Z-Strain

De: S.J. Morris

Narrado por: Sarah Bennett

A non-stop zombie apocalypse adventure written by one of FMP’s best-selling author, S.J. Morris.

The entire planet is at risk of being overrun by the dead, and millions of people have succumbed to the Z-Strain Virus. The humans who have outlasted this zombie plague will prove to be ruthless killers willing to do anything to survive this post-apocalyptic world.

Abbigail Norrington sets off with her three children and their dog to find safety at the family cabin. They soon discover that Abby's dead husband had an unimaginably violent past that leads them to uncover dangerous secrets about the government. Some secrets help the family, and some they find may have driven all of humanity into this catastrophe.

Trying to secure a safe refuge for those who outlived the initial outbreak, Abbigail and a group of retired military veterans set out to help those in need get to the protection of the cabin. The infected will prove to be the least of Abby's obstacles. It's what the living have in store for her that will pose the most significant threats.

Warning: There is a cliffhanger.

This story is a heavy-hitting, emotionally draining adventure filled with zombies, an a---kicking mom, a corrupt government conspiracy, a crew of ripped retired military guys, with some jokes along the way. After all, what is the zombie apocalypse without a little fun?

Is this the end of the world? We’ll find out!

This is a fictional story that includes some language, violence, and mild end of world romance. Recommended for ages 16 to 99 who are fans of TWD - Fear TWD - World War Z, and other zombie apocalypse fiction.

©2018 Forever Morris Publishing, LLC (P)2020 Forever Morris Publishing, LLC

I can’t wait for book 2!!!

This is a really good story! At first I didn’t like the narrator but after a chapter or two I really loved the narrator! She does a very good job of bringing the story to life. I was sucked into the storyline by chapter two and I didn’t want it to end, I finished the book the day I got it and I want more! PLEASE RELEASE BOOK 2 SOON!!! Such a perfect twist at the end!

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review

Good Start

First of all zombies are not my favorite post-apocalyptic books but totally enjoyed it due to the characters and looking forward to the next book. I have to say Abby is one tough Mom with all she goes thru and helps others while becoming attracted to Chris but the epilog has cliff hanger with Jack talking. Of course there are zombies with gross descriptions and smelly. Recommend to anyone who likes zombies especially the younger adult but I did slow down the narration as she read too fast. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Thank you

Narrator Was ABSOLUTELY AWFUL

Story wasn't to bad at first, but WOW the narrator was just horrible!!

She read way to fast and extremely monotone. She lacked any emotion within reading of each different character, taking out any adrenaline or heart pounding moments.

I was very disappointed & do not understand why this narrator was even picked to read a zombie apocalypse story!!

I was given this book for free at my request and I have written this review voluntarily.

I liked the story, but not so much the narrator.

This is a perfect example of how a narrator can make or break a story. While the story could be great if actually read, the audiobook narration can ruin it, which, in turn, could result in a lower audiobook's rating for the author. That is the case here.

I love zombies! I’ll give any movie or book a chance if zombies are involved, no matter if it has poor reviews. Let me state now that I did like this story a lot!

While I enjoyed the story itself, I couldn’t help but notice the somewhat subpar writing, in this case, there was a lot of repetition. I am not a fan of repetition because repetition annoys me and repeatedly using the same word either multiple times in a single sentence or within several sentences near each other, no. There’s always a better way to write/rewrite the sentence so you aren’t repeating yourself.

For example, “I pulled up SLOWLY to the back of the truck that was facing us and inched SLOWLY around to make a wide arc.” This could have been rewritten as “I slowly (best to keep the adverb near the verb it’s modifying) pulled up to the back of the truck (the reader should be able to assume the back of it is facing them if they’re pulling up to it) and inched (no need to include “slowly” because if they’re inching, then they’re not moving very fast) around to make a wide arc.” Thank you.

Here’s another example, “It was a good thing I was going slow too because I was not expecting to run into an eight-foot-tall, chain-length fence topped with a razor that LOOKED like it belonged around a prison. I rolled to a stop and LOOKED around. I LOOKED to my left and there was a silver box with a red button on it. I LOOKED to the right and made sure the coast was clear to roll down my window. I LOOKED over to Lance and he shrugged his shoulders.” Wow! If this was edited, or proofread, or even beta read, how was that not spotted?

Or “Good morning, EVERYONE. I trust EVERYONE had a good night’s rest. Speaking of, where was EVERYONE sleeping?”

The following sentence was just incorrect, ie the author didn’t know either how to use “per se” or simply didn’t know what it meant. “Nancy was definitely an asset though to have around. My skills as a doctor were limited and it now seemed I was going to be off the doctor hook, per se.”

I have several questions for the narrator:
1. What made you interested in becoming a narrator?
2. Did you think of it as something you could do to earn “simple” fast cash?
3. Have you ever listened to an audiobook before prior to starting your narrating “career”?

Yes, I might sound harsh by asking those questions, but I seriously can’t stand narrators who don’t even try. “But she probably did, Melissa.”

IF she did, there would have been so many obvious things she could have done to show the reader that did she try. I can give you a list of how I know she didn’t.

1. She could have done different voices. Oh wait, there were two male voices (side characters) where she changed her voice a bit, one more so than the other.

2. She could have not read so fast, sometimes going from one sentence straight to the next with no pause.

3. She could have read it a little more naturally, as opposed to simply “reading” the story to the reader, something I could have done myself and much better.

4. She could have shown some emotion. There were some suspenseful scenes and funny lines used throughout the book (at least that’s what the author wanted them to be), but with her reading in a monotone voice, it’s like there weren’t even there; they fell flat. There was the scene where Alicia was crying and talking and the narrator just talked like nothing was going on.

Overall, she added nothing to the audiobook. She didn’t bring it to life. If anything, she took away from it, which is sad for the author. Why? Because if you look at Audible, you can leave a star score for the narration. For me, I really enjoyed the story but the “reading skills” will have me leaving a 1-star in that area which will then bring down the total score of the book itself. Bad narrators hurt good books. I know sometimes the author can’t choose a narrator themselves if they’re going through a publishing house, but still. The narrator in this case needs to go back to her day job.

Questions/Comments:

I didn’t understand why Abbigail’s husband never told her what could potentially happen in regard to the virus, instead of having the cabin supped-up without her knowing. It would have been one thing had she NOT been involved with the first case back before they started dating, and/or had she NOT been a scientist… but she was on both counts. So that made no sense to me.

I thought it was funny and questionable that when Abbigail was crying, she “shook her head to get the tears to fall” (paraphrasing here). Why didn’t she just wipe her eyes like a normal person?
Or that upon arrival and seeing all these extra people in her cabin, she didn’t wonder until the next day where they were all sleeping.

Or when she hears a knock on her bedroom door the next morning, not calling out to see who it was first, but she answers in her shirt and underwear, sees it’s Chris, lets him talk, then is suddenly embarrassed and covers herself. That’s also when the reader learns that her kids have either never or only once seen her in a shirt-underwear combo… which seems very strange to me. What kids don’t walk in on their parents getting dressed or undressed? Prude?

Or when Chris tells Abbigail that Tom had wanted a family because he loved kids, or something along those lines, but it didn’t work out. Abbigail responds with, “I thought he didn’t have any kids.” Had she not heard what Chris just told her? If she had, she wouldn’t have responded with that.

Or when the one couple wants to go back for their two dogs because they’re like their own children. Abbigail says she understands what they mean, BUT THEN says/thinks the opposite and doesn’t want to go back for them; they’re just dogs.

I wasn’t feeling the love connection (insta-love) between Abbigail and Chris. When her daughter tells her that she’s fine with her mother moving on, it wasn’t believable to me, like with how emotional her daughter was up to that point. It seemed she would have been the last child to give her mother the blessing to start dating.

I feel like there was never any mention of food, as in where they were going to get enough food to feed all the billions of people that we're now living in the cabin/underground. It’s like they just kept bringing more people back, because they had room, without thinking about the extra supplies they would need. Speaking of supplies, what was with Abbigail repeatedly talking long showers to where she ends up using all the hot water? Did she forget about all the people living with her? Or what about her wasting her food? I rolled my eyes with that one.

The idea that Abbigail was blaming herself for all the people who were dying from the virus was just ridiculous. I mean, yes, she’d been there for the original outbreak, was a part of the initial team kinda sorta, but she wasn’t in charge, didn’t get to work very long with the patients, and didn’t even know what all was going on behind the scenes.