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Wednesday, October 19, 2016

81) The Harvesting by Melaine Karsak

The Blurb :

It's all fun and games until someone ends up undead.

Layla Petrovich has spent her whole life running away from her hometown of Hamletville. Raised by the town's medium, and dubbed the "weird" girl for her fascination with swords, the last thing Layla wants is to go home.

But when she receives a desperate call to return just as a mysterious outbreak sweeps the country, Layla's instincts urge her to go. Good thing, because the dead are rising.

Layla, however, isn't entirely on her own. With her psychic powers growing, surely everything will turn out okay, right?

Not so fast. Just when Layla believes she might survive the apocalypse, a sinister and ancient force rises from the shadows to finish mankind for good.

Because the truth is, we were never alone in this world.

My Thoughts :

I don't know why I picked this book up.  Maybe I saw it recommended somewhere or it was just on sale at Audible.  However I come across it, I know I would have checked the ratings on Amazon and/or Goodreads which both show 4-5 star average reviews.  This confused me a slightly because while the first half of the book was really good, the second half went off into crazy, weird and desperation land and didn't seem to want to let go.

Things started off so well, a nice female character, strong, well educated with a nice background story you could relate to.  The fact that she just happens to know a thing or two about weapons is just an added bonus as soon as the zombies appear.  Which is still where the story was actually interesting, somewhat the usual thing but still keeping a bit of the unique.

Where did things start going pear-shaped?  I guess the New Years party.  I think anyone who has read the book will understand.  Because up until then it was all ok.  The story was keeping me hooked enough and even though there was a feeling of 'When will something else happen?' I wasn't quite expecting that.  What was that?  It was vampires, spirits and other things thrown in what felt like a desperate attempt to make the story go somewhere.  I got the feeling like the author had taken a break from writing and came back with a whole new idea that she just had to work into this story.  It was surprising and like someone switched films while you weren't looking.

However I am not saying it was that bad.  While the story suddenly became the 'second part' and changed all the rules and scenery, there was still something about it that kept me listening to the audio book.  Now if I had been reading this one I may have stopped reading but the audible kept going as I was walking along and I kept listening.  Things got very sexual, weird and violent (yeah even more than killing zombies) and the story got a wee bit confusing.  Yet all the time I wondered where the author was going with it all and also if she actually has a plan.

Which is why I am most likely, despite the semi bad review, going to try the next book.  I want to know what the author does next.  The ending was a total cliffhanger and while I know it won't keep me awake at night, I do need to know what happens next.  Not straight away, because there is some parts of this book that I still need to digest...but soon.  






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