If We Survive This is my favorite book from Racquel Marie. It manages to be tender, heartbreaking, gory, and post-apocalyptic all at once. I teared up, laughed aloud, and had my heartbeat going into overdrive. Keep reading this book review of If We Survive This for my full thoughts.
Summary
Flora Braddock Paz is not the girl who survives. A colorful creative who spends as much time fearing death as she does trying to hide that fear from her loved ones, she’s always considered herself weak. But half a year into the global outbreak of a rabies mutation that transforms people into violent, zombielike “rabids,” she and her older brother Cain are still alive. With their mom dead, their dad missing, and their LA suburb left desolate, they form a new plan to venture out to the secluded Northern California cabin they vacationed in growing up―their best chance at a safe haven and maybe even seeing their dad again.
The dangers of the world have changed, but so has Flora. Still, their journey up the state is complicated by encounters with familiar faces, new allies, hidden truths, and painful memories of the family’s final time making this trip last year. And for Flora, one thing inevitably remains: No matter how far you run, death is never far behind.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
If We Survive This straddles the line between a post-apocalyptic story with zombies and dashes across countrysides with a contemporary story about OCD, family, and loss. For Flora and her OCD, she envisions her world ending everyday. Whether it be a loved one dying, an accident, or an infection, Flora sees the end of the world everywhere she goes. So when the world actually ends, when the Rabids transform in front of her eyes, she goes into overdrive. She becomes the person she has to be, hardens herself, and tries to manage her OCD at the end of the world as we know it.
But for Flora, her world has already ended. Because our world ends when we don’t expect it, when our mother dies, when our heart breaks. If We Survive This takes this macro situation of the world ending to examine Flora’s OCD and the ways she’s used to seeing the world ending, to predict the danger, to be cautious. It’s also a book about survival and family even in the ashes. The sacrifices and compromises we have to make in order to survive the next day. With chapters in the past and now, we can see the ways in which Flora’s changed – and stayed the same – and how many times she’s seen her world end.
In these past chapters, it feels tender even as we have the feeling in the pit of our stomach at the future. It’s full of memories, moments of softness, and the things we can never plan for. The small and big dangers our brain can’t tell between. This is my favorite of Marie’s books. It manages to be emotional as Marie explores the lies we tell to protect us, to give us hope, and to protect the ones we love. Find If We Survive This on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.
Book Tour Schedule
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