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mehsi's review against another edition
2.0
I received this book from the author in exchange of an honest review.
I was truly, honestly looking forward to this book, but I just have to face it, I am disappointed. The first part of the book was slightly boring and also annoying, the second part felt unreal (mostly with how the apocalypse/infection was handled and how the days seemed to pass), weird, but also was quite exciting with quite a few parts with of zombie action and gory situations.
I really did like that the book started off with before the zombie stuff happened. Many zombie books begin when it starts, or when it is already going on for some time. I haven't read many zombie books were we read about the few weeks before hell breaks loose. It was truly interesting to see how it went from that they thought it was a hoax, to slowly, but surely it was more believed. Still you had people who would go out, or those that didn't report their sick loved ones. At one point there was a bicycle dude just cycling outside, and I was like: "Wait, what? Are you an idiot? Stupid? Or something else. Why would you go out and risk things?" But I can also imagine why people were outside, it all seemed like just a big joke, even though government and other big organizations picked up on it and were showing more and more evidence. Zombies aren't something you would truly expect to happen/to show up.
As the book progressed we went from just a few zombies, to houses full of zombies and zombies on the streets. What amazed me is that phone and several other things still worked. Generally these things are the first to die. Either due to people overusing it to reach their loved ones, or because of other reasons.
But while I do like that a book starts with before the zombies arrive, it was also a bit boring after a while. And the first part does take quite a bit of the book. Leah's attitude, how she cared more about a guy and her reputation than thinking that it might be serious, I just wanted to shake her around.
Leah, where do I start with her. At times I was annoyed with her, for sending that mail to her boss (seriously, how stupid are you to not check it before you sent such stuff), for her believe that everything was a hoax, even when seeing the zombies. It was just kind of frustrating. Also her stupid idea of just breaking out and leaving a perfectly safe and good place. Yeah, girl, that sounds fab, let's just go outside with all those critters of doom. That sounds terrific, absolutely wonderful. Most brilliant plan ever. *rolls eyes* Sure, I can imagine why she did it, but come on, couldn't she have waited a bit longer than a few days? After all she saw in the latter days of her office lockdown, I thought she would gain some more brain cells.
It also got a bit boring to see her pine for some guy who is clearly not interested in her while the whole world around her collapse. And let's not forget that she apparently thought she would need hair straighteners when she was packing her bags. Please, girl, you got better stuff to pack and better things to worry about than your precious hair.
Throughout the book she makes some incredible idiotic decisions. Like leaving that bag for her friend. Yeah, girl, it is nice of you to care, but those are some very precious provisions, you can leave some and then take the rest. It was a bit silly. Maybe she was still in shock from all the zombie stuff, but it just stood out. Even as the days pass miss Leah cares more about other things that finally taking some action and also kill some zombies. Poor Jake, he has to do all the brutal work.
And seriously, how stupid are you that you dive into a store, without checking before you enter stuff? Just dive to the chocolate, and then magically find out about zombies. *sighs*This girl won't survive long with this attitude.
Also her stupid remarks, for instance: "As we pass fields, I try to ignore all the animals. They're wasting away, it's awful. Maybe no one is feeding them now they can't go outside." Yeah, I think those farmers and other people have better things to do then to go outside and be a walking target for some hungry zombie. :) Or maybe they are already zombies. Either way, seriously girl, priorities.
Jake was a great character, but also really mysterious. He was a great character and he kicked some zombie asses with his epic axe. I loved how he tried to help out Leah, how he tried to make sure she was safe and doing OK.
What happened in Chapter 24/25. Sorry, but wtf? Why this, why this all of the sudden. Sorry, I don't mind if this kind of stuff happens as the story progresses and it actually fits the story, but after that happened this happens? Bleh, bleh and bleh. Just a bit too magical and too sudden. It felt like it was added for the sake of it. Oh we did this and that, now lets do this and then we can progress to this and that. Bleh, bleh and more bleh!!!
And what happens after that? Well, I am sorry but I don't see Leah surviving very long. But she is the main character, so she will live, no matter who gets killed to save her, or what ever she does. Hey, I see a guy in a cage with all kinds of freaky zombies, let me save him! *sighs*
And I am not normally the kind of woman who goes boohooo about girls and them needing to do stuff on their own. I don't mind it if girls rely a bit on a boy, but in this book it was just a bit sad. Leah just fell apart if she didn't have a male companion who would do all the dirty work for her. I seriously doubted how she would survive through this apocalypse many times in this book.
The zombies were also a bit lacklustre in this book. While there was some action, there were some chases, mostly they were just in the background, always lurking about, always a danger, but apparently not that much of a danger. At least that is how it felt to me. After a while the book turned a little bit less creepy for me, and more like a book about a girl who hasn't got a clue how to survive, cares more about how she looks and her vegetarian diet, makes enormously stupid decisions and remarks. Instead of following the antibiotics instructions (they should have that) she just takes as many as she can. She reminds me a bit of what would happen if you would drop Barbie in a zombie apocalypse.
The ending was not only very disgusting, but also a big freaking what the hell? I was kind of prepared for it, but it still shocked me. Especially what she did at the end, what she did to them. How could she do that? I know what she is, but she seemed still sane at times. :( I won't spoil anything, you will have to read it to find out what happens in the last few pages.
All in all, I am sad that I didn't like the book, it truly sounded like a great book and I was really interested in it, but it just wasn't what I liked.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
I was truly, honestly looking forward to this book, but I just have to face it, I am disappointed. The first part of the book was slightly boring and also annoying, the second part felt unreal (mostly with how the apocalypse/infection was handled and how the days seemed to pass), weird, but also was quite exciting with quite a few parts with of zombie action and gory situations.
I really did like that the book started off with before the zombie stuff happened. Many zombie books begin when it starts, or when it is already going on for some time. I haven't read many zombie books were we read about the few weeks before hell breaks loose. It was truly interesting to see how it went from that they thought it was a hoax, to slowly, but surely it was more believed. Still you had people who would go out, or those that didn't report their sick loved ones. At one point there was a bicycle dude just cycling outside, and I was like: "Wait, what? Are you an idiot? Stupid? Or something else. Why would you go out and risk things?" But I can also imagine why people were outside, it all seemed like just a big joke, even though government and other big organizations picked up on it and were showing more and more evidence. Zombies aren't something you would truly expect to happen/to show up.
As the book progressed we went from just a few zombies, to houses full of zombies and zombies on the streets. What amazed me is that phone and several other things still worked. Generally these things are the first to die. Either due to people overusing it to reach their loved ones, or because of other reasons.
But while I do like that a book starts with before the zombies arrive, it was also a bit boring after a while. And the first part does take quite a bit of the book. Leah's attitude, how she cared more about a guy and her reputation than thinking that it might be serious, I just wanted to shake her around.
Leah, where do I start with her. At times I was annoyed with her, for sending that mail to her boss (seriously, how stupid are you to not check it before you sent such stuff), for her believe that everything was a hoax, even when seeing the zombies. It was just kind of frustrating. Also her stupid idea of just breaking out and leaving a perfectly safe and good place. Yeah, girl, that sounds fab, let's just go outside with all those critters of doom. That sounds terrific, absolutely wonderful. Most brilliant plan ever. *rolls eyes* Sure, I can imagine why she did it, but come on, couldn't she have waited a bit longer than a few days? After all she saw in the latter days of her office lockdown, I thought she would gain some more brain cells.
It also got a bit boring to see her pine for some guy who is clearly not interested in her while the whole world around her collapse. And let's not forget that she apparently thought she would need hair straighteners when she was packing her bags. Please, girl, you got better stuff to pack and better things to worry about than your precious hair.
Throughout the book she makes some incredible idiotic decisions. Like leaving that bag for her friend. Yeah, girl, it is nice of you to care, but those are some very precious provisions, you can leave some and then take the rest. It was a bit silly. Maybe she was still in shock from all the zombie stuff, but it just stood out. Even as the days pass miss Leah cares more about other things that finally taking some action and also kill some zombies. Poor Jake, he has to do all the brutal work.
And seriously, how stupid are you that you dive into a store, without checking before you enter stuff? Just dive to the chocolate, and then magically find out about zombies. *sighs*This girl won't survive long with this attitude.
Also her stupid remarks, for instance: "As we pass fields, I try to ignore all the animals. They're wasting away, it's awful. Maybe no one is feeding them now they can't go outside." Yeah, I think those farmers and other people have better things to do then to go outside and be a walking target for some hungry zombie. :) Or maybe they are already zombies. Either way, seriously girl, priorities.
Jake was a great character, but also really mysterious. He was a great character and he kicked some zombie asses with his epic axe. I loved how he tried to help out Leah, how he tried to make sure she was safe and doing OK.
What happened in Chapter 24/25. Sorry, but wtf? Why this, why this all of the sudden. Sorry, I don't mind if this kind of stuff happens as the story progresses and it actually fits the story, but after that happened this happens? Bleh, bleh and bleh. Just a bit too magical and too sudden. It felt like it was added for the sake of it. Oh we did this and that, now lets do this and then we can progress to this and that. Bleh, bleh and more bleh!!!
And what happens after that? Well, I am sorry but I don't see Leah surviving very long. But she is the main character, so she will live, no matter who gets killed to save her, or what ever she does. Hey, I see a guy in a cage with all kinds of freaky zombies, let me save him! *sighs*
And I am not normally the kind of woman who goes boohooo about girls and them needing to do stuff on their own. I don't mind it if girls rely a bit on a boy, but in this book it was just a bit sad. Leah just fell apart if she didn't have a male companion who would do all the dirty work for her. I seriously doubted how she would survive through this apocalypse many times in this book.
The zombies were also a bit lacklustre in this book. While there was some action, there were some chases, mostly they were just in the background, always lurking about, always a danger, but apparently not that much of a danger. At least that is how it felt to me. After a while the book turned a little bit less creepy for me, and more like a book about a girl who hasn't got a clue how to survive, cares more about how she looks and her vegetarian diet, makes enormously stupid decisions and remarks. Instead of following the antibiotics instructions (they should have that) she just takes as many as she can. She reminds me a bit of what would happen if you would drop Barbie in a zombie apocalypse.
The ending was not only very disgusting, but also a big freaking what the hell? I was kind of prepared for it, but it still shocked me. Especially what she did at the end, what she did to them. How could she do that? I know what she is, but she seemed still sane at times. :( I won't spoil anything, you will have to read it to find out what happens in the last few pages.
All in all, I am sad that I didn't like the book, it truly sounded like a great book and I was really interested in it, but it just wasn't what I liked.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
sabrinaj's review against another edition
2.0
Slow
Started out slow over half the book was super slow but the end was intresting to see zombification first hand and what they might experience or think. Might read the second sometime just to see.
Started out slow over half the book was super slow but the end was intresting to see zombification first hand and what they might experience or think. Might read the second sometime just to see.
hyperashley's review against another edition
I'm not going to lie here, I try to always be honest in my reviews - the whole first half of this book bored me. There were times that I wanted to stop reading because it was very repetitive at the beginning. It was just Leah, working, and trying to get around after her "joke" came out and lets not forget about her crush on Jake.
Leah has a crush on one of her coworkers and in an attempt to make him laugh she accidentally sends an email to her boss, instead of Jake. She sends her boss a phony zombie attack, which turns out to be true and turns her whole world upside down. Now they are under lockdown and all wanting to figure out what happened to their families.
I liked some of the characters, like Michelle. She was a funny character that seemed real and likable. Leah was another one but there were times that she annoyed me. The only character that I was wary about was Mike. I think that's because of how he was introduced, I always get annoyed in zombie books when people are too trusting.
The last part of the book saved it for me, that was a plot twist that I did not see coming for some reason. It's something that I probably should have known was going to happen but didn't. It was surprising and that reason alone is why I will read book two.
Leah has a crush on one of her coworkers and in an attempt to make him laugh she accidentally sends an email to her boss, instead of Jake. She sends her boss a phony zombie attack, which turns out to be true and turns her whole world upside down. Now they are under lockdown and all wanting to figure out what happened to their families.
I liked some of the characters, like Michelle. She was a funny character that seemed real and likable. Leah was another one but there were times that she annoyed me. The only character that I was wary about was Mike. I think that's because of how he was introduced, I always get annoyed in zombie books when people are too trusting.
The last part of the book saved it for me, that was a plot twist that I did not see coming for some reason. It's something that I probably should have known was going to happen but didn't. It was surprising and that reason alone is why I will read book two.
kimily's review
2.0
I started out enjoying this book, but the beginning seemed to drag out forever. The middle picked up a little, but then the end was in sight and it was clear how things were going, and any enjoyment I was having was lost. I won't read any more of this series.
kimily's review against another edition
2.0
I started out enjoying this book, but the beginning seemed to drag out forever. The middle picked up a little, but then the end was in sight and it was clear how things were going, and any enjoyment I was having was lost. I won't read any more of this series.
pixiejazz's review
4.0
Lockdown is the first book in the AM13 Outbreak series.
It starts out pretty normal, with main character Leah browsing the internet for a video to "prank" her crush with rather than doing her job. However, she accidentally sends this video to her boss, who then begins to take it more seriously than she expected. And when she starts getting hounded, she starts to freak out. She has no idea why this prank has gotten so out of control. Until things start to spiral into a hellish nightmare.
Leah and her co-workers are stuck in their office during the government sanctioned lockdown while things are supposedly "taken care of." Leah, however, doesn't want to be stuck inside. She and two others decide to ignore the lockdown and try to find their families to make sure they're safe instead.
What starts out as a pretty simple journey turns into a fight for survival when Leah and her co-workers realize the lockdown really was put into place for their own safety. Do they make it to safety? Do they find their families? Read it and find out.
I found Lockdown to be a bit slow at first. Leah was kind of frustrating, mostly because she was a little on the immature side. She really only thought about herself and what her crush would think of her. She just wanted to impress him. And she spent a lot of the book questioning why her prank video was being taken so seriously. She questioned why her name had been released with the news report involving the video. And she had moments where you kind of wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up. That her prank video wasn't just some fake thing she found on the internet, and that she'd best start believing in zombies.
Leah did get a little better later on in the book. She wasn't as frustrating once things got going. And her friends/co-workers, Michelle and Jake, were two characters you found yourself liking more than her on occasion.
The one thing that bothered me was that there was no real closure for one of the characters. I don't want to spoil anything, but one character disappears at one point, and by the end of the book, you're still unsure what happened to them. Did they get bitten and die? Did they somehow manage to survive? Unless I missed something, that's never resolved.
Overall, though, Lockdown is a pretty good start to a very interesting zombie apocalypse/horror trilogy. It's definitely a book that will hook you and make you want to read the other two books in the series.
I give it 4 stars.
It starts out pretty normal, with main character Leah browsing the internet for a video to "prank" her crush with rather than doing her job. However, she accidentally sends this video to her boss, who then begins to take it more seriously than she expected. And when she starts getting hounded, she starts to freak out. She has no idea why this prank has gotten so out of control. Until things start to spiral into a hellish nightmare.
Leah and her co-workers are stuck in their office during the government sanctioned lockdown while things are supposedly "taken care of." Leah, however, doesn't want to be stuck inside. She and two others decide to ignore the lockdown and try to find their families to make sure they're safe instead.
What starts out as a pretty simple journey turns into a fight for survival when Leah and her co-workers realize the lockdown really was put into place for their own safety. Do they make it to safety? Do they find their families? Read it and find out.
I found Lockdown to be a bit slow at first. Leah was kind of frustrating, mostly because she was a little on the immature side. She really only thought about herself and what her crush would think of her. She just wanted to impress him. And she spent a lot of the book questioning why her prank video was being taken so seriously. She questioned why her name had been released with the news report involving the video. And she had moments where you kind of wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up. That her prank video wasn't just some fake thing she found on the internet, and that she'd best start believing in zombies.
Leah did get a little better later on in the book. She wasn't as frustrating once things got going. And her friends/co-workers, Michelle and Jake, were two characters you found yourself liking more than her on occasion.
The one thing that bothered me was that there was no real closure for one of the characters. I don't want to spoil anything, but one character disappears at one point, and by the end of the book, you're still unsure what happened to them. Did they get bitten and die? Did they somehow manage to survive? Unless I missed something, that's never resolved.
Overall, though, Lockdown is a pretty good start to a very interesting zombie apocalypse/horror trilogy. It's definitely a book that will hook you and make you want to read the other two books in the series.
I give it 4 stars.
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