I'm not a huge zombie fan. So, I wasn't sure what I'd think of this book when I grabbed it up, but it drew me in and held me until the very last page.

Violet wakes up to find that she blacked out on a couch during a party her friend dragged her too. Frustrated, Violet makes her way home the next morning and decides to take a short-cut through the forest. The decision appears to be a mistake when she runs across a murder scene and is attacked...bitten...by the murderer. While fleeing, she realizes the chaos in the town around her. 'Biters' (or zombies) are tearing people to shreds. She escapes with the help of a man, but again blacks out only to find herself covered with blood later. Soon, she realizes that the bites make people turn into zombies, and she is one too. Sort of. She turns into a monster whenever she sees blood, but another part of her fights against this desire. If that wasn't enough a problem, the world around her is falling apart...and she has no clue how to survive.

In this book, zombies are referred to as biters. Once bitten, a person dies soon after only to 'reawaken' as a walking dead, who thrashes living people and eats them. The world has become a war zone with biters everywhere....blood everywhere...and horrific scenes everywhere. In that sense, it was a lovely, gory, zombie read as to be expected. But this author was able to put in more.

Violet is easy to connect to. She's confused, a good person, and makes enough mistakes to make her realistic. Her half-dead status doesn't come across as a good thing, but adds another part of life she needs to learn to deal with. She doesn't dwell on it either, which was nice. The main action sticks with her and her friends as they try to survive and to figure out what exactly has happened to the world around them. There is a hint of romance, but this slides more along the side as future possibilities. The tale gets more complicated at the end as the book switches gears from simple survival to a bit more of intrigue, which also hints at possible future books to see what happens to Violet and her friends.

While there is a lot of chasing, zombie thrashing, running and gut devouring moments, there's also enough emotional and character development going on to keep the plot engaging and grabbing the whole way through.

I received a complimentary copy and enjoyed this more than I thought. So, I leaving my honest thoughts. ( )