This is a nice story. I found parts of the plot and relationships and some of the exposition a bit simple, but pushing thru them before I took breaks was more effective than stopping at points I had issues with.

Overall, I'm much more interested in 'what happens' than I am with writing issues. I've purchased Book 2 and looking forward to the Kindle and audio versions. The narration is excellent. ( )

Heerlijk boek om te lezen met een heel herkenbaar onderwerp. Een pandemie krijgt de wereld in zijn greep en een groot gedeelte van de mensheid sterft als gevolg hiervan. Alleen is dit geen virus maar iets magisch dat per ongeluk door het niets vermoedende eerste slachtoffer wordt losgelaten. Sommige mensen maken er het beste van, maar er zijn er ook die totaal los slaan en rovend en moordend het land doortrekken.
Lana en haar vriend Max hebben uiteindelijk een plek gevonden om zich te settelen en verzamelen een groep gelijkgezinden om zich heen en vormen een kleine woongemeenschap in een verlaten dorp. Als Lana in verwachting blijkt te zijn, verheugen ze zich enorm op hun kindje, maar dan slaan de rovers weer toe.
Erg spannend en goed geschreven. ( )

Initially this book was promising and involving, with the unfolding of a worldwide pandemic beginning with the infection of one man at a New Year celebration in Scotland. He returns to the USA and along the way infects dozens who go on to do likewise. Apart from a few who appear immune, the disease is unrelentingly fatal and the description of its effects harrowing.

The story is followed from the viewpoint of a number of people who appear immune. They face a new menace when rumours emerge of the government rounding up people like themselves for experimentation. So I anticipated a tense story of the struggle of the immune to survive and build a real life when they must perpetually look over their shoulders.

However it unfortunately developed into a cross between a soap opera and a young adult paranormal romance. For no known reason, some immune develop various superpowers or become faeries or elves. One of these characters then conceives the One and the book strayed into Buffy the Vampire Slayer territory but without the vampires. More and more impossible things were piled onto the increasingly top-heavy book, and it lost all credibility when a sort of Gandalf vibe was invoked at the end. The other characters which initially had been well developed dwindled into ciphers. From a possible 4 or even 5 stars, this plummeted to a barely scraped through 2 star rating. Disappointing. ( )

I've been reading a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction lately. YEAR ONE reminded me a lot of Blake Crouch's RUN, which I read last month. This novel was, while similar in premise, much better executed. It's clear that Nora Roberts knows how to spin a darn good yarn. Her prose is vivid, her plots engaging, and her storytelling skills are top-notch.

However, I thought that the book was about 100 pages too long, though. The last third dragged on and became repetitive. I can't say I cared much for the sudden romance at the end, or the lack of closure. I understand that this is the first book in a series, but I liked to see a better wrap-up in novels I've invested my time and energy into reading.

I enjoyed the mix of paranormal, magic, and post-apocalyptic content. It gave a nice twist to some common tropes. I wasn't overly fond of any of the characters, though. Maybe because there were so many of them. I know Max and Lana were supposed to be the main characters (everyone else practically vanishes as the book rushes toward its climax, such as it is), but they both seemed one-dimensional to me. So purely... good. It just didn't make them very interesting. And, I guess, that's the only problem with the book as a whole: the bad guys are so very, very bad. And the good guys, by contrast, so very, very good, with none of the gray areas that make dynamic characters so interesting.

Having said all that, I will continue with the series. I'm curious to see where it goes. ( )

What makes this book exceptional to me is the intensity with which emotions are conveyed.
There are not a lot of dystopian novels that described the feel of living in one this well.
The despair and the coping, the hope, especially in the first half was incredibly believable to me. I was fully consumed in the emotional world of the characters which has become rare for me.
Now let's get to the flaws.
(all spoilers are mild)
There was a lot of hinting at stuff that never had any relevance. Lots of breadcrumbs that lead nowhere.
After experiencing the initial apocalypse things meander for quite some time. We have lots of the usual tropes of dystopia. Small survivor town bigotry against people that are different. Evil people that are evil for the sake of being evil. The religious radicals and lots of the other usual things none of which are particularly well executed. Most of it feels very formulaic which I find especially frustrating because the characters themselves, as well as the world, are well nuanced and lifelike. Not only that but a lot of all that ultimately leads nowhere. There is no payoff for at least 70% of the book's content. (This might all still come to fruition in later books and if that's the case scrap that part of the criticism.)
Finally, this book did something that was hinted at throughout and that I hate which is probably the main reason this didn't get 4 stars from me.
I almost always hate the whole prophecy chosen one thing.
Regardless of how many times characters are told that nothing is set in stone and free will is still a thing, I as a reader know. I know it will all occur. It takes a lot of the story away. Together with the heavy-handed foreshadowing all major plot twist and developments were predictable from a mile away which especially if they are bad always leave this dreadfull and depressing atmosphere over everything until they happen. Which might be the point but at the same time they assure you that certain things will not happen. In most cases they just give things away without adding anything.
There are examples of how prophecy can be done well but it always carries some problems. What is the point of a prophecy that only makes sense after the fact and if it doesn't its basically just a spoiler that narrows possibility and makes it hard to surprise the reader.
I find it is used way too much and often without adding anything to the story like in this case. ( )