Book Review: HVZA by Linda Zimmermann

It's 2012, the year the world is supposed to end, but no one expected this. An infection spreads through New York's Hudson Valley. The government tells us it is just the flu, but people are turning into crazed killers. Can it be stopped? Follow the story from the first days of infection, to the last days of civilization, as told by Dr. Rebecca Truesdale, aka, "Becks." Becks is smart and tough, and while she searches for a cure in the lab, she has to fight for her life in the streets.

My Review: 
The zombie apocalypsestarted in 2011 with a tsunami causing a nuclear disaster at Fukushima power plant in Japan. People who ate the contaminated seafood became the aggressive zombie like creatures and within a year, the first US outbreak occurs in New York. Becks is a nurse training to be a doctor and does work experience in a private medical lab who are now working feverishly on a vaccine to stop newly infected people turning. As the world changes around them, Becks has to worry about her success as it could mean life or death to those she cares about.

I stumbled across this series when I found a free prequel story called Hudson Valley Zombie Apocalypse-Apocalypse Sale. Basically, dumb consumers were enticed out of the safety of their homes as the apocalypse began by desperate retailers having an apocalypse Black Friday style sale to make some money. It was funny and gory, so I then grabbed both full length novels. I liked the use of real events to trigger this zombie apocalypse. I was one of the many who was concerned about the Japanese seafood in the wake of the tsunami so using that as the reason for the outbreak was interesting. Whether it is believable or not is secondary to whether I liked the story and in this case, the book is much more entertaining than the somewhat bland blurb provided above. I like seeing different ways to produce zombies!

There was a bit of science in how the virus worked and was transmitted which I found interesting to read but it wasn't too technical for ordinary readers like me to understand. Parasites from the radiation enter the body and reproduce, causing a range of symptoms and a neurotoxin destroys the body tissue. After death, the parasites take over and reanimate the body. This particular form of zombie is really deadly because as well as bodily fluids, if an infected person even breathes on you, eggs are transferred in their breath into your lungs to infect you. Eggs can also remain in sweat and human waste and infect people through drinking contaminated water. I found the ways of infection in this book to be terrifying! The only place you'd feel safe is in Beck's lab but even that is not fullproof. I also liked the tension of the tests that Becks and others undergo to check for infection and the way she checks herself and her family. That was all really tense.

The other really different thing about this book is that society has not totally collapsed in the apocalypse. Yes the zombies are out there infecting people but law enforcement are trying to keep roads open and people like Becks are still commuting to work each day and then travelling home to their families. A form of normal life with precautions are taking place and it made a nice change to see that for a change instead of the zombies just over-running everything in a few hours. I liked seeing the military and government doing their best to help people, installing quarantines, trying to control the spread of the virus by asking people not to go outside. However they are slowly losing their grip on things and when the military decide to withdraw from Hudson Valley, the facility is left alone and everyone flees to their family. Is this the end of the chance at short and long term cures?

I really liked the characters. Becks is a good MC, a dedicated nurse coming close to finishing her doctor training, trying to get extra money to pay her tuition by working part time in this lab. She has an interest in learning about viruses after a dose of something nasty that she survived. Now she is working hard to try and find a cure for the newly infected. She lives with her parents and just comes across as a normal person trying to survive. I liked her boss Phil at the facility and the military guy that is in charge of security there for a while. The characters are well developed and I quickly cared what happened to them.

This book concentrates in the first half with events at the facility and where Becks lives, giving background to the apocalypse in that area without giving too much detail to bore. It looks at the day to day challenges in keeping the facility safe, the work they do and how life has to go on as normal as possible. You don't often see that so that was enjoyable. The second half of the book is about what happens when control in the area is lost and the gangs and zombies come to the fore. This is when Becks becomes more determined to set up a mini lab to continue her work. We also see lots of action at a prepper compound where she spends time with friends and out on the road in medical and rescue dramas so this book has a lot of interesting things happening. I really enjoyed all the different scenarios in the book.

If you love zombie books then I certainly recommend this one. It has elements of traditional zombie books and a few new things and twists. I loved this book and look forward to reading book two soon.

Read August 2019
4 stars/5 stars?