I had a hard time with this novel. The plot often fell flat, but it did have interesting character development.

Inhuman was one of those books that I couldn't put down. It was a surprise because I wasn't sure if I was going to love this one as much as I did.

The Ferae virus swept the nation quickly, and in a matter of days, uninfected humanity was locked behind a wall just past the Mississippi River for their own protection. Those still in the East were on their own amongst the dangers of infected animals and humans. Ferae was originally developed by the Titan company to develop cool new creatures for their maze amusement parks. The virus has 50 variations, and carries DNA of various animals, which is dumped into the DNA of those infected by exposure (usually bites of those infected). Those infected will go through three stages. First, they get a fever. Second, they start to display the foreign DNA (and many now call them manimals). Third, they go feral and lose human characteristics like speech and reason; at this point, they are exceedingly dangerous and start hunting. As if infected humans weren't enough, there are also weird new animal crosses roaming around in the east. Most of which are out to kill you. Delaney (Lane) McEvoy grew up in Davenport behind the wall. She has grown up an extreme germophobe, like just about everyone else who has grown up in the West and survived infection. Her life is safe and comfortable, but she has always been curious about the East. She grew up thinking her father was a normal art dealer, until the night she is arrested on claims she is infected, but in reality because certain powers that be have discovered her father is a Fetch and they have a job they want him to do...or else. Lane is completely floored by the idea of her dad as an illegal scavenger, until she starts thinking of the bedtime stories he told her and the wilderness survival training classes he made her take. She is told how to sneak out of the West, and given just a few days to find her dad and give him the job that will save both of their skins. But finding her dad proves harder than she thought. Oh, everyone knows who Mac is and is eager to help his daughter help him, however, the East is a dangerous place. Lane soon finds herself traveling through a wild country of strange beasts and stranger people with a guy her father brought up to help him with his fetches and a soldier who wants to find a cure for Ferae.

I heard so many mixed things about this book, I was kind of wary to pick it up. However, once I braved cracking the cover I quickly got sucked into the story. It reminds me a bit of I am Legend (the movie, not the book) in the premise, but the post-apocalyptic world Falls creates is all her own. I was thoroughly cheering on Lane as she fought prejudices against manimals and tried to remind people these were infected humans, not wild creatures...at least, yet. There is always the danger that they could turn feral. The strange genetical mashup animals encountered provide quite the excitement and give the moments on the road a feel of being in a world somewhat like Jurassic Park on it's bad days. Ok, so there aren't dinosaurs, but there are piranha-bat hybrids and other equally freaky things. And then, Falls throws in a serial killer manimal just in case things aren't exciting enough, and oh boy, is that guy messed up! Yes, there is a love triangle thing going on between Lane, Rafe, and Everson; so if you hate love triangles, avoid this one. Even Lane isn't sure who to like. The science teacher in me was wondering why in the world they were hunting down the blood of just the manimals to try and work on a cure and not the kids of manimals (who are immune to Ferae) but perhaps they'll wake up to that idea in the next book. Speaking of which, I'm kind of glad it took me so long to read this because now I don't have to wait years for the sequel. So pick this up if you like those books in which the characters are fighting injustices while running away from all sorts of weird dangers.