Very good. Would have liked an epilogue though. ( )

Sophie Littlefield has worked her way onto my list of favorite authors. Last year I read A Bad Day for Pretty and was impressed with her story telling and the strong lead character Stella. Quick disclosure, while Littlefield links to my review from last year and I'm blurbed in the praise section of Aftertime, I had no idea when I agreed to review the book. I did however know this while reading the book.

Littlefield does not waste time setting up Aftertime, she throws you right into a dystopian California sometime in the not-to-far future as our protagonist, Cass, tries to piece together what the hell just happened to her. Cass quickly realizes that she use to be a zombie! But that is the least of her worries. Cass needs to begin the long journey to her hometown in search of her daughter. The daughter she had just reunited with her before the whole zombie thing.

As a recovered zombie, Cass presents to other humans as an infected human who will soon become a zombie or someone who is being abused or cutting herself. These assumptions force Cass to come to grip with her past life as an abused young woman who did put herself into situations where she allowed men to continue to "punish" her. This is how she first lost her daughter.

Cass is a deeply flawed character and while not as strong as Littlefield's Stella, I want to believe she is trying her best to be strong. She relies, I think too much, on Smoke, a cowboyish character who is still a mystery by the end of the book.

But the story will suck you in and despite any flaws in the characters, you will be desperate to know if Cass finds her daughter or not. There is a sequel and I knew this, so I kept thinking up until the very end, will she or won't she? And of course, now I need to get my grubby hands on the sequel.

To be completely honest I didn't have very high hopes for this novel having read a few negative reviews where people slammed the way the narrative wound the protagonists past and present into the story line making it hard to follow. That, and the idea of a ex-addict whose had her child removed by protective services didn't seem like a sympathetic or relatable lead character.

So you can imagine my surprise when it turned out that the narrative in fact easily relayed the events from the past and present in a clear fashion, furthermore wise the protagonist certainly has her issues you do begin to sympathise with what led to her being in that position and the manner in which she is attempting to rebuild her life.

Overall, I found it to be a pretty decent tale, although the way it drops the name of a novel-specific plant growing in certain places before even explaining what said plant is was a bit mind boggling. Will continue reading the series. ( )

It was an ok story. I really had not emotional connection to the main character, Cass, and I found the couple sex scenes discomforting. Maybe that is just me, but I don't think they were necessary to the overall story. None of the secondary characters were very intriguing either. The treatment of the virus and how people ripped at their own flesh and targeted the skin and not organs was unique. Also, how some individuals could be "outliers" who could possibly recover was interesting, but not enough to make me want to pick up the next book. ( )

It was an ok story. I really had not emotional connection to the main character, Cass, and I found the couple sex scenes discomforting. Maybe that is just me, but I don't think they were necessary to the overall story. None of the secondary characters were very intriguing either. The treatment of the virus and how people ripped at their own flesh and targeted the skin and not organs was unique. Also, how some individuals could be "outliers" who could possibly recover was interesting, but not enough to make me want to pick up the next book. ( )