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Tuesday, 1 September 2015

Book Musings - Contamination by Jamie Thornton

Title : Contamination
Author : Jamie Thornton
Series : Feast of Weeds, Book 2
Genre : Apocalypse, Young Adult
Source : Free copy from the author for an honest review

Blurb :

Her memories won’t stay dead. 

More than anything, eighteen-year-old Corrina wants Dylan to love her as much as her parents loved each other. But when a new virus unleashes violence that devastates their neighborhood, Dylan is kidnapped and Corrina uncovers a terrible secret.

A crude vaccination, and now Corrina’s immune from the virus ravaging the city—but the cure changes her memories in bizarre ways.

With help from a group of runaways, Corrina must survive a world gone mad if she’s to find the boy she still loves. But when Dylan discovers what she's become, will he still love her?

A post-apocalyptic Young Adult series where the runaways are the heroes, the zombies aren’t really zombies, and you can't trust your memories—even if they're all you have left.

 My Musings : 

This is a great sequel to the first book, Germination. The book is aptly named too because it deals with the aftermath of the contamination of the human race.

This is another book which starts off with a totally new set of characters. This is the second time I have seen this approach and it works good for the storyline. Corinna seemed sweet and a bit naive. She does have the quality of being the half-glass-full person. Jane was focused on rarely but I believe she plays one of the important roles which impacts the whole story. She felt duplicitous even at the start and I didn't like her at all! Another person whom I felt a dislike for was Dylan. He felt too one dimensional and not forthright. There was something I can't pinpoint which stopped me from believing him during the unfolding of the story.

All the characters especially the minor ones are pivotal in different scenes and cause the twists in the story flow. The action kept me engrossed in the tale and easily made me lose track of the passage of time. This book explains more of the origin and spread of the virus. And the meeting of the old characters from the first book also made me enjoy reading about their adventures. The author connected both sets of characters seamlessly and the plot lines meshed together into a great second half of the book.

The story is original with the way the author has handled the characters and the scenes. There is everything in it from a tiny bit of romance to mystery about the virus to suspense of what's going to happen next as the group journeys from one place to another trying to stay alive. I was pulled in totally from the start to the end. It had all the ingredients for a fast read and I ended up reading it in one sitting.

Overall, the sequel was better than the first book, Germination. But I felt that it had a bit too much attention on the personal lives of the characters. On one hand, it felt good to know more about them while on the other hand, the details felt a bit too much at times. I am still not decided about it but I am leaning towards to the Too Much Information side. Inspite of it, I can't wait to see how it further plays out in the next book, Infestation.

My one line review : A fast paced apocalyptic tale with well rounded characters and twisty plot.

My rating : 4/5

My reread factor : 4/5

Floryie

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