Book picks similar to
Mayfly Hollow by Anne Lucy-Shanley


post-apocalyptic
survival-romance
annoying-character
zombie

The Promise


Shawn Chesser - 2018
     Hopeful that the unknown sum of money included in his portion of the inheritance will be sufficient to bring an end to his latest run of bad luck and trouble, Riker boards a Greyhound bus in Atlanta with his duffel bag, less than two hundred dollars to his name, and a secret he must protect at all costs. Riker makes it to Middletown only to learn his sister has recently witnessed a gruesome death. Insisting she saw the victim rise from a pool of his own blood to attack the Samaritan rendering aid, Tara floats the idea that the man may have been a zombie. While the siblings are comparing what Tara thinks she saw to the conflicting stories about the event being reported on the news, the emergency broadcast system is activated and they find themselves under order to report to one of three newly established quarantine centers. With this unexpected turn of events looming over their heads, and as a result the reading of the will likely postponed indefinitely, Riker informs Tara of the promise he made to their mother on her deathbed months ago. A promise whose details leave Tara nearly as confused as those of the grisly attack haunting her every thought. A promise that Riker insists is worth ignoring the government edict in order to fulfill. A promise that requires the Rikers to leave town even as shadowy forces seek to seal it off from the rest of the country—a tall order they soon learn will be easier said than done.

Infected


Frank Tayell - 2016
    For years it has bribed, blackmailed, and murdered in pursuit of global domination. In an attempt to destroy it, Tom Clemens rigged the presidential election. His candidate won, but the conspiracy wasn’t stopped. Framed for murder, Tom is on the run. Searching for evidence of the cabal’s plans, he is in Manhattan when the impossible happens. People attack one another. The victims die. They come back. Zombies. Uncertain who created the outbreak, but knowing it’s connected to the conspiracy, Tom flees New York. As law and order breaks down, the undead spread throughout America. Tom searches for the scientist who might be able to stop the outbreak, unaware that the conspirators are searching for him. From Surviving the Evacuation, this is the story of Sholto, the beginning of the outbreak, and the people who tried to stop it. The story will continue in Book 2: Divided, out this summer. I would recommend you read Surviving the Evacuation Books 1-3 prior to this novel. Please note: As the President of the United States is a background character, and the presidential election a background event, American English has been used in this book though with some British spellings in deference to the fact that most of Surviving the Evacuation takes place in the United Kingdom.

Dead Country


Bonnie Dee - 2011
    There’s room for both in Dead Country. This story is set in the same terrifying world as Bonnie Dee’s bestselling After the End, but follows the adventures of new characters.Brian Pasman is stuck in his hometown of Durbinville, Kansas—again. On the cusp of graduating from Caltech when a family illness brings him home, his life is changed forever by the zombie apocalypse. Several months into the invasion, order is slowly being restored, but this small town is not a priority and the citizens are left to fend for themselves behind a ramshackle barricade.Into the routine horror of zombie-killing which has become Brian’s life rides a force of change on a Harley. Ashleigh Jennings has been on her own most of her life. She's been a maid, a waitress and an exotic dancer but dreams of a singing career. Her lively personality shakes Brian awake, making him appreciate life more than he had even before the nightmare struck. The motorcycle group’s arrogant leader clashes with the equally domineering head of the town council, but the two groups must join forces when a new wave of the undead sweeps across the prairie. Can Brian come up with a battle plan to save the town or is his education in probabilities only good in theory?

Red Hill


Jamie McGuire - 2013
    Nathan has a wife, but can’t remember what it’s like to be in love; only his young daughter Zoe makes coming home worthwhile. Miranda’s biggest concern is whether her new VW Bug is big enough to carry her sister and their boyfriends on a weekend escape from college finals.When reports of a widespread, deadly “outbreak” begin to surface, these ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances and suddenly their fates are intertwined. Recognizing they can’t outrun the danger, Scarlet, Nathan, and Miranda desperately seek shelter at the same secluded ranch, Red Hill. Emotions run high while old and new relationships are tested in the face of a terrifying enemy—an enemy who no longer remembers what it’s like to be human.Set against the backdrop of a brilliantly realized apocalyptic world, love somehow finds a way to survive. But what happens when the one you’d die for becomes the one who could destroy you?Red Hill grabs you from page one and doesn’t let go until its stunning conclusion. This is #1 New York Times bestselling author Jamie McGuire at her unforgettable best.

Necrose Beginnings: Books One and Two


Tim Moon - 2017
    Then they spread. Soon...they'll evolve. Prepare for the third book in the trilogy with this special limited-time box set of Dead Apocalpse and Dead Horde. Ben Chase went to Hawaii for adventure. He never expected the zombie apocalypse. The infection is spreading virtually unchecked, obscured by political cover ups and mistrust in media reports. Trapped on the Big Island, Ben and his friends find themselves surrounded by the infected. When Ben is faced with a critical decision that places the fate of his friends in his hands, what he must do to save them is unthinkable...

Winter Plague


Isla Jones - 2018
    Reviewers are calling it 'heartbreaking', 'mysterious' and 'fast-paced'. In a world ravaged by the dead, our words are all we have left. Who will tell the story of the last stand? I will. My name is Winter, and this is my story. The world has been lost to a new strain of rabies, one that ravages those it infects and turns them into blood-thirsty killers. I don't know how I've survived for so long, but I have. And then, I met a group ... I met him. Winter's Plague is the found memoir of a cowardly survivor in a cruel world. Winter writes of how she wandered across the states to find her sister, only to find the first group of survivors she'd seen in five months.A band of thirty survivors are led by the mysterious soldiers, but Winter quickly realises that Leo——the one who saved her life, the one in charge——has a secret. And it lies in the restricted RV with the top-secret cargo.But there are two rules she learns fast in the group: Know your place and stay away from the restricted R.V. Or die.

The Commune


Charlie Dalton - 2019
     You’re still alive. Will you be tomorrow? Ten years ago, the world ended. A virus swept the planet clean, wiping out 97% of the world’s population. Only the wary survived. We gather our resources in communes clinging to the harshest environments on Earth. Food is scarce and the well’s running dry. Our days are numbered. Then a girl staggers from the desert, her brains fried by the sun. She rambles about technology, a place of safety the Rages never reached. Only the elders recognize what she describes. A place we call the City Then the Reavers attack. They destroy our home and everything we’ve built. We wander the desert, lost, and without hope. And still the girl remembers that place. Does the City really exist? Can she lead us to it? Can we rebuild what we lost? Our journey begins, but we’re not the only ones making it. You will love The Commune, the first pulse-pounding post-apocalyptic thriller in the After the Fall series. Get it now!

The Scattered and the Dead Box Set


Tim McBain - 2017
    The only thing. Power grid? Dead. A mysterious virus? Rampant. Enemies? Everywhere. How did this happen? And how do we survive? So begins the post-apocalypse. Part disaster, part terrifying mystery. Order topples quickly once the power goes down. No police. No government. Society itself has failed. Fractured. Disintegrated. The dead pile in the streets. Corpses strewn like dolls. The world as we know it ends with a whimper, a gurgle, a quick dimming of the lights. And now? All the animals come out at night. Welcome to the fuckin' jungle. Chaos rages across the land. Riots. Raiders. Fire. Murder. When the darkness falls, it comes in more way than one. Among the ashes, we meet the scattered, the leftovers: A family struggles to find long term shelter during the first wave of the collapse. Two orphan girls -- a 16 year old and an 8 year old -- gather supplies to help survive their first winter without power. A drunk and drug addict plots to avenge the death of his parents at the hands of raiders. A televangelist races to escape a rumored nuclear strike. Slowly, their paths will cross, their stories will merge, and a new world will be born out of the ruins. Not all of them will make it.

The End


G. Michael Hopf - 2013
    This youthful idealism vanished one fateful day in a war torn city in Iraq. Ten years later, he is still struggling with the ghosts of his past but must now face a new reality thrust on him and his family. North America, Europe and the Far East have all suffered a devastating Super-EMP attack that has caused catastrophic damage to the power grids and all electrical devices. With nothing working from cars to phones and with the total collapse of the economic infrastructure, Gordon must fight for the limited and fast dwindling resources. He knows survival requires action and cooperation with his neighbors; but as daily life continues to break down so does all sense of civility within his community. With each passing day Gordon makes choices that would seem extreme in today's world but necessary in this new world.

The Last Town


Stephen Knight - 2017
    A flu-like plague that infected thousands and killed roughly ten percent of its victims. Those who died awoke once again, but they were no longer among the living--they came back as soulless carnivorous corpses who desired only one thing: to feed on living human flesh. As the infection spread, across Europe and the rest of the globe, cities were overwhelmed. Nations fell. Humanity flickered like a candle flame in the wind. In the United States: the nation's great cities are becoming hunting grounds. New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles...all are falling victim to hordes of shambling dead who want only one thing: to devour the living. Single Tree, California is a small resort town in Inyo County. Between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, it's easy to overlook. And that's exactly what the citizens of Single Tree want, for the stenches and those fleeing them to ignore the town long enough for it to be transformed into a desert fortress at the foot of Mount Whitney. But time is not on their side. Not only do they have to worry about the dead... they have to fear the living.

Plague Land


Alex Scarrow - 2016
    Within a week the virus hits London. The siblings witness people turning to liquid before their eyes, and they run for their lives. A month after touching Earth's atmosphere, the virus has assimilated the world's biomass.

ONSLAUGHT: The Zombie War Chronicles - Vol 1


Damon Novak - 2018
    Unfortunately, there was little time to ponder the cause. Most animals died at the onset. Others in the reptilian category merely changed. While some humans were unaffected, others experienced a half-death of sorts, morphing into blood and flesh-crazed creatures with a desire only to hunt the living and consume them. Climbing Fox Wattana of the Henomawi Nation claims responsibility for the black rain and its effects; He says it is his revenge against the United States government for robbing his people of their land, ensuring their ultimate extinction. Cole "CB" Baxter isn't taking this lying down. He, his sister, Lilly, and Dr. Georgina Lake will flee their airboat tour business in the Florida Everglades and attempt to rescue what family they can. If that all works out, they plan to follow the ham radio broadcasts of a classic rock DJ named Micky Rode, as he guides the survivors to a gathering spot somewhere in Kansas. That's the plan, anyway. But you know what they say: We make plans ... God laughs.

In the After


Demitria Lunetta - 2013
    Her parents—vanished. The government—obsolete. Societal structure—nonexistent. No one knows where They came from, but these vicious creatures have been rapidly devouring mankind since They appeared. With fierce survivor instincts, Amy manages to stay alive—and even rescues "Baby," a toddler who was left behind. After years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope. On the surface, it appears to be a safe haven for survivors. But there are dark and twisted secrets lurking beneath that could have Amy and Baby paying with not only their freedom... but also their lives.

The Wretched


E.G. Michaels - 2018
    A top-secret research project goes terribly wrong. A new species, the Reapers, are unleashed onto the unsuspecting citizens of Philadelphia and soon the rest of the country. The Reapers are stronger, faster, and have no mercy for any humans who have the misfortune of crossing their paths. Philadelphia Cop Malcolm Foster quickly discovers a routine disturbance call is anything but ordinary. Foster soon finds himself scrambling to survive, gather together a rag-tag group of survivors, and get them out of the city. As Foster and his group fight to escape the city and find a Reaper-free sanctuary, a looming question prevails. Can anyone stop the Reapers from taking over the world? This is the story of the Wretched, a rag-tag group of survivors who may be the only ones that can keep the human race from becoming extinct.

Dark Inside


Jeyn Roberts - 2011
    An inner rage has been released and some people cannot fight it. For those who can, life becomes an ongoing battle to survive - at any cost!