Elixir

by Anna Abner

The Red Plague Trilogy, Part One

Book Description

The red plague has devastated the human race, turning billions of people into zombies with red eyes and an insatiable hunger for human flesh. The virus sweeps through the population so quickly a possible cure is left to rot. Seventeen-year-old Maya Solomon may be the only survivor who knows where it is. But to reach the lab in Raleigh, North Carolina she will have to outrun the infected boy tracking her every step and cross into a city swarming with monsters.

MY THOUGHTS: 3.5 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

Elixir by Anna Abner

This is quite a short book (more like a novella, actually), so there’s not too much I can say without giving much of the plot away.

To me, this was kind of just a so-so entry to the world of zombie fiction. Let’s do a pros and cons list.

Things I liked:
–the characters actually use the word “zombie”, not “walker” or “chewer” or anything else trying hard to be clever
–the main character, Maya, has been on her own since everything began, and she really, really likes it that way. She’s not sappy or looking for attention, she just sets out to do what she needs to do.
–the book starts before the onset of the virus, and even explains why it is happening.
–the potential male main character isn’t all macho and able to flawlessly kill everything in his path. In fact, he rather sucks at shooting zombies.

Things I didn’t like so much:
–there is a weird, kind of off chemistry between Maya and the guy she meets, Pollard. Kind of a one-way insta-love thing going on. They seem to bond very quickly, in less than a day in fact. This bonding happens between all of the characters though. Maybe it’s an apocalypse thing?
–the timeline inexplicably changes sometimes. At one point, it says it’s been two weeks since the virus took over, but at another it says it’s been six weeks. Both two and six weeks are stated more than once in the book, and I couldn’t find out which one was true.
–there are ideas just kind of thrown out there and not discussed or even a bit fleshed out. I can’t say what I’m talking about without giving a spoiler, but I’ll just say Pollard randomly throws an idea out during a conversation, and it really should have been explored more.

The author does a good job of building intrigue–I’m very, very interested in knowing Ben’s background and just why he is different. I’m rooting for the characters to find a cure, but because the book is so short and moves so quickly, I didn’t truly get a chance to develop feelings for any of them. I’ll have to continue the series to see if things get better from here.

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