The First Days Review

TITLE: The First Days (As the World  Ends: A Zombie Trilogy #1)
AUTHOR: Rhiannon Frater
PAGES: 227 (ePub format)
PUBLISHED: July 5, 2011 by Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
READ: March 14 - 15, 2012
BUY THIS BOOK AT: Amazon / Kobo / Chapters.Indigo

Synopsis The morning that the world ends, Katie is getting ready for court and housewife Jenni is taking care of her family. Less than two hours later, they are fleeing for their lives from a zombie horde.

Thrown together by circumstance, Jenni and Katie become a powerful zombie-killing partnership, mowing down zombies as they rescue Jenni's stepson, Jason, from an infected campground.

They find sanctuary in a tiny, roughly fortified Texas town.  There Jenni and Katie find they are both attracted to Travis, leader of the survivors; and the refugees must slaughter people they know, who have returned in zombie form. 

Fast-paced and exciting, filled with characters who grab your heart, The First Days: As the World Dies is the beginning of a frightening trilogy.

I bought the first days after reading many glowing reviews on GoodReads, I went into it with pretty high expectations.  I wouldn't say I was let down per se, but my expectations definitely were not met with this one.  The First Days by Rhiannon Frater is about two women essentially banding together to face an unexpected zombie apocolypse.  It chronicles their journey to save Jenni's stepson and get to a safe haven in a small Texas town.  The book started off with a bang! The opening scene was gut wrenching and heartbreaking all in one and it got me super excited for what was to come.

Lets start off with what I liked about this book.  I liked the zombie scenes, I liked the girls kicking some ass and not taking any names.  There's something about two bad ass chicks warding off hordes of zombies that is just so cool, and those parts of the book were great (I really wish there was more.

Now for what I didn't like.  There was way too many filler emotional scenes for my taste.  If I had to read about what someone was feeling in that exact moment one more time I was ready to snap.  I understand it's a zombie apocolypse and people are going through some stuff and don't know how to deal with it, but I wanted more action and little less emotion.  I also despised Jenni, and I mean I loathed her.  One day she is witnessing the most horrific thing a mother could ever witness and 24 hours later she has turned into a 14 year old schoolgirl flirting with the first man she sees. Yes, I know she had it rough in her marriage, but something like that sticks with you, for a few days AT LEAST.  I found her dialogue and actions to be irritating as all hell.  Another aspect that I don't understand is why Katies real sexuality was kept a secret for the first half of the book, why was that necessary? For me the connections in this book felt way too forced and everyone came onto eachother way too strong for me to find it believable.

That being said, the action scenes were pretty sweet, but definitely few and far between.  I don't think I'll be recommending this one to anyone looking for an Alluring Read.