Mortality - Kellie Sheridan

Mortality (Hitchhiker Strain #1) - Kellie Sheridan

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After surviving a deadly plague outbreak, sixteen-year-old Savannah thought she had lived through the very worst of human history. There was no way to know that the miracle vaccine would put everyone at risk for a fate worse than un-death.

Now, two very different kinds of infected walk the Earth, intent on nothing but feeding and destroying what little remains of civilization. When the inoculated are bitten, infection means watching on in silent horror as self-control disappears and the idea of feasting on loved ones becomes increasingly hard to ignore.

Starving and forced to live inside of the abandoned high school, all Savannah wants is the chance to fight back. When a strange boy arrives with a plan to set everything right, she gets her chance. Meeting Cole changes everything. Mere survival will never be enough. - Goodreads

I love zombies! Rather strangely though I don't appear to read many zombie novels, the last one was an anthology of zombie stories, The Living Dead ed. by John Joseph Adams back in 2009! I do however watch everything zombie on the big/small screen, most recently In The Flesh which was on BBC3 here in the UK and was a new take on zombies. Imagine my excitement when I started Mortality only to discover that it too is a fresh take on zombies!

Whilst the traditional zombies are still the majority there is a new breed, the living zombie, infected but still alive, knowing exactly what is happening but powerless to stop yourself attacking. The story switches between two sets of main characters, Savannah & Cole and Zarah & Liam along with the usual cast of supporting characters.

The story opens with Savannah mooning over her best (male) friend Alex who has a girlfriend and my first thought was 'oh no, another love triangle' which always makes me want to stop reading. Happily though the story does not go this way! Savannah and her friends are living in a large compound (the local high school) training to fight zombies and trying to survive. The action starts when they go on a supply run and things don't go as planned, this is also where Cole comes in having been watching out for anyone from their group. Savannah is an incredibly strong character, independent, stubborn, almost fearless and a typical teenager - considering she has lost her entire family she is so much more together than I ever would be. Cole though remains almost an enigma through the entire book, by the end we still don't know much more about him than we did at the start and whether it was intentional or not there's just something 'shifty' about him which sets you on guard. 

Although there are two sets of main characters Zarah & Liam's story is more like a side story until towards the end, I loved reading Zarah's point of view though and she was so different to Savannah that it was a joy to read the shifting PoV's instead of it being jarring. I related more to Zarah and as much as I liked Savannah, she & Liam were my favorite characters. Without being too spoiler-y (I know that's not a word!) the cover sums up the entire book perfectly and I can't wait to see what Duality looks like.

There was romance in this zombie story but it wasn't the be all and end all, it added to the storyline and made certain things even the more heartbreaking. The end, even though you knew what was coming, was shattering and I love how Kellie didn't hold back in this part of the storyline. My only complaint is that it ended! I'm now desperate to read Duality and can't believe I have to wait until December... In the meantime I'm off to buy End Dayz, the prequel to the series to keep me going until I find another zombie story that I love as much as Mortality.

Thank you to Kellie for providing me with an e-copy of Mortality!