Book picks similar to
Zombie Rules by David Achord


zombies
zombie
horror
post-apocalyptic

The Girl with All the Gifts


M.R. Carey - 2014
    Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.The Girl with All the Gifts is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin, and Neil Gaiman.

Nomad


Matthew Mather - 2015
    Ben Rollins, head of Harvard's exoplanet research team, is told by NASA after being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. His first instinct is to call his daughter, Jessica, who's vacationing in Italy with his wife. "Something's coming," he tells them. "A hundred times the mass of the sun. We can't see it, don't know what it is yet, but they're calling it Nomad--and in just months, the Earth may be destroyed."But what is it? And how did they miss detecting it until now? In a frantic race against time, Dr. Rollins must unravel Nomad's secrets. A mysterious clue surfaces in his old research papers from the end of the Cold War, more than thirty years earlier...The world erupts into chaos as the end approaches--and Ben discovers that his wife and daughter are trapped in Europe. The key to humanity's survival rests in the final answers Dr. Rollins pieces together, in the midst of his desperate scramble across continents to find his family before Nomad swallows the planet.MORE ABOUT NOMADA story of family and redemption set amid a brand new category of cataclysm--all the more plausible and terrifying as the science behind it is vetted by a team of world-class astrophysicists from CERN, SETI, the Keck Observatory and more. It even has its own simulation video, included at the end of the book.

Thicker Than Blood


Madeline Sheehan - 2015
    Leisel and Evelyn lost everything. Husbands. Families. Friends. Lives that made sense. All they had left was each other, and a friendship that could withstand anything…Even an apocalypse.Until one fateful night, the marginal safety they’d come to rely on comes to a vicious and brutal end. With the help of Alex & Jami, both unlikely allies, Leisel and Evelyn are able to escape their shattered sanctuary only to find themselves face-to-face with a much altered, much crueler life where they have to find the way—and the will—to stay alive in a world they no longer recognize.Traveling across a broken and infection-ridden country; the road-weary group are pitted against endless violence, improbable circumstances, and the ultimate loss.Everything comes at a price—especially safety, the cost of which could very well strip them of the one thing they’ve tried so hard to cling to: their humanity.Yet along with all the trials they’re forced to endure, there’s also hope in the form of love. Having loved Leisel from afar, Alex attempts to put the pieces of her fractured heart back together.But in such a savage world, is there room for love?In a place of nightmares-made-reality, where the living should be feared far more than the dead, an unbreakable friendship and a love amongst all odds can mean the difference between life and death.There are friends…And then there are Leisel and Evelyn.

Unleashed


Dirk Patton - 2013
    Nuclear bombs destroy cities and the widespread release of nerve gas sends the majority of the surviving population into a murderous rage. Rescuing a woman who survived the attacks he must lead her to safety as Atlanta burns, raging infected roam unchecked and society disintegrates into savagery.

Dead of Night


Jonathan Maberry - 2011
    But all drugs have unforeseen side-effects. Before he could be buried, the killer wakes up. Hungry. Infected. Contagious. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang…but a bite.

Alone


Courtney Konstantin - 2017
     Flesh-eating zombies run rampant. And the kids are on their own. Easton and Candace Reynolds have been separated from their makeshift family. They have no food, no transportation— and have become targets for more than just zombies. A dangerous group of survivors are hunting the siblings, and they’re looking to kill them before the elements or starvation does. To survive, Easton and Candace have to make some tough decisions. Is sacrificing their humanity worth their lives? Can they outlast the zombies and predators? Or is there truly no escape for the Reynolds kids? Will they be forced to live out the end-of-the-world, ALONE? One-click to test your prepping skills today! ** ALONE is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novella that adds to the complex dystopian universe of the Sundown Series. Author Courtney Konstantin has created a thrilling zombie read that will appeal to fans of World War Z and 28 Days Later.

Breakers


Edward W. Robertson - 2012
    In Los Angeles, Raymond and Mia James are about to lose their house. Within days, none of it will matter.When Vanessa dies of the flu, Walt is devastated. But she isn't the last. The virus quickly kills billions, reducing New York to an open grave and LA to a chaotic wilderness of violence and fires. As Raymond and Mia hole up in an abandoned mansion, where they learn to function without electricity, running water, or neighbors, Walt begins an existential walk to LA, where Vanessa had planned to move when she left him. He expects to die along the way.Months later, a massive vessel appears above Santa Monica Bay. Walt is attacked by a crablike monstrosity in a mountain stream. The virus that ended humanity wasn't created by humans. It was inflicted from outside. The colonists who sent it are ready to finish the job--and Earth's survivors may be too few and too weak to resist.

Positive


David Wellington - 2015
    . . The tattooed plus sign on Finnegan's hand marks him as a Positive. At any time, the zombie virus could explode in his body, turning him from a rational human into a ravenous monster. His only chance of a normal life is to survive the last two years of the potential incubation period. If he reaches his twenty-first birthday without an incident, he'll be cleared.Until then, Finn must go to a special facility for positives, segregated from society to keep the healthy population safe. But when the military caravan transporting him is attacked, Finn becomes separated. To make it to safety, he must embark on a perilous cross-country journey across an America transformed—a dark and dangerous land populated with heroes, villains, madmen, and hordes of zombies. And though the zombies are everywhere, Finn discovers that the real danger may be his fellow humans.Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome meets World War Z and I Am Legend in this thrilling tale that has it all: a compelling story, great characters, and explosive action, making Positive the ultimate zombie novel of our time.

The Flu


Jacqueline Druga - 2006
    Each year hundreds are active. Chances are, this year, you will catch one of those strains. You will cough, sneeze, and your body will ache. Without a second thought, you’ll take a double dose of green liquid, go to bed, and swear you’ll feel better in the morning. Not this time.In 1918 forty million people succumbed to a particular strain of swine flu. It appeared out of nowhere, and just as quickly as it surfaced, the Spanish Flu vanished. Gone for good. Or so we thought. Though mankind has anticipated its resurfacing for some time, mankind is ill prepared. Mutated and with a vengeance, the Spanish Flu returns.In a world blackened with plague, a glimmer of light exists in the small town of Lodi, Ohio. They shine as a sanctuary because they are ‘flu-free’ In the wake of the reality that they are spared, the spirit and strength of Lodi is tested. It becomes a fight against what is morally right or wrong in an increasingly difficult battle to stay healthy and alive until the flu has run its course.

Ex-Heroes


Peter Clines - 2010
    Gorgon. Regenerator. Cerberus. Zzzap. The Mighty Dragon. They were heroes, using their superhuman abilities to make Los Angeles a better place.Then the plague of living death spread around the globe. Now, a year later, the heroes struggle to overcome their differences and recover from their own scars as they protect the thousands of survivors huddled in their film-studio-turned-fortress, the Mount.But the hungry ex-humans are not the only threat the survivors face. Across the city, another group has grown and gained power.

The Starborn Saga


Jason D. Morrow - 2013
    Death takes us when it is ready. Nineteen-year-old Mora knows this all too well, living in a world where the dead have walked the Earth for the past 60 years. Mora is on a mission to save her village from the relentless greyskins, and there is only one man that can help her: Jeremiah of Screven. As she travels the wastelands, she discovers a power within herself, a power she believes no other human possesses. That is, until she meets others like her – the ones who call themselves the Starborn. These super-humans are on a mission also: to destroy the undead greyskins, and take down the greedy Jeremiah. Mora must now choose between the one who can keep her family safe, and those that can show her who she truly is.If It Kills MeOverconfidence has no place in a world where the dead rule. Nineteen-year-old Mora has learned this the hard way. After a conflict in the colony of Salem that left hundreds of people dead, Mora and her Starborn allies have been branded as fugitives by Jeremiah, the leader of Screven. Now, Mora must prove to the world that she isn't the enemy, and that hope for the future lies with the Starborns, not Jeremiah. To do that, she must find out the truth behind the origins of the dreaded greyskins that roam the Earth, attacking villages relentlessly.But more than that, she must protect her family. The Starborns attempt to set up a base at her home, Springhill, but it only brings more turmoil. With a mentor channeling her dreams of the past, and two rival brothers fighting for her love, Mora learns of a new enemy that threatens to bring them down before the revolution can even begin.Even In DeathGreen, you're clean. Red, you're dead. Nineteen-year-old Mora is haunted by the flashing red light that pronounces her doom. Now she knows she only has about twenty-four hours to defeat Jeremiah and finish the revolution she has started, before the greyskin virus claims her life. To do this, she must lead the other Starborns through the war-torn streets of Screven. But Jeremiah has a secret power that will test Mora in ways she could have never imagined.

The Scattered and the Dead


Tim McBain - 2016
    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.

Since the Sirens


E.E. Isherwood - 2016
    Who will save Grandma? What would you do if a mysterious plague began to devour your city and the dead started banging on your door?Fifteen-year-old Liam Peters is spending the summer with his great-grandmother (not by choice) when the authorities of St. Louis spin up the tornado sirens to announce a civic emergency. Police robocalls declare mass disturbances throughout the city, suggesting citizens try to escape to safer jurisdictions. Radio offers contradictory instructions: stay inside, hunker down, ride it out. The President tries to convey a message of hope to calm a scared populace, but the tone is interpreted as a goodbye. The mixed messaging sends society--already on the verge of panic--into a tailspin. When the President signs off, half the city hunkers down while the other half dashes for the interstate.Now Liam is faced with his first dilemma of an increasingly complicated morning. Should he stay with Grandma and attempt to defend her urban home against both the living and the dead, or should he try to get her out of the city to his parents' home in the suburbs? Nothing is ever as simple as it sounds when life and death are on the line.As an avid reader of zombie literature, Liam realizes you go into the zombie apocalypse with the army you have, not the one you want. He sees himself as an unlikely savior, with an unlikely ally, but he embarks on the hero's journey nonetheless. As the city implodes, they race against the clock to outpace desperate refugees, gang violence, criminal opportunists, overzealous military units, scared civilians, and a growing horde of bloodthirsty zombies. He does it while burdened with a woman who is unable to walk more than ten feet without help.As they chase the elusive vision of safety, Liam comes to appreciate why there are no atheists in foxholes. Introducing the Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse series. Book 1: Since the Sirens Book 2: Siren Songs Book 3: Stop the Sirens Author's Notes: Since the Sirens can be read as a standalone story. It doesn't end with a cliffhanger. Books 2 and 3 are optional reading beyond this first volume. I hope you'll enjoy Liam and Grandma's journey enough to follow them further, but as an author and a reader of zombie books, I abhor misleading or otherwise trapping readers.This cover replaces original edition ASIN B018H82ZYU.

Winter World


A.G. Riddle - 2019
    and a shocking discovery...will change humanity forever.In the near future, a new ice age has begun.Humanity stands on the brink of extinction.Desperate for answers, scientists send probes into the solar system to take readings. Near Mars, a probe spots a mysterious object drifting toward the Sun. Is it the cause of the ice age? Or could it be our only hope of survival?With time running out, NASA launches an international mission to make contact with the object. But it isn’t what anyone thought. In the dark of space, alone, the team makes a shocking discovery that will change the course of human history—and possibly end it.

Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End


Manel Loureiro - 2007
    But he never expected that his anonymous blog would ultimately record humanity’s last days.The end of the world has begun…Governments scramble to stop the zombie virus, people panic, so-called “Safe Havens” are established, the world erupts into chaos; soon it’s every man, woman, and child for themselves. Armed only with makeshift weapons and the will to live, a lone survivor will give mankind one last chance against…Apocalypse Z