[Review] The Weepers: The Other Life (The Other Life #1) by Susanne Winnacker

The Weepers: The Other Life (The Other Life #1)
by Susanne Winnacker
Published May 15th 2012
by Marshall Cavendish (first published February 1st 2012)

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life.

Sherry and her family have lived sealed in a bunker in the garden since things went wrong up above. Her grandfather has been in the freezer for the last three months, her parents are at each other’s throats and two minutes ago they ran out of food.

Sherry and her father leave the safety of the bunker and find a devastated and empty LA, smashed to pieces by bombs and haunted by ‘Weepers’ - rabid humans infected with a weaponized rabies virus.

While searching for food in a supermarket, Sherry’s father disappears and Sherry is saved by Joshua, a boy-hunter. He takes her to Safe-haven, a tumble-down vineyard in the hills outside LA, where a handful of other survivors are picking up the pieces of their ‘other lives’. As she falls in love for the first time, Sherry must save her father, stay alive and keep Joshua safe when his desire for vengeance threatens them all.

"3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life."

That’s how long Sherry and her family lived in the bunker. Then they ran out of food…

I was hooked from the first sentence. Sherry and her father leave the bunker to go in search of food and other survivors. What they find is ash, deserted streets, a decimated city and dead neighbors. Sherry and her father weren’t the only ones hunting though. There were rabies mutated beasts called wheepers. Once human now they feed on the living. Sound a lot like zombies? Yep but these are smart. Some had hair and claws much like an animal. But they hunted, lived in nest and were smart enough to collect “food” for winter.

This book was short but very fast paced.  I felt like I was running the entire book. I couldn’t put it down. This was perfect for me because I get bored really easy.  If the book starts off slow, I have a hard time staying with it. I loved the counting.  It made me want to keep reading.  Susanne did a great job of keeping us in suspense. Each chapter left me hanging always wanting to start the next chapter. And the beginning of the next one was a flashback to the good old days before the wheepers.

I felt like I knew the main characters Sherry and Joshua.  But all of them added to the story. From the dead grandfather being kept in the freezer, the knitting grandmother, to her father that was determined for their little family to survive and not starve to death. But mostly I loved Sherry. She was strong and determined. Right from the beginning you could tell she knew exactly what had to be done.  Her family was the most important thing to her and she had to take care of them. Joshua, the love interest, even with all the things he had been through and all of his loses since the wheepers came he was  very strong and calm in terrifying situation, but  very vulnerable at times. Joshua losing his family made him want to protect the others and helped do this by hunting and killing wheepers.

This book wasn’t exactly the typical zombie book that I think of when I think zombies. But I loved it. It was action packed and had enough zombie “attacks” with a group of survivors trying to make their way in a world devastated and gone mad. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys the whole zombie genre like I do. And I can’t wait for the sequel coming soon!

Hurry Susanne!! :)

LOVED IT! 5 Stars!

Have you read it? Tell me what you think? :)