First, I have to say that this book seems to have been hastily (and heavily) edited, and to be a way shorter version of a longer one, which is a pity, because all through reading it, the only thing you can think about is about these many scenes / plot exposition moments that have been cut out, rendering the reading a head-scratching one.

And that is a pity because D.M. Rasey writes well enough to create a nice sense of paranoia in his novel. From the very beginning, it is easy to jump into the story, and, even if it feels it was written by a conspiracy theories fanatic, it is realistic enough to be 'scary' (even if the use of real events and the cameos by famous people can be something to have a dialogue about). But also, from soon enough (like the first page), all the weird time/space jumps, the feeling of whole chapters and scenes being left in the editing room, and even sentences that start and never end, take the reader from the story; so much, that it is impossible to consider this a 'real' book. Also, Rasey makes the characters take some really head-scratching decisions to take the story to its ending, giving the feeling that he has a movie in his head (so, he is writing a script) more than a book.

Unfortunately, a mess.

****Review****

Virus end of the world.

This story is amazing. Me and my partner spend a lot of time thinking of how the world will end and most time we come up with two, someone releases a virus that wipes out the human world or someone presses the red button and the world blows up.
In so many ways this book is true the government does all the things in this book, the world is oblivious to the true destruction these people in charge do.
Thank you to Netgalley/ D.M.Rasey/ BookGoSocial for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

DNF 15%
Maybe I'm overly sensitive, but I took serious issue with this book.
Basing a fictional novel on real life events, is fine.
Deriving inspiration from real life events, is fine.
For example; had the author written about a nameless high school shooting in their fictional world, which was inspired by the real world, and then said in their fictional world that it was due to a virus, that is also fine.

But using a real world tragedy like Columbine by name as a plot device (among countless other tragedies) is not okay. I found it seriously distasteful and highly offensive.

Despite this happening within the first couple of pages, I did continue reading for a few chapters but I just couldn't continue any further. I understand that I was reading an ARC and usually they are edited properly before being published, but I still believe that advanced copies should at least be readable. There were so many problems with sentence structure, grammar, continuity etc, that it didn't make it a very enjoyable reading experience.

The story just didn't flow well. Chapter 4 was too unbelievable, the entire area surrounding the hospitals would have been closed off and put immediately under quarantine. Then there was a jump to chapter 5 where it's obvious events have occurred but there's no explanation given.

I just couldn't.

This wasn’t my typical read, I’ve been trying to step out of my comfort zone with books lately and I was not disappointed.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

It's a work of fiction but could easily be real. I'd suggest true crime fans would like this as well as fiction fans. This reminds me of Robin Cook's early works.