Title: Day Zero (Day Zero Duology #1)
Author: Kelly deVos
Genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Suspense
Publisher: Inkyard Press
No. of pages: Hardcover, 432 pgs.
Publication Date: November 12, 2019
Date Read: November 21, 2019
Rating: 4/5
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Synopsis:
If you’re going through hell… keep going.
Seventeen-year-old coder Jinx Marshall grew up spending weekends drilling with her paranoid dad for a doomsday she’s sure will never come. She’s an expert on self-heating meal rations, Krav Maga and extracting water from a barrel cactus. Now that her parents are divorced, she’s ready to relax. Her big plans include making it to level 99 in her favorite MMORPG and spending the weekend with her new hunky stepbrother, Toby.
But all that disaster training comes in handy when an explosion traps her in a burning building. Stuck leading her headstrong stepsister, MacKenna, and her precocious little brother, Charles, to safety, Jinx gets them out alive only to discover the explosion is part of a pattern of violence erupting all over the country. Even worse, Jinx’s dad stand accused of triggering the chaos.
In a desperate attempt to evade paramilitary forces and vigilantes, Jinx and her siblings find Toby and make a break from Mexico. With seemingly the whole world working against them, they’ve got to get along to search for the truth about the attacks–and about each other. But if they can survive, will there be anything left worth surviving for?
Review:
Many thanks to Inkyard Press and HarperCollins for having me on this blog tour for Day Zero!
I haven’t read a solid apocalypse thriller in a while and I’m so glad that I was given the chance to pick this one up!
Day Zero follows Jinx Marshall, a sixteen-year-old who is still learning how to live in a newly blended family. All she really wants is for things to finally feel normal. She grew up being taught how to survive the end of the world… which comes in handy because her, her brother, and her stepsister are literally caught at the start of the end of the world. While in a convenience store, the bank next door explodes and throws everything into chaos. Jinx manages to get the three of them home, but then her stepdad is suspected of being the person behind the bombing. After her stepdad is taken into custody, it is up to Jinx to get herself, MacKenna, and Charles to Mexico to meet up with her dad. But, a detour to pick up her stepbrother Toby from college creates its own challenges. What comes after is so many twists and turns that you might expect when the world is ending, but you’ll never see them coming.
I really liked this book. It was a solid apocalypse book. I’ve always like reading “end of the world” type stuff, but this book really puts its characters through the wringer.
Jinx as the main character was super relatable. She just wanted to keep her family safe and every choice she made, regardless of whether it was following a survival drill, was one that she thought was right. The change of relationships between her and her stepsister was really interesting. At the beginning of the book, she thought MacKenna was a snob and a jerk. As the book progressed, I think she truly began to understand that the whole blended family thing was new to MacKenna as well… they were both trying to process and Jinx wasn’t giving MacKenna the benefit of the doubt. I really liked how they ended up becoming some semblance of a team, especially to help out Charles (who has diabetes and needs medication to keep his sugar level).
Everything in this book from start to finish was a RIDE. OH. AND THAT ENDING. You’re not prepared. I was not prepared. I read it… and I’m still not prepared. Kelly deVos with Day Zero has created something that you’ll want more of. I’m incredibly sad that I can’t have the next one in my hands right away. Day Zero was a refreshing take on the end of the world and I can’t wait to see where the world in this duology goes next.
Author
Kelly deVos is from Gilbert, Arizona, where she lives with her high school sweetheart husband, amazing teen daughter and superhero dog, Cocoa. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. When not reading or writing, Kelly can typically be found with a mocha in hand, bingeing the latest TV shows and adding to her ever-growing sticker collection. Her debut novel, Fat Girl on a Plane, named one fo the “50 Best Summer Reads of All Time” by Reader’s Digest magazine, is available now from HarperCollins.
Kelly’s work has been featured in the New York Times as well as on Salon, Vulture, and Bustle.
Adventures and Reading 