Hidden Treasures (1)

I'm sure we all have those books that we absolutely LOVED but it seems like they aren't very popular. So I decided to start a feature here on the blog that will allow me to spotlight some books that I have loved that I feel don't get a lot of recognition. My plan for this feature is to share the cover and summary of the book along with the first sentences or paragraphs and if it's a book that I didn't write a review for, I will probably also throw in a few reasons why I loved the book along with links to find out more about the book.

My first Hidden Treasure is:

Hollowland by Amanda Hocking

　

Hollowland - the first book in the young adult dystopian series The Hollows... "This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door." Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.

　

　

 

This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door.

When the lights first went out, filling the former classroom with frightened gasps, I hadn't thought much of it. With almost constant blackouts, we were lucky to have power at all.

Then the emergency sirens started wailing.

Even though it was well after midnight, I laid wide awake on my cot, still fully clothed. I jumped up and ran to the large windows. Armed guards and barbed wire lined the perimeter, but when I looked out the window into the night, I couldn't see any soldiers. Bright flashes lit up the darkness as guns fired, but I couldn't hear anything over the sirens.

 

Chaos enveloped the room behind me. Once, not that long ago, this had been an ordinary high school. Now the government kept the uninfected stashed here, quarantined off from the zombies.

I shared a room with twenty-five other girls, ranging in age from ten to twenty. To prepare us for the possibility of an attack, some government officials had set up weekly training with arbitrary safeguards. Now the girls did as they had been taught, propping the army regulation cots on their sides to block the windows and doors.

A girl pushed me out of the way and shoved her cot towards the nearest window, as if it would protect us any better than the glass. It'd do about as much good as the "duck and cover" method against a nuclear bomb, but it was better than nothing.

A loud crash echoed over the sirens, and the building actually trembled.

"They're inside!" Someone shrieked, and my heart skipped a beat.

　

I read this book a few years ago before I started blogging and fell in love with it. I actually talked a co-worker into reading it and she loved it as well. I really felt a connection with Remy as well as the other characters in this book. The story was very fast paced, and from what I remember the action doesn't stop.

Just an FYI, as of the time I was writing this post, Hollowland was free on Kindle.