Siege

** Spoiler free review **

Life at the fort is never easy. There are lot of very different people forced together for survival plus the masses of undead outside. Each and every decision they make could lead to their survival or their certain death. These decisions usually fall on Travis' shoulders as he was voted in as mayor. Beyond his responsibilities, Travis is starting a new family with Jenni and hope is going strong for the survivors. Many find new love, create new families, and begin to flourish despite all the carnage and zombies in the outside world. They discover another survivor haven run by the remains of the government who want to take over their fort. They also find out about a huge horde of thousands and thousands of zombies heading toward their fort. Who will live and die? Will their society survive these obstacles?

Siege is the third and final installment of Rhiannon Frater's As the World Dies series.  These characters are so amazing and vibrant and memorable. There are a lot of named characters and I would have thought it be hard to remember them all, but they all have defining characteristics and their own outlook on life. Some of them are horrible human beings in my book, condemning other people because of lifestyle choices and infractions against their religion or simply putting their own needs above the needs and lives of others. In the face of the complete and utter breakdown of society, I would think people would put aside such petty differences. Others are people I wish I knew like loca Jenni, fiery Juan, tough Nerit, Crazy Calhoun, brilliant Jason, and so many others. The character development is phenomenal with this series and I'm sad the series is over.

This book is amazing and a crazy emotional rollercoaster. I laughed and celebrated with the characters and I literally sobbed when some of them died (which was kind of embarrassing when I read the book in public). The deaths are numerous and I felt them more intensely than most novels. Despite all the death and undeath surrounding our survivors, they still manage to feel happiness and hope. They actually live instead of simply surviving. They build new families and have a warm sense of camaraderie for the most part. The true family in the fort never wavers and never abandons their loved ones.

The action in Siege is amazing and I was on the edge of my seat for most of the novel, waiting to see what happened to my favorite characters. Zombies are not the only things that threaten our intrepid heroes. Humans do a lot of damage and sometimes use zombies to do their dirty work. The only part I didn't like about the book was how involved ghosts became in the action and came to be a kind of deus ex machina. Their existence is fine because it's a supernatural universe, but when they influence things to much it bothers me a little. Other than this one tiny thing, this book is wonderful and this series deserves a place on every zombies fans shelf.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins