THE UNDYING by Ethan Reid

I really enjoyed the zombie apocalypse book, The Undying by Ethan Reid. I received a copy of from the publisher through Netgalley for which I give my thanks. The review below is my own.

The story begins with a part amongst old and new friends in Paris. Americans Jeanie and Ben have come to the City of Lights. Jeanie is there to visit her old friend Zou Zou and to try and get some distance from the recent death of her father. Ben is there to supposedly chaperone Jeanie while it soon become clear he only wants to pursue her romantically. 

During the New Year's Eve celebration there are some flashes of light followed by darkness. More darkness and complete chaos follow the next morning. The two Americans must travel across Paris to find their French friends and see if they can return home. Before leaving their hotel a scientist tells them that this appears to be an end of world level event and that his wife is in the process of giving birth in the hospital. He begs Jeanie to go find his wife and child in the event something happens to him. Within no time more debris falls to the earth and the scientist is killed. Violence rages in the streets with looting and a search for necessities. A hostile group of Parisian humans are set on killing the Americans, Jeanie and Ben. 

Shortly after this occurs a few things happen:

1. Ben quickly devolves into a sniveling mess who is obsessesed with Jeanie and jealous of every man she looks at.
2. Jeanie is focused on finding the scientist's child, finding Zou Zou and the rest of the dinner party group, hearing her dead father's voice and worries about not taking her antidepressants. Are her grief and lack of medication causing her visions of the pale ones?
3. The mysterious pale, pyschic beings have a strange connection to Jeanie and nobody else seems to see or sense them until a good portion of the way through the book. 
4. Society as a whole quickly unravels and resorts to its basest nature, except for Jeanie who is committed to preserving the infant at all costs.

On the whole this is a pretty interesting tale of survival. It is especially riveting when they are escaping through the catacombs beneath Paris. It can get a bit gory at times; it is a zombie story! At times one is not sure who is more disturbing, the pale ones or the humans that have become so hardened and cruel in no time.