If We Survive This

This for me felt like a mixture of the walking dead & the last of us! Flora is stuck in a post-apocalyptic world with her brother Cain alone both her parents dead until one day her brother recovering from a broken leg gets curious & starts messing with the radio where he picks up a signal! He hears his dad voice saying “I’m still here” and he wobble as fast as he can to tell Flora the protective little sister who’s been watching over him since healing from his injury. She’s basically become the sole runner and supplier keeping her and her brother alive! This is the most good news she’s heard since the virus took over and she’s ready to leave all this death behind and reunite with the only parent.. the only safety she has. Now that Cain is healed up they’re ready to take off on the journey to find him. Along the road are the craziest twists and turns, with rabids running everywhere they come along new faces and are faced with decisions, and situations that I know for sure I wouldn’t survive! We do get the luxury of a furry friend accompanying us along the way with this grief driven story as well as Floras mental journey living with OCD in this dangerous post-apocalyptic world! I truly feel this book is so beautifully written and to be able to step into the world of someone struggling with her disorder is enlightening and makes me have so much respect and understanding for it. The characters and their developments and diversity throughout the story is one of my most enjoyable parts and something I felt like I could relate to and find joy in when their worlds were falling apart around them. I felt every single one of Flora’s emotions and this book being able to move me so much made me give it a 5/5 rating it’s definitely a great read especially during the fall season!

The most mundane and flat narration I’ve ever listened to. It took awhile to get used to but somehow I did listen to it in a day.

Though zombie fiction isn’t typically my genre of choice, this book immediately captured my interest—so I gave it a chance.What followed was an emotionally intense journey. Each glimmer of hope was quickly overshadowed by yet another loss or setback, which, while fitting for a post-apocalyptic setting, it left me hoping for some kind of safe haven for the characters.Flora and Cain’s relationship stood out most through the book. Their sibling dynamic was messy and deeply human, driven by a shared sense of duty to protect one another.The ending was unexpected. It left me with a strange combination of hope, sorrow, and uncertainty. The ambiguity of “did they make it?” didn’t quite resonate with me the way I’d hoped.Still, this book delivered a powerful emotional experience—and I’m glad I picked it up.

I really didn’t know what to expect when I picked up If We Survive This, I just knew that I was interested in reading something by Racquel Marie & ✨zombies✨.Wow, was I blown away by the phenomenal & beautiful writing within these pages.If We Survive This is an incredibly emotional read that centers around family and taking care of those you love, even when it feels like you can’t take care of yourself. Did I get teary-eyed reading this? Absolutely.The zombie aspect is also solid and there’s some pretty good bloody scenes. But I think my favorite part about this one is the relatability of Flora & her anxiety. As a person who’s had the same fears as our main character & has obsessed over the thought of death, this book made me feel seen and was oddly comforting.Definitely recommend if you’re in the mood to through some emotions. I will definitely be reading more from Racquel Marie!

Flora and Cain, like the rest of the world around them, have been thrust into a world where they must fight to survive. One day, Flora catches a snippet of a broadcast from her father coming from their family cabin, hours away, in a different part of California.Flora and Cain embark on a trip to the cabin to locate their father. On this trip, they come across Crisanta, a family friend, and Adan, who was traveling with Crisanta. They merge their groups and travel together to the cabin. Along the way, they have many run-ins with the “rabids.” Otherwise known as the infected living dead roaming the land. On the way to the cabin, they take on a side quest. They came across a young teen who is stuck in a dangerous situation with “rabids” and are able to pull her to safety and journey to take her to her parents.I “read” this as an audiobook. I am a sucker for apocalypse / post-apocalyptic times books and this book hit the spot for me. Even though this is a YA book, the descriptive aspect of the attacks with the infected “rabids” is satisfying. I also get a 28 Days Later meets The Walking Dead vibe with this book. The cause of the apocalypse is rabies, yes, rabies. A communicable disease that can be spread from animals to humans. One of the characters is “Biscuit” a 15 year old chihuahua(?) that belongs to Adnan and one of the groups constant worries, other than making sure that she has enough to eat, is whether she is going to die or get bitten by one of the “rabids.”This book alternates between then and now and is all from Flora’s perspective. I don’t know if it is specifically said (because I was listening) but I believe Flora might have OCD and may be a germaphobe(?). I cannot imagine being obsessed with cleanliness and then being thrust into a world where bacteria and viruses are everywhere and there not being the proper methods to dispose of those threats.Listening to this book, there was only one downside for me, the narration. I actually feel bad for giving a bad rating for the narration because the narrator is the author but the narrating was very uninspired. There were some very climactic areas of the book that I didn’t realize were climactic because of how it was being read. Honestly, I usually DNF audiobooks that are drull like this, for me, but I enjoyed the story so much I was actually able to work through the narration issues.