When Cass Dollar wakes up, she knows it is summer. But she doesn't remember exactly what happened to her, how she got where she was. Most imporantly she knew that Ruthie was missing, and she had to get back to Ruthie.
Cass lives in "Aftertime" which is a post-apocalyptic world. This is a zombie novel, but the zombies are called "beaters" in this one, and we get a small peek into their origin.
Unlike most stories of this type that drop you in the story with little to no explanation, as the novel unfolds and Cass journeys to find her missing daughter, we find out more and more about how the world became the way it is.
Cass ends up getting help from various groups of survivors, despite having been a loner all of her life. She finds herself traveling with a man named Smoke, who is one of the few people in Aftertime who knows the secret that Cass is trying to keep from everyone.
Smoke sticks with Cass despite her dangerous secret, and her nearly kamikaze need to get to Ruthie. This gets them both in serious trouble when they run into the Rebuilders, who know Smoke and have no love for him.
I enjoyed this novel. I liked the characters and the setting, the civilization that has come to pass after the downfall. I would have preferred more action with the Beaters, but most Zombie novels focus on the human element more than the "monsters."
However, I was disappointed to find out this was the first book in a series of books. It was followed by Rebirth then Horizon.
I will see if my library has the next two books, but I would have preferred it to be a stand alone novel.
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Aftertime was the 12th book I read in 2016. See the rest of my 2016 book list here.
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