KT Volante’s After the World Flipped picks up right where When the World Flipped left off, with Lucy about to be attacked by LD (the walking dead).
The opening scene shows that Volante knows how to put a real blow to his story. In his two zombie novels, there is never a dull moment. Even when your characters are not busy fighting zombies, they are busy with the strategy of how to protect themselves from the undead or other humans who would take what is theirs.
In the first novel, readers saw Lacey and her friends escape from a hospital when the zombie epidemic began. We saw them get to safety, find other survivors, and establish a small community in an enclosed area. However, their survival requires venturing outside of their compound to find food, clothing, and other necessities, and at one of those ventures, while harvesting food from a nearby garden, Lucy, one of the few children among the survivors, ends up in a situation. chilling in the one that is about to become LD’s lunch.
I will not reveal what happens in this opening scene, but I will say that adjusting to this new normal is not easy for any of the characters, especially the children. Volante doesn’t just offer us endless roller coaster rides through the perils of his zombie world; it also delves into the psyche of the characters and how they face their new normal. For example, it shows us how Kevin, one of the other children, manages to know that it is his birthday and that no one remembers it since his parents are dead. Fortunately, Lacey and her companions team up to develop a plan to cheer him up.
We also witness many difficult encounters and separations between the characters. In the first novel, Lacey and her friends rescued four nuns and brought them to the compound. The nuns have their own way of doing things that is not always compatible with the way Lacey, who is the leader, does things, so they experience some conflict. However, they also all respect each other for their abilities and try to work together. When the Sisters learn that some of their fellow nuns have survived in their Motherhouse and decide they want to move there, some heartwarming parting scenes ensue and then some royal surprises.
The biggest problem survivors face, other than LDs, is that as their community grows, new members are not always willing to abide by the rules. As a result, when Lacey has her authority challenged by the leader of another complex, her family group approaches civil war. While LDs continue to be the obvious and visible enemy, Lacey now discovers that her greatest threat could be from her fellow survivors.
And yet, in the midst of all this new normal, there are happy moments of celebration and also of infatuation. Despite all the horrors, the human spirit continues, adjusting and finding a way to survive even when it is discovered that after death, humans will now become LD from the virus.
To say more about After the World Flipped would be revealing too much. Suffice it to say that if you like zombie novels, Volante’s books are worth reading. They provide a much more realistic portrait of what life would be like for survivors than most zombie movies out there. All the thrills and chills are here, but so is a well thought out portrait of real life for the average person left alive.
