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!

Blog Tour - Mortality by Kellie Sheridan

My first blog tour! Kellie contacted me, asked if I'd like to take part and as I'd  added Mortality to my wishlist over on Goodreads at the end of last year I jumped at the chance! Today's post is a guest post from Kellie about the books that influenced her to write her own Zombie epic and in the next couple of days I'll be posting a review of Mortality. I'm reading it just now and loving it!

Mortality (Hitchhiker Strain #1) - Kellie Sheridan

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Links to Kellie on the web -

Website - Snarky Books
Twitter - @Kellie_Sheridan
Goodreads - Kellie Sheridan 

Books That Inspired Mortality - Kellie Sheridan

After devouring the first two seasons of The Walking Dead as my introduction to all things zombie, things were looking pretty grim. I love the show, but for all its great character moments, I wanted MORE. I wanted to get inside the heads of the survivors to understand their struggles and what kept them going, so I started reading books about the zombie apocalypse. That’s when I fell completely in love!

Books about the zombie apocalypse offer a level beyond that which you get in horror flicks, making it impossible not to get entirely too invested in the world and the characters. Here are a few of my favorites that were just SO good, they made me want to start writing a zombie survival story of my own.

1. World War Z by Max Brooks

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

While not as character driven as the other books on this list, this book is still so many different kinds of awesome. This book focuses more on the political ramifications of the zombie apocalypse as well as the science behind the infection. It was important to me to keep Mortality’s zombies grounded in a (twisted) version of science, so in a lot of ways this book did a lot to help me shape my own undead villains. Plus, Max Brooks is basically the king of zombie fiction.

If you’ve haven’t read this book yet, I highly recommend you pick it up before the movie’s release. World War Z the movie looks like it’s going a more traditional route than the book does, possibly skewering the story completely. Ick.

2. The First Days by Rhiannon Frater

Katie is driving to work one beautiful day when a dead man jumps into her car and tries to eat her.  That same morning, Jenni opens a bedroom door to find her husband devouring their toddler son.

Fate puts Jenni and Katie—total strangers—together in a pickup, fleeing the suddenly zombie-filled streets of the Texas city in which they live. Before the sun has set, they have become more than just friends and allies—they are bonded as tightly as any two people who have been to war together.

The first in an awesome trilogy, The First Days might be my favorite ever zombie book. The two main characters are both women, and both awesome. Katie and Jenni look out for each other above all else, and it’s impossible not to root for them. Throughout the whole series Rhiannon Frater does a flawless job of exploring the emotional impact a global outbreak of the walking dead could have on the survivors, which brings something really unique to the table.

What I took away from the novel was the spark of an idea for Savannah’s character. I wanted to create a character that definitely didn’t need a guy to survive the zombie apocalypse, who was a fighter in her own right. Eventually, I ended up with Savannah.

3. Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen

Meet Sarah and David. Once upon a time they met and fell in love. But now they're on the verge of divorce and going to couples' counseling. On a routine trip to their counselor, they notice a few odd things - the lack of cars on the highway, the missing security guard, and the fact that their counselor, Dr. Kelly, is ripping out her previous client's throat.

This book is just too funny! It’s definitely not your typical zombie story, but that’s what makes it such a fresh read. It’s about a couple who is in marriage counseling with the zombie apocalypse happens. Sarah and David have a lot of issues to work through, and it’s kind of hilarious watching them snipe at each other while killing the undead. Married with Zombies is definitely more about relationships than it is killing and gore, and the whole story has a very tongue-in-cheek feel.

I knew my own book was going to be more about survival than about finding the funny moments in un-life, but it was a great reminder not to take my own story too seriously. For me, it had more to do with dealing with teenagers and the way they see the world, even when it’s falling apart around them. Sometimes everything seems like the end of the world, but sometimes you’re staring tragedy in the face and fighting down a strange urge to laugh, because sometimes that’s the best way to let it all out.

Other books by Kellie

End Dayz (Hitchhiker Strain #0.5)

Thanks for the great post Kellie, some amazing books inspired you!