What Remains

Project Fed. It was supposed to be the answer to hunger, but instead, it was the destruction of the world as we knew it. The growth of chemically enhanced "super" fruits and vegetables began in unmarked farms across the Nations, as well as their distribution in small towns. Within hours of Project Fed's first delivery and primary consumption, something far beyond expectancy was unleashed. Something far beyond what anyone could help.

Four months later, Seventeen year old Max Cade is trying to survive amongst what remains of her old life. In an effort to escort an awry "Doctor" from one camp to the next, she will have to reintroduce her two young friends to the horrors beyond their shelter that she so badly wanted to shield them from. Getting there was supposed to be the easy part, but when travelling through a world of ruin, sometimes the undead have other plans.

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review by Travis Starnes

Set just before and during the zombie apocalypse What Remains follows a young survivor as she escorts a doctor and two of her young friends from the safety of one camp to another, and through the horrors beyond their sheltered homes.

I love a good zombie book and this promised to be just that.  While I am generally prefer older protagonists everything about the setting of this book was the standard fare that I generally love.  The problem is the book just isn’t very good.

The overall plotting came off as very juvenile to me.  I don’t really know anything about Kay Holland, but if I found out she was a teenager I would not be shocked. Everything from the plotting to the dialogue to the kid who was training his whole life for the apocalypse would seem more at place in a badly written direct to video movie or (if the book was less violent) a Saturday morning cartoon.

The characters are incredibly one dimensional stereotypes and totally uninteresting.  Their dialog is generally poorly done and there is very little to like about most of them.  The pacing of the book is ok and the action pieces work, but the plot is packed full of holes.   You start at the beginning of the zombie outbreak then skip ahead to them living in the camp.  Such a lost opportunity and this isn’t the only time when you get a sudden transition in the story.  It comes off as very jarring.

Other than the juvenile way the book was written the other problem this book has is it really needed an editor.  Misspelled words, poor grammar, missing or wrong punctuation and run on sentences abound.   Even if the story was amazing this would have been a difficult book to read.

I can’t recommend this book to anyone.  The only reason I finished it was because I felt obligated to for this review.  If not for that I would have bailed on this book by chapter 4.