Immune

By: Jacqueline Druga

Narrated by: Lee Alan

Nature is unpredictable, as are viruses; when one so volatile surfaces with a vengeance, there is little time to comprehend the devastation and even less time to do anything about it.

In the wake of the virus, there are three types of people: those immediately infected, those who are vulnerable, and those who are immune.

The initial infection ripples across the globe infecting half of the world's population. A small fraction of the ill are fortunate and die quickly from the disease. The remainder are condemned to a living death on earth.

The virus turns the infected into mindless and violent beings, intent on the kill and spreading the infection to those who are not immune.

One bite, one scratch.

The virus is an anomaly. It moves too quickly for a cure.

The world quickly transforms into a darkened place, besieged with violence and sickness. Hope against extinction is in the hands of the immune. They can walk freely among the infected and fight to extinguish them, while protecting those who are still at risk.

Archaeologist Grace Howard is one of the immune. While she dreams of traveling the world, learning about lost civilizations, the reality of being a wife and mother kept her saddled to a local job at the museum dusting dinosaur bones and relics.

Grace finds herself with a small group of survivors, some immune, some not. Together, they must struggle to live day to day in a dangerous world, while protecting those who can still fall prey to the infected. They must decide what is best - fight it out or hide until eventually and hopefully, the virus runs its course.

©2015 Jacqueline Druga (P)2015 Jacqueline Druga

There are multiple alternate endings!

This is my third zombie book this week. I have been able to read and listen to quite a few horrors and I was a little worried that picking up Jacqueline Druga as third in my week would effect my feeling of the book. I am also a fan of Jacqueline! She always pulls out all the stops, so I was also concerned that my bar would be set too high and she would not be able to reach it.

Both worries were put to rest early on in the book. This audio was absolutely fantastic. It does not say on Audible, but I believe there is a full cast! It’s amazing. The noises and music that was added into the story, wind up adding to the depth of all that is going on. It also helps to ratchet up the anxiety! As soon as the music starts getting creepy I just knew something was going to happen.

The story has a lot in it also. The music was not needed with the narration, although I really enjoyed it. The different voices of Lee Alan were able to pick up on every nuance of energy and terror, and even the calm moments. Although there are few.

It starts and there are quite a few characters to get to know and many characters die off early on. There is even a moment in a plane. I can only imagine how horrific that would be! Jacqueline makes it even easier to imagine.

Soon, people are starting to realize that they are immune. For whatever reason the zombies (ragers) do not try to eat certain people. There was a theory about why but most were not able to figure it out. Even though some are immune, they are obviously not immune to dying, so getting in the way of the zombies is still not a great idea.

Grace is the most prominent figure of the story. Most of the plot lines converge around hers. She goes through a LOT in this. And it is horrifying every step of the way. There is one ending, the overly gruesome one, where she would not be able to go through anything more horrific because the horror has definitely hit it’s peak!

The characters surrounding hers kept her alive for the most part but Grace did have a good head on her shoulders. She made good decisions and tried hard to stay safe.

There are multiple alternate endings. I cannot choose between them, but I definitely suggest reading all of them and then choosing for yourself. This is one extremely good zombie story that I am very pleased with.

No, the bar was not set too high!

Audiobook purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Interesting

I usually love this author and she's usually hooked me by the end of the first chapter. I just was not impressed by the narration. I could have done without all the music, and back ground noise. So i honestly am not sure if i liked just the story or not. The narration was such a distraction.

Narration with sound effects...

Would you try another book from Jacqueline Druga and/or Lee Alan?

Yes, I liked the story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

None in particular... Except maybe Grandma..

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes but the added sound effects were distracting during the story. At first I liked the novelty of them but about 3/4's of the way through they got annoying.

Do you think Immune needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No... Any book with alternate endings... Ended several ways already...

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the book.. Felt like the characters had real reactions.. Sound effects have to go...

Love it. very entertaining and emotional.

loved it. love the sound effects. enjoyed the alternate endings. Can't wait for more from this author

I enjoyed the book but became annoyed

The characters, are great. The narrator had me laughing at the sound of the old lady's voice. But when he used the voice for the black character, I became annoyed I felt as if he was thinking that this is the sound of a black man's voice. From the way that black characters were portrayed I in movies from the 20's - 70's. I quote you Jiiiiive Turkey, or "Yes su boss." The black character was ex-military and had rank but the narrator voiced him as being slow witted. Overall I love the book and I like the narrator, just not that voice with the Sargent.

A good idea but could be improved!

I had actually purchased this one sometime ago but got distracted by some great titles such as "Breeds" by Keith C Blackmore and my new favourite zombie series 'Arisen' by Michael Stephen Fuchs. To make matters worse I finally recalled where I had heard the author's name before. It was from her title 'Torn' which I had listen to about a year ago. I find that one ok, but not in my top 10 list by any means. So in reality this title really was up against it before I even pressed play.

The first thing I noticed was that the narration has sound affects. Despite what another reviewer has said about the narration of this one it is not narrated by a cast of people but rather just one narrator. The task this narrator had to pull off was challenging, multiple characters, and genders and ages. But here is the thing, and it is a big THING! The title states it is 6hours and 28 minutes long, but the narration is so slow that it has to be sped up, 1.5x speed at least. This cuts your listening time down even more. Furthermore, I got the feeling that the sound effects where used more as a padding to make the title longer... it was not uncommon for the narration to stop and have some 'errie' music playing for 10 seconds even at the fast speed. The sound effects I think can add a lot to a story. But in this one it just seemed pointless, the loop of sound effects is annoying and distracting and just made me wish that the story itself was actually longer. Because frankly I liked the story!

Despite how good the story maybe I found myself feeling a little annoyed paying full price for a title which is short to begin with, being made shorter because of the sound effects and the need to speed it up. I may not give up on the author just yet, but I will definitely be listening to the sample narration for I take another chance.

The ending also has multiple ending which you can listen to. I like this idea and wish other authors would also offer the same. However, back to my original 'time and length' complaint. I couldn't help but think the multiple endings was included to make the title a little bit longer.

No thumbs up from the fatman today. But if this is ever on special than it get at least one thumbs up

Why the live action sounds???

I get what she was trying to do, but it was so unnecessary. It added absolutely nothing to the storyline, and at times I found it distracting. It totally missed the mark on what she was going for. Plus the narrator kept pronouncing roof as rough, and it became very noticeable since it was said about 20 times in a very short span.