Emma lives in Florida and has a pretty average life. She is 37 years old, married to a man named Jake and has a dog named Daphne. Emma is close to completing her nursing degree and has just lost her first patient, or did she? When she gets home from the hospital she is surprised to find out that her patient has come back to life and is trying to eat the hospital’s staff. From there Emma’s life goes from average to tumultuous, not only does she have to deal with the undead coming back to life but there is also a hurricane destroying Florida. As civilization collapses, Emma and her family have to try to survive and hopefully build a new life.
Time Of Death: Induction by Shana Festa is a book that starts with a slow burn and ends with an explosion. In the beginning we see all the characters going about their normal life and then the zombie apocalypse happens and the book becomes non-stop action. I loved how Shana makes us care about the characters before she puts them into danger. Once the hurricane hits and the zombies started to rise, I didn’t want to put the book down.
I liked how with the action moving along like a freight train, Shana still manages to insert humor into the mix. For instance as Emma and Jake are driving around looking for shelter, Emma takes a sniff and thinks her husband has just passed gas. The smell doesn’t belong to her husband but we get a couple of good laughs before the action starts again. Another scene has Emma traveling with a group of soldiers on a reconnaissance mission and they use a series of hand gestures that Emma doesn’t understand. After a bit the soldiers start to laugh and Emma realizes that the soldiers are messing with her. In a book about the collapse of society I like how the humor in Time Of Death breaks up the tension. Even when the world is ending I think people would still use humor to lighten the mood, so it was a nice touch.
Time Of Death: Induction is a first novel and it does show. I thought some of the action scenes were confusing and at times the story felt rushed. At one point a human is using a pole to keep zombies away from a boat and the zombies pull him to his death , I thought this was something zombies shouldn’t be able to do. Also there is one point where I almost stopped reading because the title of the chapter gave away what was going to happen next. It’s hard to feel suspense when you know what’s coming.
All this being said I enjoyed this book. The characters were excellent, you see Emma and Jake have their differences and don’t always work as a team, but you still see that they love each other. One of the best scenes in the book is when you see the couple try to make an escape and clash over what should happen with the dog Daphne. Daphne may be a dog but she is a good character in this book. If you’re a zombie fiction fan you will love Time Of Death: Induction. The way the apocalypse starts made this book worth it for me. This is the first in a series and its a good first novel.
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