A very quick read (even by my standards) and i definitely cannot wait for the next book! My review may contain slight spoilers - but never any that will give away the *full* story, but just be advised ;) This review is also insanely long since I have a LOT to say about this book xD So beware! 
 Summary (from Amazon.co.uk): 
 "This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door." 
 Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies. 
 -- 
 Firstly, what made me buy this book from Amazon originally was its cheap price (PS0.71! Can't really go wrong at that price...) so I bought it and was soon finished (next day to be exact.) I said above it was a quick read, but I do read pretty fast & I also didn't put it down ;) so what was quick to me might not be quick to somebody else. But I do warn you, it's pretty addictive and hard to put down when you start :) 
 Plotline: 
 I loved how they actually opened with the line: "This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door." - to me this just summed everything up. No need for a huge, long, detailed backstory of the outbreak, terror etc. This sums it up nicely. The world ended calmly. Zombies came. Nothing more to say really ;) 
 What first drew me to this book - which I first noticed on Goodreads! - was the plot. Zombies?! Hell yeah!! Not every day you see a YA book with Zombies, how could I say no?! At first I was pretty sceptical of the whole 'whiney rock star - walking the desert' thing since I was picturing in my head this tale of her walking through the wastelands, running into a rock star who she was a big fan girl of and the two fall in love and have this big romance then they get there. The End. 
 This is DEFFIITELY not what this book is about, at all. Though there is romance it is not the main feature, and if I'm honest, there were times when Lazlo would look at her with that look that all YA male interests have, you know the one, and instead of swooning like most YA characters do, Remy would back off and distance herself from him. 
 The plot was well paced and nothing felt rushed, and I loved the little challenged Hocking through at the characters, like the Marauders who are people you could realistically see being there if this situation would arise. Not everyone would be happy settling down, helping everyone they see and wading it out. These people were brutal and like people are today - even now - they showed that everyone is different and in a end of the world scenario where everyone needs to be careful, not everyone is so kind and sharing. 
 (view spoiler)[ 
 One thing I particularly liked - though not for the actual content but more for its handling - was the part with the 'cult'. In an end of the world situation - as well as barbaric people like the Marauders being there - many people would turn to religion, and men like Korech would be there to take advantage of people's faith and abuse it for his own sick gain. The girls who were with him, though I was screaming at them in my head "OVER POWER HIM AND FEED HIM TO THE LIONS!" but I could also see why they trusted him and followed him so intently despite the sick way he treated and saw them. To them, he was literally their messiah, he kept them alive in challenging times, fed them clothed them and kept them safe. They trusted him because to them he could do no wrong when he kept them alive. (hide spoiler)] 
 Characters 
 Remy; 
 Remy was so badass. That pretty much just sums her up completely. Remy knew how to defend herself, she was pretty harsh at times but again, sometimes situations call for that and she had been through a lot to know that sometimes you just needed somebody to do something and not wait around. But mostly she's just straight to the point and maybe her tone just seems harsher *because* of that. For example: 
 "But how much do they really even know about the virus? It hasn't even been a year since the outbreak started, and then once it started spreading, everything pretty much shut down. Nobody is an expert on it." 
 "All I know is that if you shoot them, they die. If you get their blood or saliva in your blood or saliva, you die," I said, "That's all I need to know." 
 She makes hard decisions when others could not and instead of screaming in terror or breaking down she kept her emotions bottled on the behalf of others. Like with Beck, she knew it was the last time she'd see him and instead of bursting into tears and mourning, she stayed practical and stayed strong and got out of there. But she's not completely emotionless, as we see from her breakdown after: 
 I cried for Beck, who I had cared for way more than I should have. He deserved so much more than this, and I had just turned and ran away, leaving him to die. Leaving them all to die. 
 Remy also actually kept the reason she was crossing the wastelands and putting herself in so much danger first and refused to let the little things - exhaustion, infected friends, attractive attentive rock stars... - distract her from her path and destination. That to me was a nice change from the other YA characters you read about, who always have some big mission or goal they need to work towards and always seem to get distracted and lose their ways to the point where your thinking "wait... I thought that was important to you? :l " 
 She knew how to protect herself and didn't hide behind a strong male lead. In fact... the strong male lead relied on her most of the time! It was completely realistic, since if Lazlo had spent his life being pampered, had everyone done for him then hid in an underground bunker during the worst of the outbreak then it's natural he wouldn't have survival instincts and fighting knowledge as Remy - a girl who had lived through the beginning of the outbreak and had to protect herself AND her brother would have, especially since she also had the training of the Army man - Beck to call on. 
 I also enjoyed her almost dark humor, the odd one liner she gets in now and then and just general stuff she says sometimes like: 
 "Are more coming?" Sommer asked. 
 "I think they're all at the barbecue." I said and lowered my gun 
 & also: 
 "She's badass," I shrugged. "You saw what she did to those zombies. So she needed a badass name. Like Sigourney Weaver in those Alien movies." 
 "I have no idea what you're talking about," Harlow shook her head. 
 Made me smile xD 
 Harlow 
 Harlow to me was pretty whiney (she complains ALL the time!) but then again I found her whining realistic. I whine walking up to the road to the train station, so get me to talk miles and miles across hot desert? Yeah, I'd be pretty whiney too, especially if I had blisters :P I loved the description Amanda gave of her clothing; 
 Harlow wore a lace trimmed skirt and a matching camisole, with a loose cardigan hanging over it...Her long blonde curls framed her face, speckled with blood, and a gold cross hung around her neck on a chain. To top off the ensemble, she had on black combat boots that were at least a size too big. With the gun shoved in her skirt, she was the poster child for post-apocalyptic fashion. 
 I can just picture it and I love it! Totally how I'd want to dress in the situation *minus the camisole and cardigan, total tank top / skirt and combats :D* and I also loved how even though it's pretty much the end of the world, Harlow still cares about how she looks :D 
 I also found her crush on Lazlo realistic (Hell, if it was the end of the world and I met ANY member from All Time Low I'd be attaching myself to them!) and I know that at her age I had been into boy bands. If I met Zac Efron at the end of the world for example, I'd stalk him <3 
 What annoyed me a little bit was when she met the girls in the Cult and she just couldn't see that something was wrong. Even without Amanda having Remy sense something creepy about it all every couple of pages I knew that the thing was weird, how he reacted when he saw her. If a man reacted like that with me that old (even if I am older than Harlow) I'd be hella creeped out, especially with the girls all being weird like they was too :l 
 Take how she acts when they first find Ripley for example. She doesn't want to get the keys from the dead body, but she man's up and she just does it. To me that shows that she can pull through in tough situations, and that she is stronger than she lets on, so I don't understand how in zombie situations (if she's been living it for god knows how long) she carries on screaming EVERY time she sees one. Surely she would toughen up eventually? 
 I think her character was a little too innocent for the whole situations in the plot and that after everything she had been through she would have at least learned to sense danger and be assertive in situations like tht, but overall I loved her character and how she would talk excessively to forget what horrors she's seen. Totally what I'd do! 
 Lazlo 
 Initially I hated Lazlo. I hated his cocky attitude when the girls first met him and I disliked how useless he was - however justified his behavior and possibly attitude was. But then I warmed up to him when I realised that he isn't selfish, just a bit bigheaded at first and he soon learns that who he was before the virus spread doesn't mean anything in this new world, and that the skills that made him famous and useful back then mean nothing now. That he is, pretty much, useless in this new environment. 
 As he begins to realise this I feel that his character then begins to develop - as do his feelings for Remy. She teaches him about learning to defend himself and she also doesn't swoon over him when she first sees him - something he's probably not used too and because of that he begins to alter how he acts almost to win her approval, which he does. 
 I loved Lazlo - I thought he was really sweet and I was deffinitely routing for him and Remy from the start :) I'm glad they did get together, and if they don't stay together WELL!! I'll be sending Amanda a well worded letter of complaint (after gushing about how much I like her books haha :O ) 
 *** 
 Not gonna discuss all the characters otherwise this review will be EVEN LONGER! So will leave it at that but I think you get the idea that I LOVED this book!! Hope the next one comes out soon, can't wait!!! 
 5 STARS