This zombie novel hit all the notes I most love - a thing that’s like gold dust in a genre populated largely by cis male authors, and books full of hyped up straight cis male Americans with a zillion guns, army training, huge muscles, an arrogant attitude, and a hard-on for being the great protector of everyone around them (because obviously no one else could be!).

It was of absolutely no surprise to me when the male MC, Jake, stated that his favourite author was my favourite zombie author, because I see so much of Sarah Lyons Fleming's work in this story - and I mean that in an incredibly flattering way, not at all in a “this is too similar” way. They share a focus on building positive, supportive communities, on found family, on diversity, and on real-feeling characters who both develop real care for those around them, and who have huge character growth throughout the series’, in very genuine-feeling ways. (If you loved this book as much as I did, I really do strongly recommend her work - the first book in her zombie universe is Until the End of the World), though I especially love the later 2 series, where the diversity gets deeper and my heartstrings get not just pulled, but at times utterly destroyed.)

Even better, How We End isn't set in the ubiquitous some city in America, where access to guns is easy and the book is like almost every other zombie book. How We End is set in London, and employs some fantastic creative writing to navigate that world.

Happily, there's some beautiful representation here. The book is written by a trans man, and his experience in the queer community really shows in the genuine, slowly unfolding story of our main character Jake. It shows in the choice to employ the help of a sensitivity reader to improve anything that needed it. In the care with which a story of addiction has been written. In the fact that these characters were sensible enough to employ PPI to protect themselves and each other, in a real world where so many people mock masking.

I loved that this author chose a spore based zombie outbreak over the average kind of virus spread. It lent a lot of creativity to how the group had to handle the zombies, and protect themselves - and it's frankly a terrifying scenario - not least for its similarity to something actually found in nature.

The pace of the book varies a lot, between periods of super high tension, running and fighting, and slower moments showing a community coming together and figuring out how to survive together. How to keep a group fed and healthy. How to work through their personal issues in a way that hurts the group as little as possible. How to extend kindness and mercy to each other during times of struggle, and even harmful behaviour. It hit about a perfect balance for me, creating an almost cosy atmosphere at times, which then gets knocked on its head by the next terrifying scene that has the potential to pull their new family apart.

Is there anything the author could have done better?

The one thing I can think of here is that I felt there were some aspects that felt a teensy bit rushed, or overly convenient? Like, they put together a functioning setup in a house they settled in, just a bit too easily, a bit too quickly, with the group just happening to have the multiple specialised skills needed to pull it all together. However, none of this really detracted from my enjoyment, it was just casual thoughts along the way that ideally they just needed a bit more time to set something like this up, that it needed to be shown to be a little more complicated - and that would've made it feel a lot more realistic. I'm refusing to remove stars for this nitpick, however. I just loved this one too much!

I read this in audiobook format, and I'm moving straight onto the prequel novella, How we Began, also in audio. I can't wait to see where that takes us! (I'm a little sad the 3rd book isn't yet out in audio, but I'll switch to the Kindle book for that, as I refuse to wait!) The narration was great, with two narrators, for the MMC/FMC. I slightly preferred the male narrator, as, unusually, he did a better job with the female voices than the female narrator did with the male voices - but I really appreciated the dual narration, and I find it works incredibly well in a dual pov book.

All in all, I wholeheartedly recommend this romp through a zombie-infested UK! It's been one of the book highlights of my year so far! I will be recommending this to everyone I know for years to come!

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Content Warnings

There's a great list in the beginning of the ebook, so I'll copy that here for anyone who needs it. (Thank you to all authors who include these!)

Violence Gore Addiction Mass death, including the young and vulnerable Suicidal thoughts (no one dies) Transphobia (mentioned, not explicit) Dead naming (once) Child abuse (mentioned, not graphic)

I give very few 5 star ratings, but this book grabbed me by the feels & didn't let go! It utterly undid me, in the most brutal of ways. I laughed. I cried. I ugly sobbed. I was so scared I literally couldn't catch my breath! I wanted to hug my book family and never let go. I can't rate it any lower.

If you want truly character driven zombie stories, I've honestly never found better than Sarah Lyons Fleming. Every single series is absolutely fantastic! I am so happy I embarked on this "find the good female authors in the zombie/apocalyptic genres" journey, because I have a new favourite author!

I started this series presuming it was complete, because her other series are all only 3-4 books, and this was book four. My bad. It's not. There's at least one more coming! For which I'm both grateful, and sad for myself because I have to wait. It's not just that I hate waiting (though I do! Gimme the book nooooooow!), but I have huge memory issues, and will likely have to re-read the series before I can read the next book - which will break me all over again. Sorry, future me! 😭

I really appreciate the queer rep here, too - in particular, the ace rep, as it's so rare, and even less often done well! Here, one of our four pov's in the found family is ace, and he already had his found family even before the outbreak - his two female best friends who are all soul mates together. It's so incredible relateable and wholesome and it made acespec me incredibly happy! This little unit form the foundation of our wider found family once the outbreak begins. There's also other great rep to be found in these pages! I do so love a diverse found family! 𖹭

Hey, btw, huge shout out to the audio production! There being multiple voice actors for the multiple pov? Chef's kiss

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⚠ Content Warnings ⚠

Forest fire, burns, loss, grief

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Omg, this book. It got under my skin. It lives there now. I don't know how I feel about it. It's poetic. It's wild. It's terribly anxiety-inducing. It's a gentle, healing story full of love and loyalty and hope. It's emotionally violent, and full of emotional learning. It's misleading and frustrating, foreshadowing, intriguing and clever. It gives you whiplash.

I love it. I hate it. It will haunt me.

Read it. That is all.

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(OK that's not quite all - if you can get it on audio, do so. The author narrates it himself, and it's fantastically read!)