Arcadium

Arcadium

by Sarah Gray

What is Arcadium? Florence knows but she’s not telling anyone, and it could just be the key to the survival of the human race.

Sixteen-year-old Florence West must journey across a disease ravaged Melbourne with her nine-year-old sister Liss, and she’ll do anything to survive. Mostly that means staying clear of all people, the healthy ones on the run and the infected ones hungry for human flesh. But when she meets a man that speaks no English and a defiant set of brothers, Florence will be forced to question her ways. Because there’s only so far you can go alone, right?

Arcadium is a heart-stopping journey of hope across a ravaged urban land where survival always comes at a heavy price.

***

3 Stars

The first thought I had when I finished this book was that it was like a zombie book for kids. Then I laughed cause no zombie book is ever really for kids, and had to rethink it to that is was a zombie book for young adults.

I have to say that I Love zombie books, pretty much zombie anything. I know its not normal and I blame it on my best friend and my husband for being this way. So I was pretty excited about this book, it had been a while since I read anything zombie, but I found it predicable and there really isn't much of what you would expect from a zombie book, none of the gore or even heart thumping moments. There are a few times where you want to bite your finger nails, but at certain point in the book I knew that everyone was going to make it out no matter what. I can't say what made me know this, but I just knew that no one was going to get eaten or really seriously hurt.

I think the only thing I really truly loved about this book was Trouble, there is something about him that was just refreshing, he is the reason I liked the book and really wanted to read it to the end. Though I did also like the way Florence held herself together. 

There is a lot of light hearted banter in the book, which could be a good thing but made it feel more like a bunch of kids getting together to hang out instead of trying not get killed. 

But for the most part this is just your run of the mill zombie book, where the survivors heading for somewhere they think is going to be safe to only find out that there is stuff going on that they don't like and escape with a bang. 

I didn't really like the romance element to the book, but because I really think this book was aimed for YA I can see why it was added. Though I did like that Flo wasn't all goo goo eyes all the time over it. 

For the most part I never really felt any fear for the survivors, and like I said earlier I just knew that things would work out for them. I like to wonder when I'm reading zombie books on if the people I've grown to love are going to make it in the end. It was just a little to predicable for me.

Would I recommend this book? Eh, for a zombie book it wasn't really my cup of tea, but it was still pretty good so I guess I would.