First I have to say thanks to Scholastic and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this book. I got the first book in the series last summer when I went to BEA, so was very excited to see this become available on Netgalley. I wasn't disappointed, I liked where the story went. Because someone asked on another sequel review I did, I will tell you that if you haven't read the first book, there will be SPOILERS. Also since my review contains a synopsis of the story, I promise that I won't give away anything that I would feel is a spoiler.
Where we left our main character, Roberta, or Bobby as she prefers to be called, was on a school bus with her friends that were left, trying to escape the zombies. The bus crashes, and we join Bobby in a hospital. But according to the nurse, only 4 people survived the wreck. And her mother was not one of them. Bobby is in and out of consciousness as this hospital is keeping her drugged up. She wakes up to an alarm, and the sound of banging against the door of her room. Turns out that the zombies locked up in this hospital escaped somehow and have killed the people running the place. As Bobby tries to escape, she finds the only way out is through the air ducts. As she slowly makes her way through the duct, she ends up in Alice's room. Alice is her same old lovely (not) self. They are able to make their way to find Pete, one of their other friends, and the other survivor from the crash, Russ. At this point, Bobby is pretty sure that Smitty, who she really thought maybe they had something going, must not have survived the crash. Which is a really bad thing, as Bobby used the cure to save his life, and there is no cure left. But when Bobby gets out her cell phone to try to use it to get help, she finds some messages and new contacts that weren't there before. Knowing how her mother is, she knows this means that her mom is probably still alive and has left her clues. One of the clues makes her change her mind about Smitty's being dead, and convinces her that they must go find him and he will help them get away. Of course while this hospital looks like it is out in nature, they get another surprise when they find out it is actually down under the Earth. Trying to escape what is now known to be a Xanthro lab, they are attacked by soldiers. Soldiers that they overhear talking about how they are not supposed to kill the kids, although some say they wouldn't be upset if it accidentally happened anyway. When they find their way out of the lab, to the surface, they see a world changed, full of zombies. From what they hear, Scotland has been closed off to try to take care of the problem. And now they are out in the open trying to find their way to Smitty and Bobby's mom using the clues left on the phone, while Russ seems to not be sure whether they should trust Pete.
A really good story, I enjoyed all the ups and downs, and the little obstacles they had to face, like the fact that Bobby had no pants for the first part of the book, because the ones she'd been wearing on the bus before it crashed had been destroyed from the crash, and she had no other clothes. A great story. Loved that it wasn't all about a "romance" between Bobby and Smitty, that it was kinda realistic for a zombie apocalypse story. I don't see that there is a third book in the series, and it definitely left off that it could be the end, but there was also a lot of openings for another book, which I'd love to read!