New Release Review:
The Book of Sam by Ann Christy

The Book of Sam, book one of Ann Christy‘s Between Life and Death: Origins series, is gripping, unforgiving, and beautiful. This book can be read as a standalone, a prequel, or, as in my case, the fourth book in The In-Betweener series. Grab this full length novel for only $0.99 (price subject to change)! Read on for my review!

 

The Book of Sam by Ann Christy

Series: Between Life & Death: Origins #1; Between Life & Death #0.5
Category: Young Adult, Sci-fi, Post-Apocalyptic, Horror
Publication: October 27th, 2015
Purchase: Amazon

Summer school is supposed to be a pain, but it isn’t supposed to be the end of the world.

Sam’s first year of teaching is finally over and he loved every minute of it. With summer school well underway, he’s starting to feel like he’s getting the hang of this teaching gig, particularly since he’s pretty sure his students are the most awesome kids ever. When a suspiciously high number of students and teachers don’t show up one day, Sam is thrown into a situation he can’t believe. Nanites have saved many lives, but now it’s all gone wrong and people are going crazy.

Trapped inside the school, Sam has to ride out the wave of insanity sweeping across the land. There’s one thing he’s very sure of…no one is going to hurt his kids. He’ll get them to safety, no matter what comes between them and the road home.

The Book of Sam is book one of the Between Life and Death: Origins series and a companion novel to the Between Life and Death series.

Review:

[book rating=5/5]

 

The Book of Sam, book one of Ann Christy’s Between Life and Death:  Origins series, is technically a prequel to Ms. Christy’s Between and Death series (which I commonly refer to as The In-Betweener series), and can either be read as the first book in the series, a standalone novel, or, as in my case, the 4th book in the series.

If you follow my reviews, you know how much I love Ms. Christy’s writing style. You also know that I tend to shy away from zombie books and books that make me sad. Ms. Christy is one of the few authors I make an exception for, and man, it cost me this time.

Sam was one of my favorite characters in The In-Betweener, and this book delves more into who he was and what his life was like before the nanite malfunction that turned people into zombies. He has just finished his first year as a teacher and is in the beginning of his first summer school experience when things start to go horribly wrong. He becomes determined to protect one student who was left behind, and thus, his family begins is born.

This story is a gut-wrenching, take-no-prisoners tale the beginning of the end. It ripped out my heart and made me sob. Having read the rest of the series, I know what happens to these characters but, try as I might, I couldn’t help but have hope. That’s how powerful the writing is.

And, as always, the writing is crisp, detailed, and beautiful. The world-building is second to none. The action is non-stop and relentless, as it probably would be during the beginning of a zombie apocalypse. It was harrowing to read this story, and I can only imagine how harrowing it would be to experience something of this magnitude. I grew to love Sam even more by reading this book, and admired even more his kindness, his nurturing and protective nature, and his wry sense of humor.

I normally like to have quotes in my reviews, but I was too busy crying to highlight anything, so you’ll have to dive in yourself and find some.

Amazing job!

I’m off to find some more tissues…

The Book of Sam: 5 tearful stars. This gif is really all I need to say.

 

Series:

The In-Betweener (Between Life & Death #1) – Amazon

Forever Between (Between Life & Death #2) – Amazon

Between Life & Death (Between Life & Death #3) – Amazon