk. To me she seemed selfish and ignorant.
I feel like Aftertime could have been AMAZING, if it weren’t for my PERSONAL feelings about people who lean on their addictions (or former addictions) like crutches or act like it excuses them from EVERYTHING. I mean REALLY. Help me. SHUT UP already. I have no tolerance or pity for people like Cass Dollar. Sorry.
In all reality there’s NO WAY Cass would REALLY survive the Zombie apocalypse, because if by chance she DID survive the initial outbreak. Her stupidity would inevitably lead to her starving to death, or she’d sleep right out in the middle of the freaking zombie war zone. More than likely, I’d just kill the chick. Not even joking. I really would. Trust me- I’d be doing everyone a favor.
You guys know I do not like giving ‘negative reviews’, nor do I give an ACTUAL rating for books that I DNF’d. But I honestly could NOT bring myself to finish this book. I TRIED to pick it back up several times, for the sake of Zombie Craze. But the thought of reading about Cass wallowing in self-pity for one more paragraph made me want to… I don’t know, go clean the toilets instead.
Now just because this book wasn’t for ME, several people I know DID enjoy it:
Other books in this series:
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