Chasers (Alone #1) (edition 2012)

For me, this book is typical and what I thought. It was a quick and easy read.

So the plot is about these teens taking a ride on the subway and all of the sudden, BAM! Explosion! And when they wake, nothing is the same. People are acting funny, like zombies. I especially enjoyed the beginning part of the book. The descriptions of the characters along with the scene of an unexpected explosion filled with blackness, had me at the edge of my seat. This part is particularly my favorite.

There really wasn't a love interest but just friends trying to survive. Everything is tested in trying to survive They have to search for food, find shelter and most of all try to find people. Towards the end, the friends are closer to finding salvation.

Chasers is a good story. The main character Jesse stood out strong and came out on top. For me, this is quite predictable but something easy to pick up if you know what you want to read. If you like these types of stories, then this book is for you. ( )

As I read the book I kept thinking that I would rather be watching the book as a movie than reading it. Not sure if that was a good thing, because I spent a part of the book thinking the author wrote it to be a movie (just the way it all flowed). But I did enjoy the story and will read the next follow up.

The descriptive prose was a little off to me - things like, in the beginning the teens keep seeing the infected 'drinking' from other people. Sorry, I just kept getting taken out of the story each time and tried to envision this... how are they drinking the person? The author doesn't say that the infected ravage the uninfected, or tear them apart, or bite them and suck their blood. They are just seen 'drinking' them. Found it confusing.

And why in the world did they pick a high rise to make semi-permanent camp when high rises all around them were crashing down?

The main characters weren't very likable and I found the pacing slow... but having all these negatives, I still liked the story line and stuck with it to the end. It was a solid OK for me ( )

It's not very often that I can't finish a book, but I just wasn't pulled in by the story here. At all. I hate not finishing books, though, so I may give it another go sometime down the road, but I doubt it. ( )

How could such a promising summary go so wrong? Unfortunately Chasers was not the book it appeared to be. As an English teacher, the novel was difficult to read because of the lack of punctuation marks when different characters were speaking. I think my brain has finally accepted that there must be a reason for this, but I spent most of my time reading trying to remember who said what. Jesse's character could have become a great apocalyptic character, but the plot of the story was quickly lost after the invasion and finding a place to hide. I only finished this book because I felt that I had put so much time into trying to understand it. Sometimes certain books are disappointments, and Chasers was a disappointment for me. ( )

I received CHASERS by James Phelan from the Librarything Early review program. Unfortunately I was not able to get into it enough to read the whole thing so I have added it to my Did not finish list and will not be assigning it a star rating.