Paperless Reading

What is normal?

Frieda has never felt normal. She feels every emotion too strongly and lashes out at herself in punishment. But one day when she stays home from work too depressed to get out of bed, a virus breaks out turning her neighbors into flesh-eating, brain-hungry zombies. As her survival instinct kicks in keeping her safe from the zombies, Frieda can’t help but wonder if she now counts as healthy and normal, or is she still abnormal compared to every other human being who is craving brains?

Waiting for Daybreak is a rather unique zombie tale. Instead of focusing on the horrors of flesh eating undead, the book reads more like a personal diary of survival.

In the first part of the book, we are treated to Frieda's musings and generally how her life has changed since the outbreak. We learn that the zombie outbreak has created some inconveniences in Frieda’s life but otherwise she has been doing fine by herself, getting the resources that she and her cat need.

During one of Frieda's routine scavenges, she meets Mike, another survivor of the zombie apocalypse and quickly develops a romantic yet slightly awkward relationship with him. It is during this part that the book explores how these characters cope with the despair and loneliness of knowing that they are possibly the last surviving people on the planet.

If you have seen or read I Am Legend then you will see some similarity between that and this story. Both stories ask the question of what is normal if you are the last human left on the planet and whether it's better to just let nature runs its course.

Even though Waiting for Daybreak is a quick read, it has a fully fleshed out story with a fascinating and different lead character and is very entertaining overall.

This review is posted as part of the Waiting for Daybreak blog tour. Be sure to check out the rest of the tour at Opinions of a Wolf

About the author
Amanda McNeil lives in Boston in a funky attic apartment that used to be a servant's quarters. She, alas, must write by night and work by day. She writes scifi, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and horror and has been strongly influenced by Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, and Chuck Palahniuk.

Her first book, Ecstatic Evil, was released on July 7, 2011. Its sequel is set during American Thanksgiving and the release date is not set yet.

Her second book, Waiting for Daybreak, about a woman with Borderline Personality Disorder attempting to survive a zombie-like virus outbreak in Boston, was released on June 4, 2012.

You may contact Amanda at opinionsofawolf@gmail.com and find her online at her blog where she also maintains an up-to-date listing of her published short stories.