After the Cure by Deirdre Gould

Is it better to kill your family but you're not in control or kill strangers but have it be your choice?

This is just one of the many interesting questions this book raises. The second I read the blurb, I was hooked on the possibility of where this idea could lead. The premise behind the book is actually really simple-we've cured the zombie apocalypse. It's such an obvious idea and yet I have never read or seen anything which considers it. I was worried this would be one of those books with such a great premise that the actual content could never live up to it. Thankfully, I was plesantly surprised.

Now let me be clear, this book does not fully utilise the great idea behind it. To be honest, I don't think any book could. The main plot suffers a little bit from being too vague and ultimately disappointing, but the two central characters make up for it by being fully-fledged and quite compelling. They represent two sides of the apocalypse-those who were cured and must live with the knowledge of the terrible deeds they did, and those who were immune and...must live with the knowledge of the terrible deeds they did. Again, this could have been explored more but then the plot itself would have been even less focused. There are sequels to this book which may explore things further. However, this book felt quite complete on its own and I'm not sure about seeking them out personally.

Like I said, the main flaw of this is a lack of clarity. Without crossing too much into spoiler territory, the main villain maybe dies at the end. I say maybe because they kind of just stop being mentioned. A side villain (again, this doesn't give much away due to the changing nature of the plot) gets every second of their demise described quite clearly but I think we're just supposed to assume the main character dies at the same time. It's really jarring and probably my least favourite thing about the whole book. It's a little like forgetting to give Voldemort a conclusion.

The plot is the weakest element but on the whole, this is still a really strong story. It managed to do the near-impossible and not make me wish I'd thought of an idea first so I could write it how I wanted to. This was already pretty close to the stuff I would have included. Definitely a must-read if you like stories about morality (and zombies)

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