This book just felt disjointed and lackluster to me. I just didn’t like it at all.

I do want to thank NetGalley and Wicked House publishing for letting me read this book in return of a review.

*Netgalley ARC*
SPOILERS

I have many thoughts on this. The first, a definite pro is that I read this book in one night. It grabbed me from the first chapter and wouldn’t let me put it down. Really because I was waiting to find out what the heck was happening. I don’t feel I ever got a good answer there.

Now for the cons.
1. I really hate not knowing what the black shadows are or why they’re suddenly here. Was what brought them engineered by man or supernatural?
2. I disliked the ending. Why were the shadows fixated on Sam? What tie did he have to them? My ultimate takeaway was that he abandoned the group at the end to save the group. If he would have stayed they’d all be damned but him leaving saved them and he wanted, above all, to save Rachel. But once again, why did they choose Sam to fixate on and become their “king”?
3. Are the shadows the same as the humans massing at the woods and Bob, the old man who kills Eric at the beginning of the book? Are they possessing the humans? It seems that at the start the humans are being “possessed” by the shadows but then the shadows just start appearing on their own? Why the change?
4. Why did the shadows do things like making the human body “one” and taking Naajy’s coat and putting it on the dead child? So much is unexplained.
5. Nothing much happens. This whole book is set (to my understanding) within a 2-3 day period but aside from moving from place to place within the town, fighting off these shadows and having searing interior monologues, not much else happens.

Will I read more from this author? Yes. Do I wish I had more clarity and that more happened within the story? Also Yes.

I wanted to like this really bad. I think the action was good and it did a great job at jumping into it. The premise was interesting and I'm always down for an apocalyptic read. Unfortunately, I just found the writing to be a bit disjointed at times and I couldn't find myself caring about anything that was happening to the characters.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really sure how a nuclear attack would tie in any supernatural themes. Even after finishing the book, I still can’t answer that. I mean the horror aspect was spot on- there was a lot of bloody scenes, and the sheer descriptiveness throughout the entire book gave me reader’s anxiety till then end. But I can’t even start to explain the “others”. It may be part of the appeal of the story, similar to Bird Box where we never get a complete understanding of the monsters. But honestly it frustrates me more than anything else. It’s clear from early on that the detonating of the bomb is the catalyst of their rising up, but I’m truly lost on everything else. The ending was especially frustrating for me, as I felt even more lost at how everything came to a finish.
I really appreciated the raw emotions that were consistently portrayed. It not only differentiated everyone’s own personality, but it felt truly authentic and gave a glimpse into how people act when they are pushed in times of insanity. Many choices made sense, and some didn’t. It only begs the question of how truly can you be prepared for disaster? Something that I was not expecting to find much less appreciate was the bond between Sam and Rachel. It was a welcome surprise, and I think it was such a positive spot in such a heavy plot. I think I highlighted way more of their interactions/conversations more than is appropriate.
I felt like the writing was particularly disjointed, especially between Sam’s dialogue, visions and then reality. It makes me wonder if this was done on purpose, to help the reader fully submerge in the environment and feel as lost as the characters were. I will admit that I had to go back quite a few times to the previous paragraph or even the last chapter just so I could understand what I was reading in the moment. I can see the vision, but it just made me even more confused.
All in all, I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with the story. The idea was definitely a unique twist on apocalyptic horror. The execution of the storyline unfortunately had just one too many flaws that prevented me from fully appreciating it.

Bit of a disappointment this.
It starts off well...gets to the action immediately, but really that might be the book's downfall. A guy with his wife in a bar in some town in England when a nuclear strike happens. We don't know why. Some talk about a dispute between China and USSR.
So Sam, that's the guy's name, and his wife, Rachel, get together with some other survivors and try to get to Norwich where they hear on a CB that miraculously still works there might be other survivors.
Except it's not just the nukes. The fire seemed to cause some demonic shadow entities to rise from the depths of the earth and cause mayhem, especially burning anyone they touch to smithereens.
They walk around, seek shelter in a church, where they meet more people and the entities trap them. Sam seems to have some connection with these entities, they talk to him in his head. We're not sure why.
This book could be good...but I felt none of the characters really moved me. Maybe if the author spent some time developing them BEFORE the nukes fell--sort of like what Stephen King did with The Stand, I might care more. But the further I got into this book, the less I really cared. Too many characters, none of them really likeable.

This was an interesting book. The author did well with his settings and characters. Would've loved more descriptions on the evil ones. But it was well written and Ill definitely be picking up future books by this author as well. 4.5 stars.
Vicki Rose- Platinum Book Reviews

I loved this book however I found some points within the book very confusing. I found the book exciting and thrilling as well as heartbreaking. The cliffhanger has me distraught. I loved the characters especially Beth. Maybe it’s because I can relate to her. The plot was also interesting it was just so confusing to keep track of it in certain points.

This was so bad I wanted to give it a zero but I couldn't so I gave it a one. I'm not even kidding. This was bad to the point where I'm not even going to post to my socials about this. I requested this on netgalley and was super excited to read it. There is no plot. I feel like it's missing half of the book and I read crumbs of it. It isn't a horror. It's probably a YA thriller.

If I am going to be totally honest, I had a hard time reading this book... I definitely would have loved to have some getting to know everybody first rather than immediately jumping into action. Would have loved a bit more character and story development before immediately *BAM* *BAM* *BAM*, if you know what I mean?

With some additions, this could easily be a five star read. It needs more character development; I had trouble getting attached to any of the characters because they were all one dimensional. I normally love books that jump right into the action, but this was a little too fast. With a few additional chapters on the characters and background, again, this is easily five stars (and would make a great Netflix series!). As is, it’s still a good read and I would look for other books by this author in the future. Thank you for the opportunity to read!

Normally, I love when books jump right into the action, but we could've spent a little more time getting to know the characters and the town of Buxley. It was extremely fast-paced, which was great, but I felt like there was no concept of time and each event happened within minutes of each other. The visuals were great, the amount of action and gore was perfect, and I'm left wondering wtf is going on, which I love. A little more background and slightly slower pace, I would have rated this 5 stars!

Honestly had a hard time getting through this book. I LOVE this type of story. But, the story was kinda dragging. Everytime I'd start to get back into the storyline I'd find it dragging again. I only finished half the book before I had to DNF.

Let's talk covers loved the cover!

Fir me the book was ok. I didn't feel there was anything that was the wow factor. Plot was ok just nothing to write hone about.

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review