Review: The Weepers: The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker

May 14, 2012 4 stars, Book Review, Young Adult 12 ★★★★

The Weepers

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life.

Sherry and her family have lived sealed in a bunker in the garden since things went wrong up above. Her grandfather has been in the freezer for the last three months, her parents are at each other’s throats and two minutes ago they ran out of food.

Sherry and her father leave the safety of the bunker and find a devastated and empty LA, smashed to pieces by bombs and haunted by ‘Weepers’ – rabid humans infected with a weaponized rabies virus.

 

While searching for food in a supermarket, Sherry’s father disappears and Sherry is saved by Joshua, a boy-hunter. He takes her to Safe-haven, a tumble-down vineyard in the hills outside LA, where a handful of other survivors are picking up the pieces of their ‘other lives’. As she falls in love for the first time, Sherry must save her father, stay alive and keep Joshua safe when his desire for vengeance threatens them all.


Zombies right? nope nope, not quite – but definitely close enough!!  These nasties are Alive! – and more intelligent than the zombies we are used to in other books.  They sleep in packs and horde their food, having enough control to save some for later, mm mm tasty.

Our main character, Sherry, was a pretty typical teenager before her family had to seek refuge in a bunker from a “rabies” virus that was killing many people and mutating a smaller percentage of others into animalistic predators.  Flash forward –  and they’ve been in their little private underground bunker for over 3 years.  That is a long time to live underground with your only company being your family *personal shiver here*.  To make matters worse they’ve just run out of food.

That is where the story actually starts and shortly thereafter it gets it’s real jump into action with Sherry and her father leaving the bunker in search of food.  At that point the action keeps a very steady pace the entire length of the book.  Now and then you will have short flashbacks to Sherry’s past.  These are very short, mundane scenes of her everyday past life before the crisis.  Personally, I felt we really could have done without these flashbacks.  Not to mention I could have done without Sherry’s constant counting of days.  Those would have been more tolerable if they were fewer and farther between.

The secondary character Joshua was definitely my favorite.  He is tough, resilient, determined and filled with a piss cart full of vengeance for these Weepers.  As he starts to open up to Sherry I like his story more and more, but I do believe Winnacker did well by making him the secondary character rather than the lead.  His personality compliments hers and I hope continues to rub off on her.  Sherry can be a bit annoying at times with her inner turmoil over not wanting to kill “any living thing.”  This probably annoyed me more than it will other people, because I have a very aggressive and confrontational mindset.  “One Shot, One Kill” I say!! Huah!!

My main picky point is that it felt more like an episode in aTV series with how short the book was and knowing that more was coming.  It wasn’t that it ended on a cliffhanger, it’s just that I didn’t see a main plot point central to this particular book that was completed.  Don’t get me wrong, in most series type books you know there is more coming – but in most for me I still see that main struggle or goal that is being reached for and usually achieved by the end.  So you still walk away with that bit of contentment.

Overall, I felt The Weepers is a really good addition to the zombie fiction genre.  It has a few things that I haven’t seen before in other zombie fiction.  Because of this I really enjoyed it and found it refreshing and definitely plan to read any future books.

 

Look at this lovely alternate cover! I think it is for the UK edition

The Other Life


Find The Weepers by Susanne Winnacker:  GOODREADS

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*Review Copy provided by Publisher for an honest review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

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Tabitha (Pabkins)

When I'm in the zone I can flip book pages faster than the eye can see - screaming "More Input!" I'm a book, yarn, & art supply hoarding goblin who loves to draw, make toys and craft all sorts of creepy cute things. My current habit is to listen to audio books while I'm arting it up!
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12 Responses to “Review: The Weepers: The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker”

  1. kimba88

    Well…i just got a B&N gift card and was mulling over my wish-list…and this threw a zombie in the mix..lol. This sounds fresh..and while i am more like you …one shot one kill..i think i would love this. US cover is better…awesome review Pabkins!
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  2. Jesse

    I felt the same way you did about Sherry’s whining about violence and killing Weepers. And I know exactly what you mean about the book being so short that it felt more like an episode then a first book in a series. It felt like everything happened too fast! Good review 🙂

    Jesse
    Pretty In Fiction