My darling friend Bree of 1girl2manybooks told me about this book, and I immediately had to have it. I adore a good post-apocalyptic story, and this one has VAMPIRES. Ok, so the author doesn’t call them Vampires, but whatever, they’re vampy enough. And they don’t sparkle.  That’s enough to get my interest right there.  (Can you tell I loathe sparkly vampires? Really, why in the bloody heck would a vampire sparkle?  Oh, I’m sorry, “dazzle”.  Wutevah!)  At any rate, it’s taken me a while to begin reading it due to various random circumstances, but now that I’ve read it, I can’t wait for the next in the trilogy.  Yes, that’s right people, I began reading a trilogy before the entire thing was published.  Close your mouths, it’s not becoming to stare!

First of all, this is a -massive- door stopper of a book…nearly 800 pages, in fact.  I’ve never been one to hesitate over a long book, though.  I figure it’s more words per dollar, and I do love a good bargain.

The United States Army has gotten itself into a big of a pickle.  Some experiments they’ve been conducting (creation of a super virus designed to create soldiers who are able to heal quickly, never get ill, etc) have gone awry and they’ve inadvertently caused a series of events that will result in the destruction of almost the entire human race.

These vampires-which-are-not-vampires, created from a strain of virus that was not perfected, can only move in at night and/or in shadows and shade.  Because of this, many have banded together into compounds which have lights they burn at night to keep the flyers/jumpers/smokes at bay.  The focus of this story is on one of these compounds in particular, set in California, whose batteries are slowly failing and will go out in a year or two.

It’s a story of survival.  The last vestiges of humanity struggle to live their lives in a dark and forbidding world filled with “virals” who would like nothing more than to snack on them.  The virals, too, struggle to survive, for they have driven humans to near extinction and are running low on food.  One girl, an orphan, bastard child who is linked to, but not entirely like, the virals…possibly holds the key to save what is left of humanity.  This book is a gripping read.  Once I started, I could not stop.

9 of 10, and I’m only withholding one because, well, nothing is perfect, right?  I cannot wait for the second book of the trilogy, The Twelve, slated to be released in 2012.