Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead

by H.J. Ramsay

CeCe Campbell wakes on the asphalt of a mall parking lot with two missing years and a body that no longer feels like her own. Infected with the Kill Virus on her 18th birthday, she’s among the first to be cured.

Rehabilitation teaches CeCe how to walk, how to speak, how to exist in a world rebuilding itself, but it cannot return what she lost. Her mother is dead. Her brother is missing. And the last memory before the dark is a bite she cannot escape.

When CeCe unexpectedly meets Derrick—the boy who infected her—she’s torn between anger and a strange, undeniable connection. Derrick doesn’t remember what he did. CeCe does, and the truth of that moment is something he’ll never get. Not when he already took everything from her.

But if there is to be life after the cure, CeCe will have to unwind the past, face what happened the night that bound them together, and decide if love and forgiveness can heal wounds deeper than the ones left by the undead.

Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead is a haunting post-apocalyptic love story about guilt, survival, and choosing connection in a world where nothing can be undone.

286 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 6, 2026

About the author

HJ Ramsay holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is an award-winning author. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Gold Man Review, a West Coast literary journal, and has a background in Psychology and Criminal Justice with dual bachelor’s degrees. Passionate about storytelling that explores the human experience, she crafts narratives that blend emotion, imagination, and depth. When she’s not writing or editing, she enjoys diving into the worlds of speculative fiction and literary fiction alike.

Reviews

[Get Your Tinsel in a Tangle · Rating 4 out of 5]

CeCe wakes up in a mall parking lot after spending two years infected with the Kill Virus, and her dad basically has to give her the world’s worst orientation packet. Great news, you’re cured. Bad news, civilization fell apart while you were busy being undead, your mom is dead, your brother is missing, and your old life has been fully discontinued. She was eighteen when she got infected. Now she’s twenty, her veterinarian dad somehow helped discover the cure, and CeCe has to relearn walking, talking, eating, and existing in a body that feels like somebody borrowed it for two years and returned it with absolutely no explanation for the mileage.

And this is where Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead got me, because the zombie apocalypse is basically over and CeCe is like, cool, I still have several follow-up questions. Everyone wants to move into recovery mode while she’s standing there thinking, recovery to WHAT? Her tennis scholarship is gone. Her family is shattered. Two entire years are missing. Her dad desperately wants his daughter back, except the daughter he remembers had a mother and a brother and plans and functioning motor skills. You cannot just reboot this woman and act surprised when the desktop looks different.

Then Derrick shows up. Derrick was infected too. Derrick is cured too. Derrick is also the boy who bit CeCe on her eighteenth birthday and kicked off this entire nightmare. And Derrick remembers NONE OF IT. Naturally, these two develop feelings for each other because apparently surviving the zombie apocalypse was not enough emotional labor for CeCe. Now she has to look at a guy she likes and carry the private knowledge that his teeth are the reason she lost two years of her life. Dating was already terrible. We did not need to add bite-related trauma.

The thing is, Derrick wasn’t himself when he infected her. He doesn’t remember doing it. He’s recovering from his own missing time, which leaves CeCe holding this enormous anger toward someone who has no memory of the thing she cannot forget. I kept bouncing between TELL HIM and absolutely do not tell this man while he is trying to eat lunch. There is simply no smooth conversational transition into, “I really like you, and also your mouth fundamentally altered the trajectory of my existence.”

Meanwhile, humanity survived an outbreak of flesh-eating people and immediately returned to its other favorite pastime, judging strangers. CeCe goes back to school for her GED and meets Olivia, whose religious group believes the virus was divine population control and the Cured should not exist. MA’AM. We have JUST stopped eating each other. Could everyone maybe take a long weekend before inventing a new social hierarchy? CeCe is barely figuring out how to be a person again and now strangers want her to defend the theological implications of not being dead.

What really snuck up on me was everything CeCe is grieving that technically isn’t a person. Tennis. College. Being eighteen. Assuming her family would still be there tomorrow. That dumb, ordinary certainty that your life will keep moving in roughly the direction you planned. Everyone around her treats survival like the finish line, and CeCe keeps discovering that surviving something and getting your life back are absolutely not the same thing. Oof. Anyway, back to the zombie boyfriend before I start crying into the margarita salt.

There were definitely moments when this book dropped something emotionally radioactive into the room and then kept walking while I was still three chapters back yelling, “HELLO? ARE WE NOT DISCUSSING THAT?” Some of the family revelations deserved more time for me, and CeCe and Derrick are carrying enough relationship baggage to shut down baggage claim at LaGuardia. Sometimes I was completely invested in them. Sometimes I wanted to confiscate everyone’s flirting privileges until a licensed therapist had entered the building.

But CeCe kept me with her. She’s angry, lonely, stubborn, occasionally exhausting, and trying to assemble a human being out of whatever the apocalypse didn’t take. And I liked that love isn’t treated like some magical second cure. Derrick cannot give her those years back. Her dad cannot want their old family into existence. CeCe cannot forgive her way into becoming eighteen again. The cure fixed the zombie problem. Everything else is apparently a group project.

Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead is a 3.5-star read for me. Sad, weird, hopeful, occasionally completely unhinged, and much more interested in what surviving costs than in the actual zombies. And I’m sorry, but dating the man who accidentally zombified you is such advanced relationship territory that I am not qualified to weigh in. Couples counseling needs continuing education credits for this.

Huge thanks to Red Rogue Press and NetGalley for the ARC. I thought you were giving me a zombie romance. Instead I got grief, forgiveness, family trauma, post-apocalyptic rehabilitation, and the most unbeatable argument-ending sentence in romantic history: “You literally bit me on my birthday.” Nobody is coming back from that.

[Emily Capri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

The premise for Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead was instantly so fascinating to me. It sounded SO cool and unlike anything I'd ever read before. I went in so badly wanting to love this book but I struggled. Cece wakes in hospital after being cured from a virus that essentially turned her (and half the world) into a "zombie" for 2years. She wakes at 20 thinking her 18th birthday was yesterday and has to adjust to a completely new world ravaged by a virus that almost destroyed it and humanity. Now that there's a cure, people are slowly being cured and the world is slowly rebuilding. Cece struggles to deal with the trauma of losing 2years of her life as well as everything that happened during those 2years both to the world and to people she loves.

The book honestly felt rushed to me. It went so fast with the story advancing so quickly that I didn't feel I had a chance to take things in as they happened. I did enjoy the story though and found the world-building was good, I just wanted to see more. There were so many interesting and unique things happening all around and I would've loved to see more of them. But it was done well and I felt like I had a good picture of what Cece's world was like.

The way Cece was feeling really made sense just all throughout the book. The way she felt about the losses she experienced, the way she was trying to cope with things happening around her, the way she was trying to process all the trauma. There were elements of some of the characters that didn't feel super genuine for the character though. Some of the decisions her Dad made really didn't feel like they matched the type of person and type of Dad we'd been led to believe he was. Certain choices or the timing of telling Cece certain things just felt really out of character and kind of frustrated me. Derrick was a sweetheart though and I loved all the little things he did to support Cece and make her smile.

I did enjoy the book and it did pull me in to an extent, just not fully because of the writing style. It was a fairly simplistic, tween/younger YA style of writing i felt. But then the story involved some very adult scenes all throughout so it was definitely an adult book. But that's more a me preference, not a failing of the author. The way the author wrote the author's note at the end I thought was such a fantastic writing style and I think I would've enjoyed the book more if it had been written that way. But I'm sure lots of people will love the writing style of the book!

The storyline of the book, the ideas and world and characters were really interesting, I just wish we got to see more of all of it. I wish the book was a bit longer, the pacing slowed down a bit. But I can also for sure see people who would enjoy it the way it is!

It is worth noting that i think maybe the ebook needs to be better formatted or something, just because for me at least, it didn't look amazing. The chapter starts were a bit choppy graphic wise and the first letter of the first words were always above the rest of the text. I don't know if that was the case for everyone though, I was reading on a 3year old base model Kindle.

[Insert Name Here · Rating 5 out of 5]

**What happens when the world ends, the cure is found, and you still have to figure out how to live?**

## ✶ PRE-READING ✶

Zombie stories usually have one fairly fundamental problem: once you're a zombie, you're dead.

*Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead* takes that idea in a completely different direction. Here, the zombie outbreak is caused by a virus, and the discovery of a cure means that some of the people infected can actually come back.

That immediately made me curious. What happens to the people who return? What happens when the world they knew has moved on without them?

## ✶ POST-READING ✶

**As I thought...** the idea is fantastic.

The Kill Virus essentially freezes the body's processes, which means that once the virus itself can be cured, doctors can rush to repair whatever physical damage the person sustained while infected. Some people can't be saved because their injuries are too severe, but many can return to life.

CeCe is one of them.

And I loved the practical details of that process. The first Reviveds are treated in a makeshift hospital in a **Costco**, which is exactly the sort of detail that makes a post-apocalyptic story feel real to me. Of course that's where you'd put a temporary hospital: enormous building, lots of supplies, parking for days.

CeCe's experience of coming back also feels emotionally convincing. Everything she has known has changed, and the teenage angst that might normally be manageable has been turned up to twelve because she has lost her mother, her brother is missing, she's missed two years of her life, and she has to learn how to exist in a body that doesn't quite feel like hers anymore.

I'd absolutely love to see this as a miniseries. I think the process of CeCe learning to walk, speak and live again could be incredibly powerful on screen.

**It surprised me by...** how much I wanted more from the world around CeCe.

The character work is strong, and the central idea is fascinating, but I occasionally found myself asking questions the story didn't quite answer.

For example, we're told that people who survived the two years outside military protection are unusual enough to have their own designation: **Survivors**. That made me wonder about the population as a whole. If surviving independently was so rare, how many people are now Revived?

Then there are smaller things that kept pulling me out. CeCe's father spent most of the outbreak on a military base working on the cure. Her mother died early, and her brother was missing, so there was nobody living in their house.

Yet when they return, the house hasn't been ransacked or attacked, despite another family on the same street being Survivors.

People are still driving cars and motorbikes after two years of societal collapse, which is a common feature of zombie fiction but one that always makes me wonder how the logistics are supposed to work.

None of these things are necessarily problems for every reader. Most people will quite reasonably accept the world as presented and carry on with the story.

But for me, they stood out because **I liked the premise so much that I wanted to understand how the world worked**.

That's ultimately my feeling about the book: I really enjoyed it, and I think the concept is excellent. I just wanted the worldbuilding to go one layer deeper.

## ✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦

**Book Recommendation:** *The Girl with All the Gifts* by M. R. Carey, for another take on infection, humanity and what happens when the boundaries between “infected” and “human” become much less straightforward.

**TV or Movie Recommendation:** *The Last of Us*, particularly for the way it uses an apocalyptic setting to explore grief, relationships and what people owe each other rather than making the infected the entire story.

## ✧ VIBE CHECK ✧

**A colour palette:** faded hospital white, asphalt grey, washed-out blue and the green of new growth pushing through abandoned places.

**A soundtrack:** quiet piano and distant electronic sounds, with sudden bursts of something louder when memories break through.

**A season:** early spring, when the world is beginning again but everything still looks damaged from winter.

**A mood:** disoriented, grieving, tender and cautiously hopeful.

**A scent:** disinfectant, dust, rain on concrete and the faint smell of something growing where it shouldn't.

**A texture:** hospital sheets against skin that doesn't quite feel like your own.

## ★ TAROT CARD PULLED ★

**The Tower.**

The Tower is often read as catastrophe, but its deeper meaning is about the sudden destruction of the structures we thought were permanent.

For CeCe, almost everything familiar disappears at once.

Her body changes. Her mother is gone. Her brother is missing. Two years of her life have vanished. The world she remembers has been dismantled while she was unable to experience the change herself.

And then, extraordinarily, she is given the chance to begin again.

The Tower doesn't promise that rebuilding will be easy.

It simply says that **the old structure is gone, and something new has to be built in its place.**

## ✦ THE TRUE QUESTION ✦

**How do you build a life when everything you knew has changed?**

CeCe doesn't simply have to recover from being infected.

She has to recover from being **left behind by her own life**.

The world has changed without her, the people she loved have changed or disappeared, and even her own body no longer feels entirely familiar.

The cure can bring her back.

It can't give her back the life she lost.

So she has to work out what comes next.

## Final Thoughts

*Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead* publishes on the **6th of October**. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really blindsided me with emotions I am not entirely sure I was ready to feel (Which is a compliment!)

Ramsay approached Zombie lore with a unique perspective. Not only does it focus on what happens AFTER the cure, but our narrator, CeCe, is both someone who survived being infected and the daughter of the man who found the cure. She wakes up after losing 2 years of her life and discovering that everything has changed. Her father is a hero (to most), her mother is dead, and her brother and friends are missing.

I cannot stress enough how well Ramsay expressed the experience of life after something traumatic. Alienation from peers, stagnant depression, guilt, etc., are all a part of CeCe's reintroduction to the world. The writing is fairly simplistic, but I actually felt like that was a significant "win". As an adult who has gone through some things, it resonated with me fully and likely helped me fill in gaps in some areas. I think a younger audience would find a kindred spirit in CeCe, and this is fully accessible to them.

Side Note: This book does include sex in some of its scenes. HOWEVER, it is not "sexy" or graphic in any significant way. Personally, it also felt very much like it supported the overall story and was necessary and/or beneficial to CeCe's emotional journey.

Derrick was 100% the gem of this story and is the romantic interest. I don't want to give away too much, but I felt like his connection with CeCe was so strong, and in the author's note at the end, she discusses how zombie stories are partially scary as they represent the idea of a loved one turning on you, and I thought his role in this was such an interesting take on that. He is also just an absolute darling. Go Derrick. (I also liked that he shows a different type of traumatic response, someone who finds closure through positivity and hope.)

There are some criticisms, though these are not extreme. My biggest complaint, without giving too many spoilers, was CeCe's Father's behaviour. At first, I really did like that it showed the disparity between someone working through pain and someone who has dealt with their own life and version of it. I did feel like he sort of pushed it and bordered on a lack of empathy at times, particularly because of how this dynamic completed its arc with relatively neatly tied strings. In general, I have seen comments about pacing, and that really didn't feel odd to me until things started to wrap up to end on a non-bleak note. I think the rapid feeling I got towards the end is fairly common in similar stories, so that was a really minor thing.

Overall, I think this was a beautifully told story with a really unique take on the genre that could very much appeal to a vast audience. It isn't incredibly long, so it doesn't have a major commitment factor (Took me a few hours? Not sure exactly, but with a lot of other stuff going on it took me 2 days in total to read).

This is a 4-star rating on Goodreads, but I did give it 4.5 stars on Storygraph, and it was a tough call to round up or down. Ultimately, I think the Father just bothered me so damn much that I couldn't bring myself to give it 5 stars, BUT that in no way compromises the overall success of this story.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read the ARC! All opinions in this review are honest and my own; I'm just really ADHD, and doing these ARCs keeps me engaged in reading even when I really don't want to, haha.

[Selena · Rating 3 out of 5]

✧˖°. ⤷ Thank you to NetGalley & H.J. Ramsay for the ARC. I sincerely apologize for the delay in getting this review out - better late than never! Honest thoughts as always, from me to you ♡

☁️ author: H.J. Ramsay
☁️ genre: post-apocalyptic romance / zombie fiction
☁️ mood: haunting / quiet / melancholy / tender
☁️ tropes: zombie apocalypse / enemies to lovers / forgiveness and healing / grief / second chances

🌙 Mini Synopsis:
CeCe Campbell wakes up on the asphalt of a mall parking lot with two years missing and a body that no longer feels like her own. She is one of the first people cured of the Kill Virus, but the cure cannot give back what she lost. Then she meets Derrick, the boy who infected her, and he has no memory of what he did. Now CeCe has to decide if love and forgiveness can heal wounds deeper than any bite.

🍃 thoughts
What hooked me about this one is how it handles the zombie genre. There are no hordes and no blood-and-guts action. Instead, it focuses on what happens to regular people after the outbreak, and I found that really compelling. Ramsay does such a good job capturing the eerie, quiet devastation of trying to get back to normal when the old world is completely gone. The way grief and time affect each character differently was so well done, and the internal battles of the cured felt every bit as gripping as any monster chasing them. CeCe is raw in all the right ways. After losing so much time and then being handed a cure, of course she is confused and angry, and I understood her completely.

I will say it did not fully work for me everywhere. The worldbuilding around the virus and how the cure actually works felt underdeveloped, and I wanted more technical detail to sink my teeth into. The middle stretch also stalled a bit for me, and the heavy introspection cost the story some of the momentum I expect from an outbreak narrative. A few moments felt rushed while others fell flat, and there were scenes I wished had been expanded before the story moved on. CeCe’s reactions also annoyed me at times, though she grows so much that I did not hold it against her for long.

Overall this is a character-driven, tender take on the zombie trope that trades jump scares for real emotional weight. It is a thoughtful look at guilt, healing and second chances, and I was quite satisfied with the ending. A solid read that proves surviving the end of the world is only the first step in learning how to live again.

🌸 favorite things
♡ The focus on life after the outbreak - quiet, emotional and so different from the usual zombie story
♡ CeCe’s anger and confusion - raw, honest and completely understandable
♡ The forgiveness thread between CeCe and Derrick - messy, complicated and tender 🖤

✧ verdict from my little reading nook → ★★★☆☆

[Shelly Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

If you’re looking for vibes like In the Flesh crossed with the drama and mystery of The 100, then Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead by H.J. Ramsay might be for you.

I received an ARC of this ebook from NetGalley. It’s set to be published on October 6, 2026.

The story follows CeCe, who was turned into a zombie on her 18th birthday outside a restaurant. She remembers nothing until she wakes up in a parking lot two years later. By then, her father has discovered a cure, her mother is dead, and her brother is missing. As CeCe tries to adjust to this new version of the world, she comes face-to-face with Derrick, the guy who infected her. He has no memory of infecting her, and while CeCe feels immediate anger toward him, she also feels an undeniable connection. Derrick is equally drawn to her, and from there the story unfolds into a horror romance.

I read this one quickly and overall enjoyed it. I’d rate it around 3.5 stars.

The reason it leans closer to 3 than 4 for me is that it felt more YA than I expected. It doesn’t seem to be marketed that way, but I really think it should be. CeCe can come across as bratty and stubborn, though honestly, a lot of her reactions make sense given what she’s been through. She’s grieving her old life, missing her friends, mourning the loss of her tennis scholarship, and being pushed to move on much faster than feels realistic. Her father in particular frustrated me a lot—his expectations for how quickly CeCe should adjust, get her GED, and start rebuilding her life felt incredibly tone-deaf.

One of the strongest parts of the book, though, is how it explores the treatment of zombies, both cured and infected. Some survivors are surprisingly compassionate, treating them with the same care and dignity they’d show someone recovering from trauma or injury. Others are fearful and hostile, which also feels believable. Even the cured themselves have different views on the infected, and I really liked watching CeCe’s perspective evolve over the course of the story.

The climax wasn’t especially surprising, but I still found the world and character dynamics engaging enough to keep reading. And while this is marketed as horror romance, the romance is actually very sweet and pretty innocent. There’s very little spice here, so if you’re expecting a darker or steamier horror romance, this isn’t that. Still, it worked well for me as a palate cleanser: light on the romance heat, but still with enough horror and bloodiness to keep the zombie premise fun.

If you like:

· zombies with a more emotional/human angle

· post-apocalyptic recovery stories

· sweet, innocent romance mixed with horror

· YA-feeling character drama

…then this one is worth checking out.

[Waldkauzz · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a post-apocalyptic, partially post-zombie world, society has begun rehabilitating the virus' victims after a cure was discovered. Such a patient is the young woman, CeCe, who was bitten shortly before her graduation and before her promised life could bloom. The story follows her navigating her new reality, physically as well as psychologically challenging, as she comes across the boy, who bit her originally and doomed her life.

This YA/New Adult is fast-paced and a quick read, never catches itself being boring. Which is an achievement, considering a huge portion of the book is just the protagonist's love story and her coming to terms with her changed life.
Furthermore, the novel has a ton of fun exploring how a society after a zombie-driven collapse reforms and especially examining the mind state and trauma of the ex-undead. It does a great job of switching the genre from a well-established trope (zombie flicks being primarily action and survivor stories) to a more introspective and slice-of-life one. (But don't worry, the book still has its share of action scenes and questionable governments.)

The lowered star rating is initially due to two things: first, the writing, which was a tad too simplistic for my preference. Secondly, the characters are alright enough, but a lot of them remain surface-level deep or even sometimes cartoonishly evil; there are a lot of characters, like CeCe's young stepmother or her school bully, who could have benefited from more inspection. The worst case for me is the lead boy, who is ... nice enough, but has not much personality beyond caring about other people's opinions. Sometimes I fear books are afraid of bringing conflict into their character's relationships.
But, what solidifies my lowered star rating is the last third of the book, which, in my opinion, rushes to the end and skips over the most interesting pieces of conflict and questions (for example, one character's relationship with an extremist group is glossed over).

Ultimately, a quick read in a familiar setting but unfamiliar genre. Even considering its flaws, it's fun. Thanks to NetGalley and Red Rogue Press for an eARC for an honest review!

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC.

I'm a biiig fan of the zombie genre, so this book immediately caught my eye after seeing its description. A girl who gets cured of her zombie infection, waking up without two years of memories, and then falling for the very guy that bit her??? the drama!!

I did enjoy the worldbuilding here. I think the way the Infected were cured was a fun take on the zombie trope, and I liked how the 'post-Cure' world interacted with one another. There are several key groups, mainly three, which are the Survivors, the formerly Infected, and then the 'Revies'. The interactions between each group made for a reaaally compelling read, and I wish we could have seen more of it. But, besides that...

... I was a bit underwhelmed. While I still liked this book, it was reminiscent of a Wattpad story, being that it was simple and easily digestible (at least to me). The characters, their dialogue, and decisions often fell a bit flat, especially when it came to CeCe and her dad. It made for frustrating interactions that felt forced (because would her dad really do some of those things, especially after the way he's been characterized? idk.) I also thought Derrick, while a genuine, sweet male lead for once, was only there to build CeCe up for her own character arc - he didn't really feel like his own person to me, with no real ambitions or goals.

I think that this book could have been fleshed out a lot more, and I would definitely be interested in reading more stories that expand on this world, even if we follow different characters: i.e., What happened to Riley and Leyton? Will Derrick be reunited with his family?, Like I said, the context and worldbuilding is so fun and has so much potential!! Pls pls pls give me more!!

3/5 stars

[Katie_thebookslayer · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

I was given an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CeCe was out celebrating her 18th birthday when a sick man bit her on the hand and changed everything. Losing a chunk of time and memories as well as her hand, she wakes up inside a makeshift hospital inside a Costco inside a body that doesn’t feel like her own. The virus spread quickly and people changed into zombies fast.

This was a fast paced story for the most part and the story felt well rounded and whole. The main character CeCe was so raw after all she went through. After so long being a mindless being and then being given a cure for it, I think we would all be confused and angry at the time we lost.

For some reason, she reminded me of season 1 Elena Gilbert from The Vampire Diaries, trying to navigate going back to school after the loss of her parents and things just feeling so different for her. This was almost comforting how familiar the character felt and I liked her right away.

The virus that swept through the world took a lot with it, but this story shows how things and people rebuild and learn to live life again after trauma and life changing events.

The note from the author at the end was so heartfelt and I appreciated the story a whole lot more once I read this addition. I feel grateful to have been given an opportunity to read this story and I hope to read more of their work one day!

It’s out now!

[Krystelle (based on the novel by Stephen King) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I am in two minds about this book. There is a part of me that really enjoyed it, but at the same time, I did find that it didn’t quite push things far enough. As a concept, it’s fantastic- we see the idea of zombies being pulled back from being undead, and the impacts of those.

Cece as a main character is really well written and developed. She was relatable and all of her experiences made sense given her circumstances. Her relationship with Derrick was well done, and I was appreciative that we didn’t end up ‘instalove’ as readers.

There could have been a little more of a focus on some of the darker elements, but I understand why it didn’t linger on them too long. I also would have loved a little more description of the mechanics of the zombies and their workings as well- just to give a little bit more flavour to the world.

I did think there were some pacing issues, particularly with the ending, which seemed quite quick compared to the rest of the novel. It’s definitely written in a bit of a young adult way, which I felt was a little to the detriment of the story.

All together though, this was a really fun read, and it had some incredibly poignant moments. I felt it was well worth the read, and it was definitely a new twist on the zombie genre as a whole.

[erica utti-hodge ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

thank you to NetGalley for this ARC! 3 stars.

this is a solid YA horror, and (predictably) leans heavy on the romance aspect--though it is not very explicit. it is a very interesting concept (what happens once zombies are "cured"?) but i felt like CeCe's character ARC was not very satisfying, and most of the characters felt very one-dimensional and unrelated to one another. for example, the main character feels bad for having a relationship with someone new not knowing if her previous boyfriend made it, but completely forgets to even open the gift her previous boyfriend left before he (maybe?) died.

i would have really liked to get more flashbacks of cece with her family or friends to make me care for them all more, because they seemed like stock characters that i was just supposed to trust she cared for.

however, i think that despite being medium paced and not very scary, the pacing is really good. even though i wasn't always scared for cece's life, i always wanted to read more; the author does a really great job at making the book move forward in a way that makes sense and is easily digestible for the reader. i think that this book would have really benefited from an extra 50-75 pages of background information, but overall was a fun read that i think younger readers would really enjoy.

[Kelsey | KLS Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some books that feature zombies are gruesome in nature, this one more so focuses on accepting that zombies exist and what happens after a cure is found.

CeCe was likable throughout the story and I felt that her emotions were 100% valid, especially when it came to her father and trying to make a life for herself after she was Infected. I also felt that missing memories did influence her reactions and decisions in some of the situations she found herself in. While this isn't a deeply emotional book, I did like how CeCe's father was able to show that you CAN move on from tragedy. Even if what he did may have come off as insensitive in the beginning, I felt that the more CeCe interacted with her dad, Derrick, and other friends...the more she realized that life could go back to being normal again. I also liked that he seemed to not only have his daughter's best interests in mind but others.

There was a plot twist in this book and it seemed to really help CeCe and her father heal a part of themselves that felt broken.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. Highly recommend to readers who are looking for a book about zombies that isn't overly gory and one where love CAN heal things after feeling broken for so long. There is some romance in this book, but it's more of a slow burn subplot.

Thank you Red Rogue Press for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

[Amanda’s Reading Corner · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this review, I want to be as fair as possible, because I truly believe people will in general enjoy this book. This gives off fantastic dysoptian vibes and a society rebuilding themselves. For me, I dealt with formating issues. And while that generally does not bother me (especially if it is an ARC), it was happening every other page and it completely through me out of the story. On top of that, I just don't think CeCe was being fair given the circumstances (with her father, life after infection when she didn't even live through the infection the same way) and it made it difficult to connect with her. I think I definitely want to give this book another go, but just not at this moment.

That said, I belive H.J Ramsay did a fantastic job showing us the aftermath of an outbreak. Of life rebuilding from a traumatic event and the relationships that occur between the infected versus those who survived. While the writing style remained pretty simplistic, I think the story needed it. They are just working to go back to life and that brings its own sense of depression, guilt, trust or lack of. That in and of itself is well done.

But remeber, just because it wasn't for me, doesn't mean it won't be for you.

[Sarah Pirtle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quick, fast paced book. I thought CeCe was a good FMC who, despite not being scrappy as they usually are in these kinds of books, managed to be quick on her feet in the situations. I liked that our protagonist wasn’t a “not like other girls” type. She was just a teenage girl adjusting to a new reality. This book deals with grief, not just of people, but of who she once was. Derrick was a nice, but not overly explored MMC. I wish we could have seen a bit more of who he was before. I loved the idea of the Revies, and being a southerner, I never considered that a large group of people would connect zombie apocalypse to Armageddon. But it makes total sense!
Some things I didn’t love:
I didn’t care for the Lauren plot line. I think it would have been a lot easier to understand if the timeline of CeCe being a zombie had been longer than 2 years.
I wish we got to explore more of the CAVE.
I wish we would have found out what happened to Derricks family.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I think it could have been better with more world building.

[glubglubimafish_2.0 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cece was just a normal girl; going to school, tennis practice, hanging out with her friends and boyfriend. Graduation not far away a scholarship lined up; everything was very simple, until it wasn’t.
She wakes to find that everything has been stripped from her. Her friends, boyfriend, mother are all dead, her brother missing but most likely dead as well. The Kill Virus has swept through and though her father managed to find a cure for the Infected not everyone could be resurrected. Since Cece’s injuries were not severe she was able to make a recovery.
Now stuck in a world that’s trying to build back to normal she’s having to navigate through her feelings of being an ex-Infected,; losing everything she knew, her dad’s new relationship, and her feelings toward the man who bit and turned her.
This was such an emotional roller coaster, mostly a grief heavy book but I think that’s what makes it so good; I’m not a huge fan of zombie stuff but I really connected with this one.
Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead by H.J. Ramsay coming back from the dead October 6, 2026!

[anueliina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you for NetGalley for providing an ARC to read and review.

First thing first, I absolutely love the title of this book. I feel like the title by itself promises you some zombi action. The blurb sounded interesting even if I normally don't read zombi books.

But the story inside the covers.. I wanted to like it more. Some parts of the story fell little flat. The idea was there, what happens people when they are cured after zombi has bitten them? The themes this book has going are great; how to survive and navigate a world where people are divided into groups based on whether they have been infected by zombies and whether they have been lucky enough to receive treatment.

I would have wanted to know more. More about Derrick and his family, more about Leyton.. just more. I would have loved to see more growth on certain characters, but overall this was enjoyable book. The ending was okay, maybe a bit rushed.

Solid three star read that leans ya/na side of the books. Some darker themes, but overall good book. Do not regret reading it.

[Michelle Lott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a great time reading Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead. CeCe was a highly relatable protagonist, and I really enjoyed H.J. Ramsay’s unique take on the zombie apocalypse. The concept felt fresh, and the story hooked me from the very beginning.

That said, I would have loved more world-building, particularly regarding life before the apocalypse. I also found myself wanting deeper insight into some of the supporting characters, especially Dr. Campbell and the others living in CAVE, as well as Derrick. Their stories felt intriguing, and I would have enjoyed spending more time with them.

Overall, this was a fast-paced, engaging, and easy read with an original premise that kept me invested throughout. Fans of zombie fiction looking for something a little different should definitely give this one a try.

Thank you to NetGalley, H.J. Ramsay, and Red Rogue Press for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Opal E · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like zombie post-cure stories.
There are some really interesting takes out there, and the author of this book starts with the interesting premise of, how do we live with ourselves coming back from being a monster?

This book is very light on the post-apocalyptic side of things and very much more on the "small" internal story of a cured patient who actually knows very little about what happened and how things run now. It's an everyday story + zombies.

Cece was 18 when she was turned into a zombie and though years have passed, she wakes with that same entitled mentality... and I can't say it didn't grate on me. I understand Cece had to be flawed to grow, but she was extremely frustrating to follow.

On the positive, the story is fast, with a smooth writing style and pace, probably more geared towards new adults who like cosy fantasy with just a touch of dark.

[alivia]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
DNF at 30%.

I simply couldn't connect with the writing of this book. It came off as very juvenile, with characters (CeCe and Olivia in particular) coming off as far younger than they actually are. Nothing in the book is actually explained, with words capitalized as though they're supposed to mean something to me. The Kill Virus, the cure, all of it is very vaguely described. Chapters end very abruptly as well, causing a disconnect while reading. There is far more telling then showing (for eg - CeCe's numbness being explicitly mentioned over and over again instead of mentioned once and shown other times.) I also think this book would read much better if it were in the First Person point of view.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt a little rushed and I had a hard time getting into it. The chapters are also really short and probably could have been expanded on to not make everything seem so like "BAM, and this. BAM, and that." It was just information overload. By chapter 6, we're already 122 days past where chapter 1 started. That's what I mean by it feels rushed.

Aside from the rushed feel. I did appreciate the writer going through CeCe's feelings about loss. She woke up, missing two years time, and her dad just keep dropping all these bombs of everyone who has died, including her mom. She has quite a bit of grieving to do.

I think I would have rated it higher if the author had slowed down a bit and spent more time expanding thoughts and world building.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to netgally and the publishers for the ARC

Love & other cures for the recently undead was a solid 4 stars for me.

Personally I found this a refreshing take on zombies & I thought gave a great answer to the question “What would happen if we could cure the zombie apocalypse?”

I wizzed straight through this in an afternoon and for me I felt like this book told the story it needed to without adding unnecessary filler & being too long.

I think it would of been great to have a bit more world building, what’s happening outside of the MCs space? How are the rest of the world coping?



Overall an enjoyable read though I will say the Ebook does need some editing with the formatting issues

[beverleybookish · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️
Post apocalyptic YA Romance
The blurb of this book grabbed my attention right away as I enjoy post apocalyptic stories.
This has great pacing, and I enjoy following our FMC CeCe as she now navigates the new world 2yrs after she wakes up from being bitten on her 18th birthday, living with grief and starting over as a “cured” she bumps into Derrick and realises who he is.
Derrick was my favourite character and the book really picked up for me when he came into the story.

“Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead is a haunting post-apocalyptic love story about guilt, survival, and choosing connection in a world where nothing can be undone.”

This was a solid YA horror/romance.
And was a great read set to be released 6th October 2026.
Thank you NetGalley & publisher for this ARC.

[Abi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and H.J Ramsay for the ARC.

I'm a sucker for an Apocalyptic/zombie book, and I really enjoyed this take on the genre!

I loved how this started, it felt really immersive and hooked me from the first page. It kept my interest throughout, and whilst I did find some parts a bit rushed I enjoyed every minute of it.

I do wish there was an extra chapter or two at the end though. It definitely felt like the most rushed part for me which was a shame as I wanted to see more.

A great read overall, I'm looking forward to reading more by the author in future.

[Lauren Hanstine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not sure if I have ever loved a zombie related book more than I did this one.

I cried more than once while reading this book! The characters were so relatable, and I REALLY wanted to see good things happen for everyone.

I genuinely loved the main character. She had her moments where she seemed “bratty,” but considering all she went through, I dismissed them without judgement.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone. :) if you love Zombies, or books about getting back to normal after an outbreak, or found family books, or just ones that end in a warm and squishy way, this one is for you.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the advanced copy to read and review!

[Serendipity · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy to review.

I wasn't sure this book would be for me, but the premise got my attention. I like the fast pace of the story, told in first person by CeCe, the FMC, who is cured 2 years after being infected. We see what has happened to the world through her eyes, and the feelings of someone who needs to navigate all after losing so much.

There are a lot of feelings, and it was very well written by the author. I sometimes got annoyed by the main character reactions, but she has a growth through the story and I was quite satisfied with the ending.

A good book for this season, very entertaining and full of emotions. I really enjoyed it.

[M.E. Betts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of advance copy from NetGalley.

I chose this ARC based solely on the title. Once I received it and realised it was zombies I panicked a little. I don’t do zombies, they freak me out…..

This isn’t a story about zombies, it’s a story about what comes after. It’s an emotional journey through loss, grief, love, friendship and forgiveness.
Yes, it’s a love story, but it’s also so much more.
In a post-apocalyptic world where memories are gone, loved ones are missing, and no one can be trusted, it dives into reflection, vulnerability and living for the future, not the past.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This incredible, original story is extremely well-written and a page-turner. Imagine, turning 18 the day a “zombie” virus destroys life as we know it.
CeCe went through many trials and tribulations, and matured to a level many people ever reach. Derrick is fantastic, he works tirelessly to help bring CeCe out of her funk.
I absolutely loved everything about this exciting story, and found it an enjoyable, fascinating read. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

arc review

Thankyou NetGalley & H J Ramsay for this arc

I really enjoyed this one, being "woken up" after her undeadliness has been cured Cece struggles to come to terms with everything that has happened,
Her mother is gone. Her brother is missing and she is expected to carry on as normal.

I thought Ceces character was really well written, really believable as someone who has been through alot of trauma and trying to figure out her place in a world she doesnt now understand.

I dont want to write too much and give to much away as this one should really be enjoyed not knowing too much

[Elena · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

A post-apocalyptic story centered on the emotional damage and trauma left behind by a destroyed society and deep personal loss.

Step by step, Cece faces her past and tries to move forward, working to rebuild the relationships around her while searching for her little brother.

The story balances the raw, grim reality of a ruined world with moments of genuine hope, warmth, and healing. It’s a beautifully written, character-driven story about grief, found family, and learning to live again when everything seems lost.

[Rachel Beachy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this ARC from Netgalley. This was not a favorite personally. I did like how the author ended the book and the tone it ended on. Not sure I will read this again but I do think the level of realism to what it would be like in a zombie post apocalyptic world would be like was very accurate. I loved that the author also had you thinking about the other side of story with Zombie perspectives after they are healed.