ian wants to tell his best friend that he loves him, but tragedy happens before he can. dead, but still around, ian must find him, confess his love and not lose himself all while trying to work out what has happened to the small town of kittakoop.

this story moved fast, with so much happening, but it worked really well. it drew me in from the very beginning and kept me there. it had me on the edge of my seat, nervously waiting to see what was going to happen. the writing was done so beautifully, but at times it was too poetic and made it hard to follow. the characters were likeable and seeing their friendships grow was lovely. it gave us the perfect found family, had arguments with each other but still wanted to do anything to protect each other. i loved it a lot.

overall, it was an interesting story which kept me on the edge of my seat. however, some moments were confusing and hard to follow, but still a very enjoyable read!

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of anything even mildly post-apocalyptic, and "Take All of Us" by Natalie Leif did not disappoint. Though there were 'zombies' they did not exist in the traditional sense, rather the people that returned to life only did so because of contaminated water that brought them back to life after death. These zombies were not the ravenous, flesh-ripping monsters that one might see in 'The Walking Dead' or 'Train to Busan', but rather these were people who were thrust back into life after suffering a traumatic death.

Living with the returned is just a fact of life for Ian and Eric, but things take a massive turn when Ian hits his head and drowns in a fountain full of contaminated water, bringing him back to life as a black-eyed, bleeding member of the undead. What follows is a journey of self-discovery, acceptance, and grief written beautifully by Leif.

This book is full of the 'unbury your gays' vibes, and it was thrilling to read from start to finish.

[Digital Copy provided by Netgalley and Holiday House / Peachtree / Pixel+Ink]

Actual rating 2.5 stars

I really liked the overal concept of this book and the theme of how disabled people are viewed and treated in society. There was a lot of interesting elements about selflessness Vs selfishness, morality in emergency situations and environmental disaster responses. Unfortunately beyond these themes I didn't find a lot to enjoy in this book. The characters were kind of archetypal beyond two being disabled, the main character being one of them. The length of the book and the character construction gave this a young YA feel (13-15) but with very prominent gore which didn't match up well in my opinion. Additionally as the book progresses the writing gets more confusing and the developments are rushed. I appreciate the themes this book is touching upon, but the execution didn't really land with me.

rep: achillean epileptic mc, autistic fmc, cane-user fmc
Interestingly enough, this is the second book I’ve read in a row that’s set in West Virginia. While I’m not from West Virginia myself, the Appalachian setting does still remind me of home.
Now, up until about 40% of the way through I was really struggling, but once it picked up I enjoyed it so much. The second half of the book was wonderful and I loved seeing this found family form.
Angel was my favorite. Maybe it was autistic solidarity, idk. But I enjoyed her character and seeing how she bonded with Ian and he helped accommodate her needs. It was really sweet.
I liked the theme of allowing oneself to be selfish and take up space after spending so much time worrying over other people. I recognize the struggle in that. As disabled people sometimes we feel like we don’t deserve to take up space and it’s so necessary that we recognize our worth and our needs.
This started out as a 3-star read, but at the end I felt I just had to round it up to four because the second half was just so redeeming.

For a queer, ya, zombie-esque thriller, I really enjoyed this one. The spread of the virus was really thought out but I wish we got MORE about it overall. The beginning was a bit vague and slow, and by the end, while I loved how everything ended, I felt like we needed more information.

I adored Ian and Eric and the struggles these two went through. They were very well thought out and their little romance was a nice breather from the plot.

A few side characters got on my nerves but alas, this is ya so it’s to be expected.

I find this one to be a great addition to early high school kids or adults who love clean thrillers!

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

Natalie Leif's Take All of Us is a wonderful debut novel and I liked more than I expected I would from the description.

First of all, the cover has some awesome art and it caught my attention. It would definitely make me pick up the book if I saw it in the wild. The title is also interesting, making me wonder where they all want to be taken and what the book is about. Then the description seals the deal because the story is about an undead boy who must confess to the boy he likes before he loses his mind and body.

There's something is the water in the town of Kitakoop, where the dead haven't quite caught to up the fact that they are and continue their lives as they gradually lose their mind and body. During an evacuation, Ian dies and decides he should confess his feelings to the boy he loves before he's completely gone. Along the way, Ian makes friends with other stragglers who will help him destroy the thing that keeps the dead alive and slowly destroys them.

The book presents themes of disabilities, love, and it being okay to not be okay. There's conflict among the characters as they meet, but they manage to develop a bond as they help each other navigate the empty town and it made me root for them to reach their personal goals, even if they couldn't all be achieved in the end.

I felt the situation with the dead going on about their usual lives spoke about the way some living people go about their lives. However, Ian wonders so much about why this happens, I was left waiting for some sort of explanation in the context of the whole undead phenomenon going on in the town. While the book's description mentions a parasite infects the water, I didn't catch this mentioned until the very end (even then you'll miss it if you blink) and finding out about what's going on will keep you wondering what is going on and where the story will go.

Also, if you liked The Summer Hikaru Died (manga), definitely check this book out.

3.5 Stars

Take All of Us by Natalie Lief puts an interesting spin on the apocalypse/zombie genre. Following a boy who dies before he can finish telling his best friend that he's in love with him during an evacuation, only to come back to realize that he has been left behind, this book really got me invested in Ian's story as he tries to find Eric again while navigating his new and deteriorating half-alive state. While I enjoyed the premise, I was underwhelmed by the ending, and I would have liked to see more development in Ian and Eric's relationship. That said, I really loved the representation for disabilities, especially within this genre, and the side characters are lovely. Even though it's more gory than I'm used to, I appreciated the messages about people with disabilities being left behind and the importance of letting yourself take up space, and I would still recommend this one to those looking for a fresh new read in the horror genre.

The kids are not alright...and that's okay. There's fantastic disability, neurodiversity, and queer rep. I love that these characteristics are very intentional and central to the story. Leif centers each character's identity and loudly denounces inspiration p*rn.

There is no shortage of gross-out body horror and cosmic horror between the heartwarming moments. I found myself pacing just to release some of the tension Leif builds so well. I highly recommend this book for both YA and adult readers, especially fans of queer horror.

ARC review
“Everything happened too slow in kittakoop. For as long as I could remember, the traffic barely existed, the summer days dragged along, and even things like dying took a while to settle in.”
Take All of Us is a post-apocalyptic YA horror about a little town in West Virginia where something is in the water that makes the dead die twice.
This was a cute read! I loved the varied disability representation, as well as queer rep! It was so special to me to see how the different characters showed love to each other, and how careful they were to interact with kindness and respect for each others boundaries and love languages even as teenagers thrown into a scary new environment.
The Appalachian horror was on point, the showcasing of the fear of being abandoned for not being enough was poignant, and the characters were real and flawed and lovable.

I wish I liked this one more, it seemed so promising but just wasn't for me. I found it really difficult to connect to the characters and the world itself and to care what was going on.

This was a very quick and easy read, but I didn't much enjoy it. I think it had some solid things going for it and I appreciated how Ian's seizure's are woven in and described. However overall I just couldn't get into this book and it made it a little bit of a letdown to me. I'm also not sure that this counts as horror, I mean I suppose technically, but it definitely didn't read like a horror story.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Beware of possible spoilers.

I was so pleasantly surprised with this! I really enjoyed this one!

It was the characters, and the plot, and the uniqueness of the zombie world that pulled me in. Ian and Eric were adorable, and all the other characters were fun to follow along with. They really built their own little found family and I love that for them.

I loved the rep we had in this. Ian has seizures, which are always vividly explained. Truth be told, I only know about them from an outsider's perspective (having some family that deals with them) so it was interesting to read about it from a first person point of view, even if it's not the same for everyone. We have Monica, who walks with a cane, and Angel, who I believe was autistic? It wasn't outwardly stated, but I believe so.

The only thing that I sort of wish we had more time with was the ending. It felt a bit rushed and I wish Ian had been up there with the rest of them. I know why he wasn't, but it just felt like I was missing out on something I would have really loved explored.

If you enjoy zombies, post-apocalyptic stories, and a little bit of romance with a happy ending, this will be perfect for you!

This book was really fun. I liked the characters a lot, and the disability and queer rep was great. It's a pretty fast paced story after you get past the first bit. It was just kind of not what I was expecting. To me, it gives more speculative dystopian than horror, and I'm not a big dystopian fan. Still a very fun read tho! I'd give it a 3.5.

Kitakoop, West Virginia isn’t like other towns. Ian’s parents moved them here because of his epilepsy, too easily triggered in a larger town. Here, it’s quiet. True, it’s a strange sort of quiet where, occasionally, people don’t seem to realize they’re dead, like poor Mr. Owens rooting around in the blackberry bushes. He’s still walking around, muttering, going through the motions like a sleepwalker. Just … one who will never wake up. Ian knows they’ll have to call his daughter and let her know so she can come collect him and have him taken care of, put down. It’s just a part of life in Kitakoop.

Today, though, is going to be different. Ian is going to finally confess to his best friend, Eric, that he’s gay. That he’s in love with him, and that it’s perfectly okay if Eric doesn’t love him back. He just needs Eric to know. Or maybe he won’t. Maybe they’ll meet at the mall and just do the usual. Chat, goof off, and Ian will hold his secret a little closer for another day.

But that isn’t what happens. Flashing lights and sirens go off and Ian has a seizure, falling back into the fountain. He wakes up on the floor, wet, bleeding, alone, and … well, dead. So, that sucks. Eric is gone, the town’s been evacuated, and Ian is dead. However, on the bright side, he isn’t alone for long as Angel, a stoic girl who didn’t evacuate, and Monica, a girl left behind when her disability kept her from being able to keep up with the others, are with him.

They don’t mind that he’s dead, and since he doesn’t want to be alone, the three of them decide to head to the hospital in search of answers.

This is an unusual book. There’s a bit of gore — with people dying, people falling apart, some light cannibalism — and some very angry conversations as the three of them face the reality of being abandoned. Angel is implied to have autism (it’s never stated, but the indicators are there), Monica has chronic pain and walks with a cane, and Ian has epilepsy. Monica and Ian know one another by sight, as they both had frequent trips to the hospital both as children and as adolescents, but they’ve never really talked until now.

And when they do talk, it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. It’s not just about the end of the world, it’s about not having to mask their pain, their suffering, their anger and irritation. Of not having to be a good and angelic disabled person who apologies for everything, who tries to take up as little room as possible, to be as accommodating as possible. Their moments of anger and violence are as much the product of the apocalypse around them as the lifetime of playing by the rules … only to be punished by being left behind to fend for themselves.

Ian, who is the only point of view character, tries so hard to be optimistic, to be cheerful, to be helpful, considerate, and good— even though he’s with friends who encourage him to take up space and make some noise. Because he’s dead and they’re not; he’s the burden, the one who still needs to be treated differently. All he wants is to say goodbye to his parents, whose constant text messages to his phone are heartbreaking, hoping he’s alive and well, struggling with the thought that maybe he’s not; to see Eric again and tell him he loves him; to get back to the pets of the town, left behind in the evacuation, and make sure they have food and water.

When Ian meets Eric, Eric has partnered with Zoey. The meeting … does not go well. And when Zoey learns Ian’s come all this way to confess to Eric, she has a few things to say to him. Valid ones, about how he’s putting a burden on Eric by confessing his love to someone who will either not be able to live with the guilt of turning away a dead man, or by loving someone who is dead, and who will only fade as the days go by. It’s kinder to say nothing, to not put that burden on Eric. Maybe an Ian who wasn’t so hurt, so angry at the injustice of life — er, death — might have agreed. But this Ian is going to stand up for what he wants. For what will make him happy. Ian has something to fight for. Eric, the boy he loves, his friends, and now, himself.

Eric comes from a broken home with an indifferent father and a challenging childhood, and turned to Ian for support and friendship. With Ian being smaller, ill, and sometimes needing help, Eric took it upon himself to be a caretaker. He wants to be ready at a moment’s notice to protect Ian and now has to live with the fact that he failed.

There are a lot of thoughts on helplessness, on anger and grief, on injustice and frustration and acceptance. The subject matter, framed in an adventure story of a ragtag group of survivors, might be slightly weighty for some people. Even so, it’s a fun adventure with a new take on the undead, the process of dying ((and no dying), and the bonds of friendship formed in adversity. It’s also well written, very well paced, and with a very strong and sympathetic main character.

I enjoyed this book, and hope you do, too!

I would give this 3.5 stars.

I found some of the book to be confusing because you are left with a confusion because of really not knowing whats going on. Definitely not HORROR but definitely dystopian.

The book is very short and it is an easy and fast read. This is a very emotional read and the character build is amazing. The ending of the story is satisfying and would make you read more from this author.

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

I thought this book was a fresh take on a well known story and leaned into the disability rep just right. It’s a great concept, of who is left behind, and them finding the strength to take up the space they deserve.

A fun spin on the zombie genre.

In a town where the dead don’t always stay dead, Ian and his best friend Eric are just existing. For their town, this is just another aspect of day-to-day life. One day, an emergency evacuation of the town leads to tragedy. During the evacuation, Ian has a seizure and cracks his head open causing him to die. But not all the way. Ian wakes up in his new reality with Eric missing and the whole town evacuated. Banding together with others who stayed behind, Ian makes it his mission to find Eric and escape. Little does he know that Eric has the same plan—just not the same ending.

If you have ever read Peeps by Scott Westerfield, this is a very similar vibe. The mythology within the book is lacking in parts. This is most likely on purpose, but in my personal preference, I like to know everything when dealing with post-apocalyptic or dystopian books, especially with a standalone novel. The book treaded a murky line between the supernatural and distorted, but plausible, scientific. I’d say the cause of the infection are in the eye of the beholder.

The book takes place over a period of forty-eight hours which lends the book to read really fast-paced, which I enjoyed. The friendships that developed over the course of the book where the shining stars, more than the romantic plot line. Three very unlikely friends, each with disabilities ranging from physical to developmental, feel abandoned by society, and this creates bonds in ways that only trauma can. Eric and Ian’s relationship is very sweet, but their friendship is even sweeter.

I don’t know if there are any plans to continue this into a series, as the ending was both conclusive and open-ended, but I look forward to more of this author’s work as her concepts are very unique and refreshing for a sometimes tired genre.

#netgally #takeallofus #holidayhousebooks #pridemonth #natalieleif

I would say that this is more like 3.5-3.75 stars
negatives:
-I feel like the world-building wasn't the best and that there wasn't enough detail about the situation. there's enough explanation to be able to understand what's going on but I was still left not knowing how they were dead but "alive" and how Ian came back to life?? idk maybe it's just me and it was too confusing for me
-it was also maybe mismarketed? I wouldn't say this is horror, like it wasn't actually scary. if anything, it's more like a dystopian novel.

positives:
-short and sweet? (I still can't tell if that's a good thing)
-great representation
- surprising sad, deep, and emotional.
-amazing characters!!! I loved Ian as the main protagonist and then their cute little trio. i also love the found family aspects!!
-the ending. it was very nice and satisfying
^I enjoyed reading it and was wanting to know how it ended, but although the concept was pretty interesting and unique, the writing wasn't my favorite

five years ago, ian’s west virginia hometown’s water supply became poisoned by a parasite, causing those who drink unfiltered water to become empty shells of themselves. when an emergency evacuation causes ian to die…and then come back…he’s separated from his best friend/crush eric, and sets out to find him and tell him his feelings before he goes.

unfortunately, this was lacking quite a bit of depth that would have made this a five-star read for me. i would’ve loved more information about the water supply and undead situation, though enough information was given to understand the gist of what was going on. i also didn’t quite connect with the writing style at some points.

now that the negative parts are out of the way, here’s what i enjoyed! i loved that this was set in my home state of west virginia, and i’ll admit this is something that originally drew me to the book. this was set in a different part of the state, but i still could imagine the setting quite well.

i also loved all the disability representation and discussions on disability that were present throughout the novel. our main character, ian, has epilepsy and chronic migraines. he’s joined by monica, who’s chronically ill and uses a cane, and angel, who i believe is autistic (though this label is not used). there’s discussions about how they were left behind as evacuation plans, unfortunately, aren’t typically inclusive. in general, i loved this trio and seeing their friendship grow throughout the novel.

i’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys YA horror.

Take all of us by Natalie Lee is about Ian who is in love with this best friend Eric and at the moment he wants to work up the nerve to tell him an emergency evacuation goes off Ian has a seizure when he wakes up Eric is gone as is everyone else in his hometown with the exception of the undead Dairy Queen worker, angel a prepper and his disability rival Monica who is sweet, has it all together and even Ian can’t help but to like. Ian has memories of Eric saving him but Angel reminds him he left him there to die but it regardless Ian wants to find him anyway. This is a quick read not gonna lie I didn’t really like Angel that much and especially didn’t like her when she thought the way to mark your presence is the cause chaos and vandalism. I get it being disabled I to know my worth and that it is OK to take up space but don’t think vandalism and breaking the law is the way to do that. Having said that this is a fun read I love Ian and Monica and despite Angel being the prepper I found it funny that Monica was the only one with a contingency plan. As a person who loves yeah horror and mysteries I don’t think this would be for most adults but still I thoroughly enjoyed it and definitely recommend it to those who are really in to teen horror thrillers and all the drama. The conception of this book was a good one most of the characters are likable the story flows quickly and as I said just a really good read.. I want to thank holiday house, Peachtree and pixel ink for my free Ark copy. Please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

★ ★ ★ • 3

The initial start was a bit slow but I thought the ending made up for it, and the pacing did eventually pick up. The best part of the book was honestly the characters, they were all pretty likable for the most part and by the later half of the book I was fully invested in the relationship dynamics between them.

This book also did a good job of giving LGBTQ+ and disability representation, in a well written way. Would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for young adult, dystopian horror vibes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review!