DNFing at 25%. Whereas this sounded like it was going to be a straightforward post-apocalyptic novel, the introduction of vampires was the final nail in the coffin for me. If I had known this was a paranormal novel, I wouldn’t have requested it via NetGalley.

Even though I only read 25% of this book, I encountered a lot of problems with it. From Leo’s father Vincent’s willingness to arrange for his daughter to be raped, to Leo’s willingness to forgive boyfriend Ben after she withdrew consent during sex and he refused to stop, this is a highly sexist novel with some very old-fashioned views towards women and sexual autonomy.

Add to that the fact that the writing just wasn’t well-crafted. Ham-fisted foreshadowing, clunky exposition, stilted dialogue... I was finding this novel a chore to pick up, and there are enough books out there that I don’t need to bore myself to tears forcing myself to finish this one. There are a lot of background characters who aren’t fleshed out at all, simply names on the page to populate the world. Despite reading a quarter of this novel, I didn’t have any strong feelings about the world or any of the characters (other than my distaste for Leo’s father), which made this an easy one to DNF. I am not someone who DNFs regularly, which says enough about The Dead Days Journal.

It also doesn’t help that Vincent’s journal entries are nothing but cheap info dumps. I was expecting a rich, descriptive (but probably biased!) exploration of a post-apocalyptic world through the lens of a doomsday prepper’s daughter’s diary, not an adult paranormal with bland diary entries scattered through. This novel also feels more like YA. I scoffed when I discovered Leo was supposed to be 22! It certainly feels like someone was inspired by the Southern Vampire Mysteries series and wanted to write their own Sookie Stackhouse story.

The Dead Days Journal was supposed to be the first book in a series, but no further volumes have been released. From what I discovered during the first 25%, this is definitely for the best. A huge thank you to the publisher for accepting my request to review this title, but this just was not the book for me.