4.5 stars for this completely outta the blue fantastic read!
...After reading the summary, I was a little hesitant to give it a chance, but I'm so glad I did! Holy Crap it was good! it's been a while since I've been blown away by a book, let alone a debut! ....this was SO fucking amazing, I don't even know how to explain why it was just so good.... It just pulled me in, where as lately everything I've read has been jsut so so....
Since, i can't figure out how to explain why it was amazing, instead I'll just mention the very few things that kept this from being a 5 star read:
1) the atrocious editing. Holy hell, there were a lot of of errors. A lot, a lot of errors....I can usually over look a couple mistakes here and there...but seriously, it almost made me want to cry at jsut how many there were.... But IMO the overall story was just so so freaking good, i could almost disregard them...
2) the heroine, whose pov we only get in the prologue, was a bit of a Mary Sue....she had a tortuous past, so you can't help but feel for her....but seriously, each and every member of the opposite sex who came into contact with her absolutely adored her, almost to the point of obsession....it was a very long book ( which I freaking loved, thank you ms LaMontagne!) so by the end of the book, their absolute and unquestioning devotion got a bit old.
3) a few long winded and unnecessary conversations and internal monologues....they kept popping up at the worst times....like the characters would be going after big bads, and 2 of them would stop to have a convo, and I'd be yelling at them to get a fucking move on! Just grrrrr....
And lastly, 4) the ending is sorta outta left field...I was just happily reading along, and then bam! The end!
But despite those few issues, it's like I said this was a freaking fantastic read....it sorta kinda, but only marginally reminds me of Joss Ware's Envy books, only instead of 50 years after the zombies come out, it's only a couple years....so everything's more chaotic and crazy, and terrifying....oh and no super powers, which I also liked :)
But, damn it I want more! And also like I said before, Surge is a pretty long book, you know, the kind where you get emotionally attached to the characters, and don't want to let go, but then the book ends, and you're forced to let go, and there's not even another book out , so you cant assuage your thirst, so instead your screwed.....all the while you pretend to be patient but really your cursing up a storm, waiting on tenterhooks for the author to release another book...( hint, hint Ms LaMontagne)
Dammit, I really,really, really, want more of Jared, our hero's point of view, but at this point I'll take anybody's! Just gimme more, dammit!
4.5 stars screw it, let's say 4.9 stars!
eta: currently free on smashwords!