Juan flicked the brim of his cowboy hat up. "Never a dull moment." 
 "I miss dull moments," Travis mused. 
 3.5 stars. Surviving the zombie apocalypse has never interested me more than it does right now. The As The World Dies trilogy is the perfect thing to fill in the gap for me until The Walking Dead comes back on television. 
 Three cheers for books which give me a variety of things to read about : 
 ~ Violence, gore and all-around ass-kicking. 
 ~ People battling their inner demons. 
 ~ Conflict within the ranks, leading up to a call for the overthrowing of political power. 
 ~ The fight for survival, even down to the day-to-day mundane details not involving zombies. That food ain't gonna come from thin air, after all. 
 ~ Friendships and romantic relationships budding even in the face of adversity. 
 Half a point deduction for a few small details : 
 ~ The dream sequences bordered on cheesy. It's awkward to read about dead relatives coming back in a person's dreams just in order to tell them to move on. 
 ~ I felt like a few of the scenes repeated themselves, except for in different locations. 
 ~ The emphasis on how much hate was thrown at Katie should have wrapped up sooner, or at the very least come to a head after the big "situation in the bathroom" scene happened. I felt like that part of the story dragged on for far too long, especially when the biggest conflict in the book should have (imo) revolved around the fight to stay alive. 
 ~There were no zombie kitties. 
 Let's face it : a little action and adventure never hurt a book. 
 After just coming out of a read where not much was happening other than a relationship conflict, it was fun to sink back into something where I got to go along on the cast of characters' adventures. 
 Finally...I really do love the sense of community in these books. 
 Everyone works together to ensure survival. Old families are gone. New families are held together by something other than blood ties. In a sense, the new families are stronger because of the need to lean on one another. 
 In a world full of death, life was something to embrace.