Format: ARCSource: Won
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: October 1, 2013
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When the world ends, can love survive?
For Scarlet, raising her two daughters alone makes fighting for tomorrow an everyday battle. Nathan has a wife, but can’t remember what it’s like to be in love; only his young daughter Zoe makes coming home worthwhile. Miranda’s biggest concern is whether her new VW Bug is big enough to carry her sister and their boyfriends on a weekend escape from college finals.
When reports of a widespread, deadly “outbreak” begin to surface, these ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances and suddenly their fates are intertwined. Recognizing they can’t outrun the danger, Scarlet, Nathan, and Miranda desperately seek shelter at the same secluded ranch, Red Hill. Emotions run high while old and new relationships are tested in the face of a terrifying enemy—an enemy who no longer remembers what it’s like to be human.
Set against the backdrop of a brilliantly realized apocalyptic world, love somehow finds a way to survive. But what happens when the one you’d die for becomes the one who could destroy you?
Red Hill grabs you from page one and doesn’t let go until its stunning conclusion. This is #1 New York Times bestselling author Jamie McGuire at her unforgettable best.
My Thoughts:
I know the world ended on a Friday. It was the last day I saw my children.
When I picked up Red Hill I honestly didn’t think that I would be shedding any tears, although the last line above was the ending of the prologue so that should have been a slap in the face that this book was going to be emotional. But I had never read a zombie book before that had made me cry. Sure, I knew that people would die, but in previous zombie books that I have read it wasn’t characters that I had grown attached to or it was those certain characters that weren’t written so well and you really didn’t form any sort of connection to them.
Well, Red Hill is nothing like those previous zombie books that I had read, no one is safe from death and the characters are all written so well that it’s so hard not to form any sort of connection with them. Of course, that just makes it sooo much more devastating when someone succumbs to the infection.
I wasn’t sure how long we could survive, but I knew I wasn’t dying on day one of the fucking zombie apocalypse.Like I said above, the character development was amazing, especially since this book was told in three different POVs. Usually when there are more than two different characters narrating, I would either like one of them the best and find myself skimming the others or I just wouldn’t connect to any of them at all. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case with this book at all. I felt a connection with each of the characters from the beginning, and I found myself interested in what was happening with all of them, instead of just one and that was a huge plus for me.
This book also tore at my heart, maybe it’s because I’m a mother and I couldn’t imagine the pain that Scarlett was going through not knowing where her children where and if they were even still alive. Every day without seeing them must have been agony, but her hope never faltered and I think that made me like her so much more.
Overall, Red Hill is one hell of a rollercoaster, I laughed and I cried. McGuire is one hell of a writer and I have loved every book that I have read by her and I can’t wait to read more of her books.
