Review: The Day I Died (Apocalypse Cycle), by Aya Knight

Title: The Day I Died (Apocalypse Cycle)
Author: Aya Knight
Format: ebook
Source: BookSirens

From Goodreads: "Oshin Fletcher lives by three rules: obey authority, don’t draw unnecessary attention to yourself, and above all else, never leave the city walls.

Some say that rules are meant to be broken. For Oshin, her world shattered on the day she was betrayed. A secret meeting leads her beyond the safety of her city. Lured by the ignorance that comes with being lonely and hopeful, Oshin was about to discover just how severe consequences could be. Lost and alone, she waited; no one came. But they did. The infected, the decaying, the undead.

Oshin wakes to find herself in an abandoned house, deep within the forest. Her body was changing, her desire to feed, uncontrollable. She was a marionette—her hunger, the puppeteer. She pivots on a line between life and death. They say the undead are mindless, but Oshin was very much aware. She sets out in an unknown world where the worst evils aren’t the undead, but humanity itself. With only days before the effects of the disease take hold and decay sets in, Oshin must race to find a way back home for a cure. She soon discovers that home is not everything she thought it to be. Dark secrets have been in play since the moment she was born.
An emotionally intense zombie survival story."

My Opinion:  I was really excited to read this book - a book told from a thinking zombie's view? I was all over it! I like reading books that turn preconceived notions about a subject on their head, and this book certainly did this. 

The story begins with a girl named Oshin who has always followed the rules, but she is getting a bit bored with this. Enter Codah, a very cute boy who Oshin has had a crush on for quite some time. When he finally notices her and asks her to meet him outside the walls of their compound, she can't go fast enough. The problem here is that the world outside the walls is crawling with the undead, which is why the biggest rule for the compound is Do Not Go Outside the Walls!! But teenage girls aren't known for using common sense when it comes to teenage boys, so Oshin talks herself into believing that nothing bad will happen if she just goes out for a short while. As expected, she was wrong. She does get to meet another boy, Bastion, along with sister, Lace. They are already "undead," but like Oshin, they are still able to think for themselves (although the underlying hunger is always there, and the stiffness of the body setting in already lets them know that they are only days away from turning full on undead).

I think the basis of this story can be summed up with this one sentence from the book's synopsis: "They say the undead are mindless, but Oshin was very much aware." What a novel approach! I think the bones of this story are very good, but there were a few things that kept me from giving this book 5 stars. 

First, Oshin goes beyond the walls of their compound because a boy who has never looked at her twice told her he wanted her to! I know teenage girls aren't always the smartest when it comes to boys, but this didn't make much sense because all her life it was pounded into her head that you don't go beyond the walls! I was also confused by the term "undead". Oshin kept referring to herself, Bastion and Lace as "undead" but then she would talk about holding her breath or her heart beating. Just a bit confusing. 

There were also some pacing problems and other inconsistencies, but the twists and turns in the story kept me reading, and overall this was a very compelling look at what goes on in the minds of aware zombies.

In summary, I love this take on the zombie genre, and all of the twists and turns the plot takes along the way. That's why I am giving it an enthusiastic 4/5 stars.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.