ARC Review: Rise of the Zombies by Cyra King

Genre ~ horror

Featuring ~ zombies, gore, violence, graphic, human death, animal death, vulgar language, over 500 pages

Series ~ Co~Exist ~ book 1

Release date ~ October 31, 2022

POV ~ single 1st & multiple 3rd person

Page count ~ 521

My rating ~ 4⭐

My review:

I was delighted that Cyra King reached out and asked me to read her debut horror book. This is not my normal genre and my first zombie apocalypse book ever.

Cyra describes her book as follows: Co-Exist: Rise of the Zombies is an apocalyptic/dystopian/zombie book that combines action, dark comedy, horror, romance, and suspense with lots of drama and heart.

Book 1 in a trilogy, so there are tiny cliffhangers that make the story not fully wrapped up in this installment.

Narrators
Megan is our 1st person narrator and her live in boyfriend is Michael.
Don, Ethel & Caleb are a family. Don is our scientist working on a cure. Ethel is wheelchair bound and has to rely on 9 year old son, Caleb, when Don is working around the clock in the lab.
Linda works with Don at the lab.

Boy oh boy was this a disgustingly gore filled action adventure, which is what one would fully expect from this type of book. I think having multiple POV’s was a good choice for this story so we could slowly see how all the characters would intertwine together. We have a mix of good and bad characters. Megan and Rachel’s friendship was an interesting one ~ hey, I’m going to eat your leg off and then we’ll live together and be best friends. I like how protective Megan was with Caleb. Michael and Megan were great together and I wonder what’s in store for them next.
Overall, this was well written and I feel like this would definitely appeal to apocalypse loving readers.

Side note ~ totally gross, but I might not be opposed to snacking on a psychics pineal gland to see what happens ~ only if it’s a sure thing though.

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Book blurb:

Double shifts and burnout are all in a day’s work for Nurse Megan Cole. No one’s going to die on her watch. Then a viral apocalypse kills all her patients and turns her into a sentient zombie, forcing her to re-evaluate both her life goals and dietary habits.

Fast-forward a year, the city is ruled by the ruthless Salt Lake Z Council. But with her boyfriend Mike by her side, things are okay—until the Council sends Mike to infiltrate the army. When Megan discovers a mangled corpse days later, her world—and the illusions around it—shatter.

Don Meier, the nation’s top surviving scientist, is close to finding an antidote. However, the final test run is a disaster. The Council gets wind of the ‘cure’ and imposes their sinister agenda under the guise of salvation.

Smack in the middle of mayhem are Megan and her new found friends—a motley crew of conscientious Zegans. While they try to prevent the Council from destroying their only hope, Don risks his wife and son’s safety to unravel a military conspiracy.

It’s a tight race for Megan and Don to rescue humanity before there’s nobody left to save.

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