Survival Kit's Apocalypse was nothing like what I expected, based on the title. The main character has a past which puts the Apocalypse to shame, and is first just kind of aimlessly walking about until she stumbles on a bunch of brothers who almost fall over each other to please and woo her as she is such a special snowflake.

Maybe, had I expected less an Apocalypse survival story, I wouldn't have minded so bad, but now I didn't really care for it. It was very easy for me to put away, and more difficult to pick it up again (always a dangerous situation). It just really wasn't for me, I'm afraid, so I won't be continuing the series.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I put off writing this review. How can I possibly write this review? How did I even feel about this book? Perhaps it's better captured by my conversations while I was reading it.

"I don't know what the hell I'm reading but I can't quit it"
I didn't really want to keep reading at first. I kept thinking it was ridiculous. I mean, we've already got a zombie apocalypse story, why do we need to add in outrageous abuse plots, gratuitous sex, a surrealistic survivors group, and a dozen spiraling plot lines?

"I finally decided that if I could suspend disbelief for a zombie apocalypse, could anything else really be impossible?"

Nope. Nothing could be impossible in the zombie apocalypse. Man eating zombies? Sure. An insane over-arching plot tie in? Why the hell not!

"Then, at the end, she threw a complete wrench in the romance plot by------"

Yeah, it happened. And by then, I have to say I was completely rooting for it. Seriously. It's the end of the world. Girl has GOT to live a little right?

Dirty little secret. I kind of guilty pleasure loved this book. I kept reading and kept reading until there was no more. Then, when the author said the story wasn't over, I may have done a little happy dance. Bring it on!

So...that hit bottom rather spectacularly around the 80% mark. Just grossed me out. Kit is MARRIED, for God's sake, and Eric is cool with her having SEX with his BROTHER while he also makes out with her? That is just disgusting. No way am I cool with it. The story didn't need to go there, it was doing really well without it, so I can only assume this was done to make it more "open" to poly relationships? Not for me. I found it to be nasty, especially when Eric and Thom actually make contact during the encounter. If there were more, I wouldn't know, because I stopped reading at that point. Let people know that's where this book is going, for goodness sake! I wasted so much time reading something that I never would have, had I known Kit would be having sex with both brothers. Ugh.

I have read a great many zombie apocalypse type books some of which have been better than others. Unfortunately this one is one of the worst I have read and I just couldn't enjoy it. I did struggle through to the end in the interests of reviewing but am very glad I have now finished it.
The story is not unusual. A young girl is struggling to survive in a new world where there are zombies (rotters) and no real structure. She meets a group of people and settles down with them before falling in love.
These have to be the tamest and least scary zombies ever created. They seem to walk very slowly, never climb and are very easy to kill. In fact unless you are taken totally unawares (such as sleeping) then they are little more than an irritation. At various points throughout the book one or two people seem to be able to kill vast quantities of zombies. It is discovered at one point in the book that a common household liquid will kill them and a few people manage to dispatch literally thousands. Why are these still a major problem? Why has the world not restarted?
Kit had a dreadful life before the outbreak of the rotters. To be honest she seems far better off now than she did then! Her body seems to be totally covered in scars after suffering years of abuse. The descriptions of this abuse are quite detailed - drills, whipping, blowtorches - you name it and it happened. I found that this endless descriptions of tortures got more and more unbelievable and I just couldn't equate them into the story. I should point out that Kit's friends seem to have had a similar upbringing! It really was just too far fetched especially as these tortures where happening frequently by Kit's stepfather & his friends and her stepfather was controlling the whole county by drugs he put in the water..................this was just pure fantasy.
As the book progressed & Kit fell in love, the details of past torture became intermingled with extensive sex scenes. The scenes were quite graphically descibed but I didn't find them interesting. They were sex scenes not descriptions of people making love.
I also found the whole scenario very difficult. Food was not an issue. As the rotters were so easy to despatch anyone could just walk into old shops (or often warehouses or military bases) and collect whatever they wanted. Part of the tension in other post apocalyptic books is the in fighting over food and the struggle to survive but the author has eliminated this almost entirely.
If you ignore the sex and torture which were unnecessarily extensive you are left with very little story. In fact the story is just that of them surviving (with quite a lot of ease as stated above). Towards the end of the book it becomes apparent that this group will start to search for what begin the plague but I presume that will be covered in another book. One which I will not be reading.
Are there any redeeming features? Well it may surprise you to know that I was quite pleased with the language used in this book. Despite the graphic descriptions of torture, abuse & sex the author uses surprisingly few swear words. Strange but true.
This wasn't a book that I enjoyed and I have no intention of reading any further books by this author.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.