You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book channels the most distressful conditions one can find in life. It’s about surviving the unimaginable; the utmost harrowing experience. The focus is on three groups with Hannah, Meg and Carter and their connection with a Retreat, a place of research for those infected by the virus.
It takes place in the mountains 3,500 miles away from everything and next to a thick forest with wild hungry animals like bears. Professor Grant, a Virologist, was in charge of the Retreat. His daughter, Hannah, worked at the facility but didn’t advertise that he was her father. She said if she was infected, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. He would say, “Contain the virus at all costs.”
Hannah was on a coach that was headed to the Retreat when suddenly there was a crash. It tipped over rolling down a steep slope. Half of the students died. The other seven scrambled to figure out how they were going to get out with a drop in the temperature. Their bags and phones were taken before boarding.
Meg was in a cable car that was headed to the Retreat. Then suddenly it was dislodged. They were stuck and in the midst of a snowstorm. One man was dead. She worked with him in Homicide and Infection Control when she was a police officer. After examining him, it looked as though he was stabbed before everyone boarded.
Carter was at the building which housed the Retreat. He was 25 years old and knew how to cook, clean, do grocery runs and basically take care of what was needed. It was a nice place with a pool, gym and steam rooms. Yet, something was wrong. Very wrong.
This was a book where the reader had to stay on top of what was going on with all the characters along with the secrets and details that were introduced. Everything moved fast and there was always suspense at the end of each section. And then you had to wait until a few more parts to find out what happened.
Death was a part of everything. If they got infected, they would die. Or, they could freeze. Or get eaten by animals. Or killed by each other. Meg’s mom said, “Be careful who you trust. The Devil was an Angel once.” Every once in a while, I came across other lines that made me pause. “It took ten years for the human race to crumble.” It made me think: we need to pay attention before it’s too late.
My thanks to C.J. Tudor, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with an expected release date of January 31, 2022.
It takes place in the mountains 3,500 miles away from everything and next to a thick forest with wild hungry animals like bears. Professor Grant, a Virologist, was in charge of the Retreat. His daughter, Hannah, worked at the facility but didn’t advertise that he was her father. She said if she was infected, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. He would say, “Contain the virus at all costs.”
Hannah was on a coach that was headed to the Retreat when suddenly there was a crash. It tipped over rolling down a steep slope. Half of the students died. The other seven scrambled to figure out how they were going to get out with a drop in the temperature. Their bags and phones were taken before boarding.
Meg was in a cable car that was headed to the Retreat. Then suddenly it was dislodged. They were stuck and in the midst of a snowstorm. One man was dead. She worked with him in Homicide and Infection Control when she was a police officer. After examining him, it looked as though he was stabbed before everyone boarded.
Carter was at the building which housed the Retreat. He was 25 years old and knew how to cook, clean, do grocery runs and basically take care of what was needed. It was a nice place with a pool, gym and steam rooms. Yet, something was wrong. Very wrong.
This was a book where the reader had to stay on top of what was going on with all the characters along with the secrets and details that were introduced. Everything moved fast and there was always suspense at the end of each section. And then you had to wait until a few more parts to find out what happened.
Death was a part of everything. If they got infected, they would die. Or, they could freeze. Or get eaten by animals. Or killed by each other. Meg’s mom said, “Be careful who you trust. The Devil was an Angel once.” Every once in a while, I came across other lines that made me pause. “It took ten years for the human race to crumble.” It made me think: we need to pay attention before it’s too late.
My thanks to C.J. Tudor, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with an expected release date of January 31, 2022.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
No
I'm rating it quite high because the book is a bonafide page-turner. It's thrilling, I wanted to know what happens next, it's generally well-written and interestingly structured. It's also very bleak, which isn't necessarily bad but this and the fact that most characters have antagonistic relationships with each other gives this a cold vibe. The bad kind of cold vibe, not from the snow. It wears you down while you read. It's a thing with (post-)apocalyptic worlds I guess. So it's not necessarily a book I greatly enjoyed, but it had me hooked, and because I read it so quickly the coldness was ultimately bearable.
The fatphobia that you're hit with pretty much straight away is crass, but also a little confusing because I'm not sure what the author meant to say. It certainly seems at one point that she is very aware of it, when a character reflects on their own biases and discriminatory attitude. When that character becomes aware of how she views the fat person in the group through the lens of her bigotry, the description of that fat character becomes less bone-chillingly negative (but not neutral). However, a different fat character is still compulsively described in stupid, horrible slurs and stereotypes, in pretty much every sentence that has to do with them. He breathes fatly, he walks disgustingly, he wobbles lazily, he-is-bad-because-he-is-fat! Here too, it then seems this view of the character comes out of the bias of another. It's this person who thinks of him that way, not the author. But it's still implied that these biases are justified. So whatever the author intended, it's unfortunately horribly fatphobic. Still, even mentioning bias is a rare thing, so...there's that.
The author definitely is good at building tension, mystery, and a vibe.
The fatphobia that you're hit with pretty much straight away is crass, but also a little confusing because I'm not sure what the author meant to say. It certainly seems at one point that she is very aware of it, when a character reflects on their own biases and discriminatory attitude. When that character becomes aware of how she views the fat person in the group through the lens of her bigotry, the description of that fat character becomes less bone-chillingly negative (but not neutral). However, a different fat character is still compulsively described in stupid, horrible slurs and stereotypes, in pretty much every sentence that has to do with them. He breathes fatly, he walks disgustingly, he wobbles lazily, he-is-bad-because-he-is-fat! Here too, it then seems this view of the character comes out of the bias of another. It's this person who thinks of him that way, not the author. But it's still implied that these biases are justified. So whatever the author intended, it's unfortunately horribly fatphobic. Still, even mentioning bias is a rare thing, so...there's that.
The author definitely is good at building tension, mystery, and a vibe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
3.5- Enjoyed the concept, setting, and individual storylines but once they started to come together it started to get sloppy to me.