The Weepers: The Other Life 1 by Susanne Winnacker

The Weepers: The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker
My 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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Book Review 14: Compound by S.A. Bodeen

I liked the premise of this book, it actually reminded me of the movie with Brendan Fraser called Blast from the Past, only the book wasn't humorous. The Yanakakis family is a rich and famous one. The father, Rex, was a computer genius. He was worried about nuclear war, so he build the compound. The compound was set up with a full school-size gymnasium, a livestock area, a hydroponics area, huge storage warehouse, doctor's office, beauty salon, each person in the family had their own bedroom, a fancy kitchen, you name it, it was there. They even had running water and electricity. But unfortunately when the bombs get dropped, Eli's twin brother and their grandmother get separated and don't make it to the compound before they have to close and lock the door. So it's just Dad, Mom, Eli's adopted sister Lexie, Eli, and his younger sister Teresa. Soon something goes wrong with the livestock and they have to kill and burn them instead of being able to eat them. Mom notices something is wrong with the wheat. Soon their father must figure out a way for them to survive when the stores they have will run out. Because it will take 15 years for the surface to be safe for them. And the way he figures out, they're called supplements, another way to get protein, if you can think of them that way.

But Eli finds a laptop in his twin brother's unused room that still has an internet icon, and when Eli clicks it, he finds the internet is still there. And Eli begins to wonder, is what his father told him the truth? And why would his father go to such extremes to try to save them, when it is really very unbelievable that his father could have even made the mistakes in the first place that lead to those kind of extremes. This was a really good book, I liked it a lot. The boy, Eli, was kind of sullen, not the "good twin" but that probably made it more interesting.

Today I started Little Audrey by Ruth White.

Book Review 13: My Father's Son by Terri Fields

This was a pretty good mystery with a kind of twist ending. Wasn't sure about it, but overall I liked it. Kevin Windor's parents are divorced. He spends weekends at his dad's house playing video games and just hanging out. Not that his dad doesn't have expectations for him as well. His dad is considered a computer genius, the video games they play are often ones that the company he works for has created and they get to play them before anyone else. Kevin's mom works hard every day to take care of Kevin, and prefers not to talk about his father. Kevin is a junior in high school, has a good friend named Jason, and a possible new girlfriend named Emily, his partner in Spanish class.

Things are going well until one day after school a breaking news report says the DB25 serial killer has been caught, and Kevin's father's face is flashed across the screen. At first Kevin can't believe it, he tries so hard to prove it's not true. He has issues with other people at school and in public because he looks just like his father. When his father doesn't try to get in touch, and even tells Kevin he doesn't want to see him, Kevin begins to wonder about his father. Then, DNA evidence links his father to the crime scene he was caught at. Kevin remembers that his dad had a laptop he'd hurriedly closed and not shown his son what was on it one time. He also loaned his father his jeep recently, when his father said his Lexus was in the shop. Now, was he using it to get to and from the crime scene with no evidence to connect him?

It seems like everything and everyone just makes Kevin so angry, and he starts lashing out so much that he is suspended from school and must take anger management classes.

I think this book was a good look at life in a crazy situation, and how a 17 year old boy handles it, or not. A quick, emotional at times, read. I think it would be a popular read for teens, but has kind of a scary subject.

The next book to read is Compound by S.A. Bodeen.