I read this as soon as it can out but I do t appear to have left a review. I've since re read it!

First off, I'm a massive GX Todd fan. This series is fantastic. The characterisations as always are brilliant and I can picture them perfectly. The pace of this book was spot on. And we'll, what's not to like about an asylum. Maybe there's something wrong with me but prisons and asylums make for great reading.

I've heard Todd compared to King and when you read this series you will see why. But not in a cliches type way. She has this way of character building and world building that much quicker than King and yet the overall cinematic feeling is still there. This would make a fantastic tv adaptation. Or maybe it wouldn't because nothing could do it justice? You really have to read these. I've read them all now but I'm sure I will re read them!

There aren't enough words to explain how much I LOVE this series. Survivors is the third book and a welcome return to the characters I have come to know. One of my favourite of these is Pilgrim so Survivors is a double bonus as it is mostly about him and his past. A few shockers were still delivered; the author is VERY tricksy with her reveals! I loved finding out what made Pilgrim tick and seeing the events and past friends who have made him what he is.

In Survivors, Pilgrim must find his way back to Lacey and we follow him all the way from a shallow grave (terrifying) to where book 2 ended. No spoilers! There is darkness, death and depravity in this series but also friendship and the comic relief that is always provided by Voice.

I always recommend this series to fans of post apocalyptic fiction and can't wait for book 4!!

Absolutely enjoyed from start to finish, u didn't want the book to end. Highly recommended, if you like books that keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat.

Erm what just happened? Cracked this open thinking this is it! Who wins? Who survives? But no, suddenly G.X. Todd takes us back to before the fall and then runs the story alongside Hunted. So initially I was a bit put out. I need to find out what happens. But this book is all about Pilgrim, a character I shed serious tears for in Defender and it means another Voices book so I can't complain!

Todd throws some wild curveballs in this novel yet again, so much so I had to go back a few times to check I was following everything correctly. This isn't a book or series you can half read. Quietness and full attention are required. If you haven't read any of these get Defender NOW, support a fantastic young British writer who opened her writing career BIG with this epic series.

Why are you still reading this? Did you not read what I said? Go, off to a book site with you now.

Survivors is the penultimate book of the extraordinarily chilling post-apocalyptic thriller series entitled The Voices, and if you are thinking of jumping right in I would advise beginning them chronologically as you will miss a lot of the backstory and will not get full enjoyment. GX Todd has long been a vastly underrated writer with an astounding talent for producing tales that simply grab you and refuse to let go, and this book is no different. In this instalment, the war between those who hear the voices and those who don't is heating up. Waking up in a shallow grave mud-covered and cold Pilgrim knows what he needs to do; the voices remind him how to discover his past in order to understand his fate more. Up until now he has been quite the mysterious stranger in these books and we knew little about him, but Survivors, which is set in the exact same time as Hunted, follows him as he discovers much about how things were and are.

This is such a unique and gritty series and due to reading torrent of thrillers many books fail to impress me with their complexity and twisty surprises, but The Voices series is something else. It is certainly up there with my favourite series' of all time. If you enjoy books such as The Stand by Stephen King then I highly recommend it. Most fiction is either plot-driven or character-driven but Survivors has both a fantastic, heart-pounding plot and excellent characterisation with Pilgrim being the strong and silent protagonist we thought we had lost. This is dystopian fiction with heart, intricate worldbuilding and superb characters, which all create an immersive atmosphere. This is menacing, bleak and utterly compulsive reading and waiting for the next and final instalment is going to be a long 12 months. Many thanks to Headline for an ARC.

I saved this for holiday and I was not disappointed. I loved the first two books and this one did not disappoint.
I loved hearing Pilgrim’s story and discovering how everyone had interacted and were connected prior to where the story started in Defender.
Everything in the three books is coming together nicely and I cannot wait to see what follows in the next book.

In Book #3 of The Voices, the war between people who hear voices and those who don’t is coming to a head. When Pilgrim wakes up in a shallow grave, he can’t remember who he is or how he got there. But there is a voice in his head which tells him what he needs to do: Find Lacey. As Pilgrim travels north in search of Lacey, he finds himself back in places he had long forgotten, with people he had left far behind. War is coming, and he will need all the friends he can get.

Survivors is the third book in one of my favourite series of all time. The characters are unbelievably good – I was beyond happy to have Pilgrim back (apologies for the slight spoiler, but yes, Pilgrim is alive), though I did miss Lacey in this book. But that’s part of the brilliance of this series. Each book so far has focused on different characters so, although I missed reading about some of my favourites, the story stays fresh and interesting.

It is 100% necessary to read the first two books before this one: it would not work at all as a standalone novel. It had been quite a long time for me between reading this book and the previous, and I did struggle a bit at times to remember who was who – because we do meet characters that we’ve come across before. Luckily, the story is so good that, in the end, it didn’t really matter that I was a bit lost at times. I completely loved it.

Todd’s writing is phenomenal, and has only improved book-by-book. The world-building and character development go a long way to create a totally immersive reading experience. Plot-wise, not a huge amount actually happens until later in the book. Instead, we get an insight into Pilgrim’s past and how he got to where he is now. But the lack of a completely action-packed plot does not lesson how good this book is at all. If anything, the change of pace from books 1 and 2 worked remarkably well.

The Voices is a must-read series for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction.

This series continues to be a huge amount of fun and deserves a much wider audience. Any fans of Stephen King looking to try something new should *really* give this series a go.

Survivors is the 3rd book of a planned quadrilogy (is that the right word?) called "The Voices". It's s dystopian epic, somewhat similar to The Stand, where people started hearing Voices and doing crazy shit. This volume steps back to various points in time to fill in some of the blanks regarding how The Voices came to be and focuses on the journey of one particular main character (kinda spoilery to say who). By the end of book 3 we're kind of back at the end of book 2 but from a different POV. That sounds like it might be frustrating, but it isn't. The story told here adds lots to the world we've grown to love in the first two books.

As with the previous two books, the characters are great, the world-building is hugely impressive and the mysteries to be unravelled are delicious. There was also a lovely piece of sleight of hand midway through involving the identity of a particular character.

Halfway through I thought this was a certain 5 star book but it lost it's way a little for me at some points. I thought there were a few too many dream sequences/hallucinations and got a little lost at times within these. I also feel like there could be a more solid definition of the overall threat and endgame - the "big bad" hasn't really featured and I'm not sure of his end goal or motivation, or what damage he's planing on doing.

However, these are quibbles and Survivors was probably the most fun I've had reading a book in 2019. I highly recommend this series and I'm flummoxed as to why it isn't super famous - I'll hazard a guess at the individual book titles not really being distinctive enough (I'd rebrand them as "The Voices: Defender", "The Voices: Hunted" etc, as "The Voices" part is cool!). Also not sure the covers are doing the book any favours - I have to be honest and say they look both "Meh" and scream "young adult".

Conclusion: listen to this Voice. It's telling you to buy book 1... and feel free to thank me afterwards. :-)

Survivors is the third in a four book series and is chockablock full of ‘bang for your buck’.

This book is a ‘delver’ ( an official term for a book that delves into the characters back stories to flesh them out but also to fill in pieces of the plot not previously explained). It’s not actually an official term, I made it up - but it seems to fit so I’m sticking with it.

This Voices series as a whole is blood pumping stuff with characters who get under your skin and Survivors is no exception to this. Survivors gives us a post apocalyptic world torn in half, people fall in one of two camps, those with Voices and those without. Survivors is neither simply plot focussed nor character focussed it does both really effectively. The plot is sufficiently complex to still allow time to fully develop characters who are strong, flawed and very human.

I am loving this series it is gritty, determined but doesn’t necessarily follow the path you are expecting it to. Highly recommended.

Kudos to you Ms Todd, who says this is a male genre you are absolutely rocking it.
Thank-you to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

GX Todd's brilliantly chilling dystopian post-apocalyptic series reaches its penultimate addition, an addition that runs alongside the previous book, Hunted. Here the story goes back and forth in time to fill in essential parts of what occurred when the voices came onto the scene. Pilgrim has been a taciturn man, a closed off individual reluctant to reveal anything about his past history and who he is as a person. After what happened to him previously, he makes a surprising return from his shallow grave, covered from head to toe in mud, with the voice loud and clear in his head. As he converses with it, it edges him forward on the necessity of illuminating his past history, to Ruby and what happened to her, and a book that he cannot help but feel is important.

Todd's world building of this bleak, dark and menacing universe is skillful, spellbinding and atmospheric. A host of diverse characters return, along with new ones, on both sides of the struggle, the good and not so good, where survival is the name of the game, with many willing to do whatever it takes to do so. There is pain and suffering, mayhem, madness, and death everywhere, but also friendship and incredible bravery. Pilgrim heads north, towards Missouri, on a quest to reconnect with Lacey, but his journey is littered with obstacles that force him off course and into action packed battles. War draws ever nearer and must be prepared for. This a highly compulsive, intense and gripping read, that moves the story forward considerably in anticipation of the final part in this unforgettable series. It wrings out every last drop of emotion from the reader, the characterisation is wonderful, alongside the stellar character development. I cannot wait for the next book! Many thanks to Headline for the ARC.

Survivors alternates between past and present, allowing the reader to understand more about what happened when the voices arrived, as well as providing Pilgrim’s backstory. Until this point, Pilgrim has been a particularly private individual, sharing very little information about himself or his past with anyone. I had wondered whether this was because he couldn’t remember, or if there was something in his past that he didn’t want to remember. Now I know! It was fascinating to get more insight into his character, and I loved learning more about him and his past. It’s safe to say that he is my favourite character in the series, and while his past isn’t quite what I expected, I loved finding out about his earlier exploits.

The past storyline also looks as where Pilgrim was around 4 years earlier – after the voices, but before he met Lacey. It gives more detail on other characters that we’ve met throughout the series, and, because it’s the penultimate book (as far as I’m aware), Todd starts to reveal the answers to some of the questions raised so far, including a little more information about the voices and the Flitting Man. Not everything, but some of those puzzle pieces are now starting to fall into place, and I came out of this novel knowing a more about the world and the events than I did at the end of Hunted. Survivors ends in such a place as to set up the next novel brilliantly, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

The present-day storyline in Survivors runs concurrently to that of Hunted. We see Pilgrim trying to get back to Lacey, having to take a few necessary detours on the way that involve the usual amount of action, bullets, and blood that you expect when Pilgrim is on a mission. We also get a different perspective on some of the events in Hunted as those two narratives finally overlap. Featuring a mix of old and new faces, Survivors is as action packed as you’d hope from Todd. As ever, her characters are a mix of good and bad, and there are some who’ve made some dubious decisions in the name of survival. It's easy to judge those characters harshly, but it's one of the things that I love about post-apocalyptic novels – the question of whether we’d really behave any differently in that same situation.

The writing and plotting are superb, and I can’t recommend the series enough. Fans of the series should be more than satisfied with this third instalment, and while I don’t want the series to end, I can’t wait to see how the story concludes.

I was so excited to receive this book early to review I almost pissed my pants, 😂 but I managed to curb my enthusiasm long enough to re-read the series from the beginning, to refresh my memory, and although there was no need to do so I think I enjoyed Defender especially more this time around, which I didn’t think would be possible!

You don’t need to re-read the first two books again before picking this book up, there is enough backstory peppered throughout to refresh your memory and to follow the continuation with no problems at all. Where Hunted left on a bit of a cliffhanger, Survivors will keep you on that cliff edge dangling by your toes! There is the welcome back of some of both the good and bad characters as well as the introduction to some memorable new ones.

Survivors is primarily focused on Pilgrim’s story and it spends a lot of time in the past, his past, his backstory which was as enlightening as it was entertaining. He has been a bit of a closed book, a bit of an enigma up until now, so getting that character depth adds further understanding of the man himself, Voice and the voices’s themselves. His return was certainly unexpected as last time we saw him he was being buried alongside Red in Lacey’s sisters back garden! But return he has and as he travels forward he also has to revisit his past, the past he worked so hard to keep locked away, to fill in the missing holes of his memory. Only by unlocking his past can unlock his future and help him find his way back to Lacey, to defend her!

As with the previous books this one will also leave you desperately wishing for a time machine so we can jump to this time next year so we can finally found out how all this ends! I know I can’t wait! Thats the only downside to receiving ARC’s, there is longer to wait between book publication dates!

For fans old and new this is a great continuation of the series, one that’s a tumultuous stage that aligns all three books in preparation for the final showdown that’s to come.

#HearTheVoices

Survivors will be published on 31 October 2019 and is available to pre order now.
A massive thank you to the author GX Todd, publishers Headline and NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and independent review.