REVIEW #6 - The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker

TITLE: The Other Life

AUTHOR: Susanne Winnacker

GENRE: post-apocalypse, dystopian

PUBLICATION DATE: Feb 2nd 2012
SOURCE: Marshall Cavendish via NetGalley

SYNOPSIS:

"3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life. 98,409,602 seconds since the heavy, steel door had fallen shut and sealed us off from the world."
Sherry has lived with her family in a sealed bunker since things went wrong up above. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find a world of devastation, desolation...and the Weepers: savage, mutant killers.
When Sherry's dad is snatched, she joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua - an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers.
But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all?

REVIEW:

Cover

I like this one better than this. I'm usually fond of no-people on the cover, but this time, Sherry on the cover worked better for me, She's just pretty!

Plot

I didn't find the story particularly groundbreaking, but I did like the different approach to zombies. This book isn't your typical epic let's-save-the-world YA. It's kind of... smaller range. And that's exactly what I *loved* about The Other Life. We're more focused on the family than the big evil plan - but I expect we'll read about it in the sequel. Which, I can tell you now, I'm definitely picking up.
So what do we have? We have a family. A virus, turning people into "The Weepers". We even have a little bit of romance, that doesn't feel forced at all. Everything that should satisfy even a picky post-apo fan.

Characters

I had a hard time with the books I picked up in the last few weeks. They all had well-developed main characters, while the secondary characters were merely showcased for a few pages. It's not the case with The Other Life. The side characters - Sherry's family and Joshua's "family are all vibrant, live characters I loved. Especially Sherry's little brother (which should be given a bigger spotlight, in my opinion) and Tyler, the silent tattoo guy.
Main characters were likable as well, and I found their romance quite adorable, given the circumstances.

Writing

If you like epic fights, constant action, riddles every other page - this book is not for you. The story is involving and scary at times, but it's not your usual fight-fight-teenage drama kind of story. It's rather slow-paced but intriguing, and shows tragedy of a few people rather than the whole population, which happens a lot in recent dystopian/post-apo books.

Overall

I've been lured by "dystopian" tag, but it's more of a post-apo book than dystopian. Although I do see that it shows signs of being dystopian, especially at the end. Despite all that, the book felt really... normal. Like it could happen any day to us too. Which gave me the creeps, I suppose.
While I don't think the book is refreshing or completely "new", it's quite a satisfying read.

Rating

3.5 stars out of 5.