And Then I Woke Up

i want this exact book but something else instead of zombies

this book is really interesting and i found it quite enjoyable to read and i wonder what was really the truth at the end but honestly that’s where our own narrative comes into play !

“It’s a problem I have these days. Stories are addictive. I keep imagining futures for the world. I keep imagining I had a part in them, no matter how small. And then, I suppose, you could say I wake up and I see my place in relation to everything else is tiny, insignificant, mostly known for having followed the straightest path without thought and done harm to others. My favourite dreams are the ones in which I’m forgiven.” And Then I Woke Up takes place in a not-so-distant future where an atypical illness leaves monsters in its wake. Survivors arm themselves and seek refuge in groups. Fearing for their lives, boundaries are crossed, and lines begin to blur. Spence is one such individual. “Cured” and living at the Ironside rehabilitation facility, all he wants now is redemption, and he might just find it through a new inmate’s search for her own truth. I was drawn to this book from its colourful and interesting cover, and I’ve heard nothing but great things from my fellow reviewers. Post-apocalyptic stories can sometimes feel stale, and I do feel like The Walking Dead has really covered most of the possible storylines and messages about surviving after the end of the world. I think most people are fatigued and burned out by post-apocalyptic stories, but I think most people are tired of the typical survival stories and not the setting itself, especially when there are more interesting and thought-provoking stories to be told in more unique post-apocalyptic settings than what we’ve already seen. The beginning of this novel feels like being dropped into a season of The Walking Dead where the group of survivors have already settled and taken over a safe location, but slowly we learn more about this world and discover it’s different and unique on its own. I love how this story explores the idea of reality, narratives, and conspiracies. I loved how instead of a typical zombie narrative, we explore the idea that this plague that spread across the world changes people’s perceptions, and we can never truly know what is real and who is seeing what. I loved how the idea that the objective truth will be impossible to discern now more than ever, and I liked the idea that some of the “infected” that the characters see are other survivors, who are seeing them as the infected. I loved how this idea played with everything we see throughout the novel. Are our survivors the infected ones? Are the infected people we see throughout the novels really other survivors? Is the Ironside facility real, or are they all just infected sitting around an abandoned building? I love that we don’t get straight answers and I love how we aren’t revealed an objective truth. This novel clearly brings to mind our current situation with the global pandemic, and how difficult it is to discern the truth of anything anymore. Who gets to say what is real with so many conflicting voices in the fray? Which narrative can you trust, and who’s voice is the most important? Are we all infected (metaphorically and/or literally), or has our collective confusion reached far past our own scope and strangled the world? Has our own collective discord and chaos bled over to other countries and cultures? Either way, we don’t see each other for what we are anymore, and look to each other as only the enemy, much like the characters in this novel. Maybe the message is that we all need to wake up and see each other with understanding, see each other for who we really are. Nevertheless, I love that this novel doesn’t answer any of these questions or seriously plays into one idea or narrative, which is very reflective of the nuances of “truth” in real life. Most fiction that explores the global pandemic often does it in a way that doesn’t cover all the bases, and how could it, it’s still something that we as humans barely have a grasp on and it’s almost impossible to come together to even have a conversation about it. Why I think that this novel works is because it’s not necessarily dealing with expressed themes of pandemics, vaccines, and the controversies that surround these subjects. It explores the idea of narratives, reality, and perception, which allows the reader to fill in the metaphors and perceive for themselves what it all really means. This was genius on the author’s part. The post-apocalyptic setting and even the story itself was a vehicle for making the readers think about narratives themselves, and I’m surprised at how successfully that was pulled off here. I was surprised by how meta this book was and how much I enjoyed it. Had I known the ideas this novel would play around with and explore, I most likely wouldn’t have read it, but I’m so glad that I did. “One thing I should tell you about Val, is that he was never a destination. I found myself with him, but he wasn’t the flag on the horizon I steered toward. He wasn’t what I was looking for, he was someone I found on the way. And sometimes that’s enough. You find someone going the same direction as you are and it’s all the connection you need when the world had turned as much as it had.”

One of the most slanty and interesting takes on a zombie apocalypse book I have read in a good long while. It was absolutely not at all what I was expecting, in the very best of ways.

this is definitely a book you can re-read time and time again. it’s so mind boggling but also surprisingly thought provoking. I didn’t expect to enjoy it the way I did but I did. definitely recommend!!!! “Night means darkness, darkness means introspection, introspection dredges up all kinds of monsters and my god, do those bastards keep us busy until dawn.” “I was never ambitious, but I was practical. As a kid, I pretty much lived in the library. I read voraciously, because words on a page felt committed in a way words said out loud were not” “I never asked for this. I have never claimed to be special; I only want my life to be normal, easy. A world I can face each day without being overwhelmed with anxiety.” “And then I wake up and this, this is what happened. And then I wake up. And then.”

Yes yes yes. This book is so smart. Wow. What a clever way of discussing how we consume the world around us and what we chose to believe. Honestly, as a fan of zombie stories, this was one of the most fascinating, smart zombie stories I've ever read, and I know I'll keep thinking about it for a long time. If you like horror stories that make a strong critique on modern society this one is definitely for you. 4.5 stars because honestly I just needed to be in this world for so much longer. Thanks to Tordotcom for a free Galley in exchange for an honest review.