While Ethan Reid's premise - all power and communications cut off in Paris on New Years Eve and then Zombie-esque demon creatures show up - is solid and for a tired genre fairly clever as presented, the novel itself is slow and the main characters are all either as smart or as dumb as any scene in the book requires them to be. It was not a quick read for me, and didn't hold my attention. Paris, as well as the carnage that gets unleashed upon it, is described well,. If only the characters got as much attention as the darkened City of Lights.

Started reading this in September and just now finished it. I want to explain why I rated this only 2 stars. For one the first half of this book felt uneventful even though it was the story slowly unfolding. This first half was torture to read it was in English and sometimes French. The main character with her poor me mentality just irritated me and I found the supporting characters to be annoying too. No real action related to the title happens until a good part past the half way point. Basically I hated the beginning and only continued because I had heard others say they enjoyed it. I wish I could say this got way better but it was enjoyable but not enough to make me think this was a great story. Now knowing there is a sequel I have zero interest in continuing this story.

I read this book in one sitting! It was wonderfully suspenseful! Through flashbacks, you learn more about the main characters and route for them as they try to find safety. I wish the book hadn't started with a flashback, the author revealed too much information too soon. It's no fun reading a book when you know what happens to every character. There were times when I wanted to smack the main character for her decisions, especially regarding survival and her friend Ben. Who only takes two bottles of water, two oranges, and a few candy bars from a convenience store during the apocalypse? I would shove everything I could into those backpacks! I found this book to be similar to World War Z or the Walking Dead.