This book was nothing like I expected. I thought it would be an adult horror, and instead I got a YA love story. And it was so damn brilliant I'm still in shock. 
 "The Death House" reminds me a lot of John Wyndham's "The Chrysalids." There are a lot of similar themes. I've seen some reviewers complain about unanswered questions in this book, but to me, Pinborough's brilliance is in what she DOESN'T tell you, and in that way it reminds me of Josh Malerman's "The Bird Box." If she had focused on the disease or what happened to the world, for instance, this would have become a been-there, read-that dystopian novel, but Pinborough deftly sidesteps that tired old trope. 
 I'll admit this book requires a heaping helping of suspension of disbelief. Toby, the protagonist, is a little *too* slow to figure stuff out sometimes--he's too smart to be that obtuse, and you know from the beginning that this isn't going to be a bright, happily ever after story, as he should have figured out, but it's so beautifully done. 
 It's such a pleasure to read a book that makes you just say, "Wow," when it's finished.