Figgy O'Connell

I'm sorry, I really am, but I'm going to have to call it quitsies on this book.
I don't like DNFing books, I've only done it a handful of times in my life, but I really can't go on.

For the last twelve days I have struggled to make myself read more of this book, averaging out at about 5 pages per day.
60 pages in total for those of you playing at home.

I've read 400 to 500 page novels in the space of a couple of days(which, in all honesty, would probably equal one day, had I not been at work for 8+ hours of each of those days, and had to sleep because of said work).

But nothing about this novel grabbed me at all. Except, of course, for the blurb when I requested it from NetGalley.

Now, I love zombies. I love them just as much as the next girl. No, it’s actually a lot more than the average girl; I’m kinda obsessed with zombies. You slap the zombie label on something (oh, damn, now I want a zombie label), and I am THERE.

But this was so… not happening.

The Remaining differs from other zombie books in that the main character actually knows about the virus, knows the cause of the zombie infection, and is told what to expect from the infected long before he ever finds himself in a situation where he might come face to face with any.

He’s had army training, and he’s skilled at surviving, but sometimes he doesn’t think things through, and some other aspects of the story just didn’t make sense.

There are 48 one person + pet bunkers (because pets are suggested to stop people from going crazy while locked underground for what could be months). This program is not known about outside a super top secret department, and they had to have 48 bunkers to minimise the chances of other departments noticing that there was some money scraped off the top for undisclosed operations.
Because 48 x 1 human 1 pet bunkers is so much more cost effective than 24 x 2 human 1 pet bunkers, or 12 x 4 person 1 pet bunkers…

Each of these bunkers has access to the internet/satellites, but it goes against protocol for the people in the bunkers to talk to each other. They could be punished for doing so without permission.
To an extent I can understand this, insomuch as one person in a bunker freaking out might email other people and start them panicking too. But on the other side of things, wouldn’t letting them communicate with each other help stop the whole cabin fever issue, and also help them to coordinate their mission, should the zombie shit hit the proverbial fan?
I especially found it hard to believe that once Lee KNEW that there was likely no government around, having come face to face with a zombie and seen the deserted world outside before retreating to his bunker, he STILL didn't think "Hey, I should contact the other people and give them a heads up."

The mission of these people is to gather survivors and rebuild, I guess? But, by the sounds of it, there are no WOMEN in any of those 48 bunkers.
Let’s say your Worst Case Scenario isn’t ACTUALLY the WCS, and everyone except those people in bunkers becomes a zombie. How the hell are they supposed to rebuild society to any major extent if they don’t have the option to reproduce, YOU MORONS?

Aaaaaaaaaaanywho.

Then Lee is looking at the supplies he is going to take with him when he embarks on his mission properly, and he puts the satellite phones in his bag, even though he doubts they’ll continue to work forever, as the satellites will likely fall out of orbit due to there being no one to keep an eye on them. But then he talks about how important his GPS is.
You DO know how a GPS works, don’t you, Lee?

There were certain things about the first 60 pages of this book that really annoyed me, but mostly I was overwhelmed with boredom, and by the time the zombies started showing up, I was completely out of fucks to give.
It’s likely I will go back and try and read this book one day, if only to know how it all turns out, but I can’t drag this out for the further six weeks it would take me at the current rate, and I don’t see myself recommending it to anyone.

This proof copy was provided for free by NetGalley and Little, Brown, in exchange for an honest review. Any issues stated in this review may or may not be present in the final copy.