The Weepers: The Other Life by Susanne WinnackerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Normally I would wait until a month before the publishing date to review a book from Netgalley, but since I see that the ebooks were "published" already, I thought it would be okay to go ahead and post my review. Once again, I'll say thanks to Netgalley for letting me read this egalley, as well as Marshall Cavendish, the publisher.
I'm kind of surprised by how many zombie books I've begun to read. And really, while yes, this is a zombie story, the zombies play a pretty small part. They are there, they are a danger, but again we're really reading about the story of the people not infected. In this story the zombies are humans suffering from a scientifically enhanced version of rabies. One that takes humans over and can change them into almost beast like creatures, hairy, running around on all fours, or still pretty human looking. The title of this, The Weepers, was hard to find on Goodreads at first. That's because most of the book listings for this are under the title The Other Life #1. The title "The Weepers" is due to the fact that the creatures all look as if they are crying, they have "tears" running down their faces, and their eyes are swollen as if from crying.
The beginning of the book reminds me a bit of
by S.A. Bodeen. Sherry is our main character, and she is living in an underground bunker with her family. We know how long she's been down there because she has counted days, and tells us over and over. They've been sent into bunkers we're told, by the government. But recently the messages from the government telling them to stay there until they receive notification it is okay outside, have stopped. And they've run out of food. Apparently the amount of food they brought for 4 years, wasn't exactly enough. Even with Sherry's grandfather passing away while they are there. Everyone is going stir crazy, getting on each others' nerves, and the end of the food supplies means they must make a drastic decision. Sherry and her father choose to go out of the bunker and try to find some food, also hoping to find out what is going on outside now that they've not heard any news from outside. Fortunately their family has had a history of hunting and shooting, so Sherry is prepared and not overly scared of shooting a gun, whether she's any good of a shot or not. As she goes to a large store, I think it was a Walmart, she and her father hear strange noises, and see their first weepers. As they are attacked, her father tells her to run and meet him outside and be safe. But he never comes back. Sherry runs into a boy named Joshua. He saves her, and takes her back to a place called Safe haven. But Sherry knows she must get back to her family in the bunker before they try to go out on their own and something horrible happens to them. She also must try to find her father, especially when Joshua tells her that the weepers often take humans to their nests, and stockpile them, kind of like squirrels with nuts.
The story line was good, and I like the science behind the disease. I also like that there is government intrigue in what could be going on. However, and I don't know if it's just because what I read was an egalley, and maybe not quite ready for publishing, but there were some grammatical errors. First, one sentence that really stood out and bothered me was this: "On the fifth floor we didn't have more luck". I think it's missing the word "any" before more luck. Just doesn't sound right. There were a few other things like that. Nothing that won't hopefully be fixed with a quick edit before publication if there is time.
Also, we get these flashbacks of Sherry's life before all this started. And while at first they seemed to fit in okay, towards the end they didn't really fit where they were going. Again, I'm wondering if that has something to do with it being an egalley, and maybe there is something wrong with the formatting of the pages. Don't know. I like the idea of flashbacks leading up to the current time, they just need to fit into the story more smoothly. I will recommend it, the story is good, just a few editing things to get straightened out to make it the best it can be.
This will be the "W" on my A-Z Reading Challenge.
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