I am just 20 yr old college, student. And here what I think-
Did I love it? Yes
Would I have read it if not for reviewing? No
That's how much the cover, title affects the story. And what you have does not do justice to the amazing piece you have written. The blurb was nice but a continuous para not everyone reads till the end.
Right off the bat, the theme of the story is visible. The first para started of the movie in my head. The personality of Kayla was nicely shown. There were a few places where the choice of words felt odd. Like "slurping on my noodles" rather than "nibbling". The path to their special spot had only a few lines " Hike down a hill, go across a tiny stream and hop across railroad", I was able to imagine the whole thing and I wanna visit it now(if it exists).
The power outage, mother not responding all this built up the upcoming disaster quite nicely. Her relationships with her friends could be seen in their conversation. And the last paragraph, where she blamed herself for the apocalypse, was perfect. Capturing all that emotions and being able to send them our way, just amazing.
I have read and seen zombie movies, the plot is usually the same. Till now not much has varied. The difference will be more evident after a few chapters, it's too early for that.
The pace of the story is quite slow. For 32 mins of reading time not much happened. While explaining every single detail you ended up stuck in a single scene. It's just 2 chapters currently, I would love to read more. I was asked to judge hard so I tried my best to pick out all the details. Hope it helps.
