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Phoenix
Deidre Flemming should be spending her time worrying about high school, boys, and her frustrating lack of breasts.
Instead she is forced into a world of horrific monsters, when a previously contained virus turns the adults around her into flesh devouring monsters. Deidre must band together with a misfit group of survivors, (none of which is over the age of eighteen) . She struggles to find her place midst the intimidating leader of the group, a little boy with many secrets, the attractive Andy, and a mysterious, but kind "goth boy". Can she rise from the ashes of this disaster and find the hero she never guessed she could become?
This is the first self published book by prolific WI author Julian Greystoke (aka Emily L)
Instead she is forced into a world of horrific monsters, when a previously contained virus turns the adults around her into flesh devouring monsters. Deidre must band together with a misfit group of survivors, (none of which is over the age of eighteen) . She struggles to find her place midst the intimidating leader of the group, a little boy with many secrets, the attractive Andy, and a mysterious, but kind "goth boy". Can she rise from the ashes of this disaster and find the hero she never guessed she could become?
This is the first self published book by prolific WI author Julian Greystoke (aka Emily L)
ebook
Published January 1, 2003
21 people want to read
About the author
Emily Luebke
8 books157 followersEmily (aka JulianGreystoke) is a WI native who has been writing her entire life.
Emily writes mostly fantasy or alternate universe with a focus on characters, action, and relationships, as well as complex female and queer characters.
She hopes that you give her current self published book(s) a chance and she'd also love to hear from you if you'd care to chat. She also has a Youtube channel where she talks writing, does book reviews and tags.
https://www.youtube.com/user/JulianGr...
And a Facebook page which she keeps updated with videos and other bookish pursuits
https://www.facebook.com/Emily-Luebke...
Emily writes mostly fantasy or alternate universe with a focus on characters, action, and relationships, as well as complex female and queer characters.
She hopes that you give her current self published book(s) a chance and she'd also love to hear from you if you'd care to chat. She also has a Youtube channel where she talks writing, does book reviews and tags.
https://www.youtube.com/user/JulianGr...
And a Facebook page which she keeps updated with videos and other bookish pursuits
https://www.facebook.com/Emily-Luebke...
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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April 24, 2016I wrote it, so I'm biased.
But seriously, I know this little book isn't god's gift to writing. It's just a fun, exciting story, a quick read, and has been well received by the young adults who have communicated their thoughts to me. I wrote this book some years ago and I have grown a great deal as a writer since then, but I hope it still brings you all some enjoyment.
If you're looking for a quick coming of age story with a strong female lead, look no further than Phoenix.
But seriously, I know this little book isn't god's gift to writing. It's just a fun, exciting story, a quick read, and has been well received by the young adults who have communicated their thoughts to me. I wrote this book some years ago and I have grown a great deal as a writer since then, but I hope it still brings you all some enjoyment.
If you're looking for a quick coming of age story with a strong female lead, look no further than Phoenix.
July 25, 2016
Read this if you want a short, thrilling, sincere story about young people trying to find their places in a zombie infested world. This was really well done. The characters felt like individuals and weren't cliches. I liked the amount of violence and death-of-people-you-cared-about in this story; I thought it was accurate for a zombie apocalypse and appreciated that the author didn't try to sugarcoat it because it's YA. But it wasn't too violent or deathy, either. It seemed like the author just wanted it to be realistic. I liked the zombie mythology. I'm not a fan of zombies, but this story kept me intrigued. At the end of the day it's more a story about how young people would survive a disaster or the apocalypse. Character interactions were the important parts of the story. And the great news is those are done really well. This was a great post-East of Eden and pre-The Poisonwood Bible read!
January 5, 2017
*I received this in exchanged for an honest review*
I really enjoyed this I'm not normally a fan of zombie style books but I love apocalyptic style books and I'm so glad I gave it a read as I was hooked from the first page, I loved the writing style (I definitely want to read more from this author) and the description was just right for a novella.
The characters were well written and I could easily imagine everything that was going on.
I really enjoyed this I'm not normally a fan of zombie style books but I love apocalyptic style books and I'm so glad I gave it a read as I was hooked from the first page, I loved the writing style (I definitely want to read more from this author) and the description was just right for a novella.
The characters were well written and I could easily imagine everything that was going on.
December 18, 2022
Delightful little horror short story. Read during an ongoing pandemic...eep. But at least it's not zombies in real life! lol. I wasn't sure where we were going to end up, there was a lot of tragedy in this little thing. But there was sunrise on the horizon and I really enjoyed this.
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July 25, 2023I think this is the first zombie story I've read since, as they say these days, The Plague, and it was an experience to go back and read a pandemic scenario written pre-2020 and see how true to our real experience it was. Vaccines, virus tests, business as usual; I'm pretty sure zombie pandemics in media are going to hit differently for the next few years.
Regardless, it was good to read something with zombies again. Phoenix is a YA zombie apocalypse story with just a smidge of hope, in a similar vein to Jack Croxall's Wye and X, but Phoenix has a larger cast with more defined characters. I really liked Deidre's arc and her relationships with both Moth and Andy. It's the strength of these characters that made it hard to put the book down to go do 'necessary' things like work and sleep.
I really liked this iteration of the zombie virus. I don't know if Julian Greystoke based it on Encephalitis Lethargica, the unexplained epidemic that appeared and then disappeared from 1916-1930, but the initial virus in this book gave me a similar vibe. It reminded me a little of The Girl With All The Gifts in that both virus's are more extreme versions of things that already exist in our world.
However, I do need to mention that my kindle copy had many cases of extra words/grammatical mistakes that required me to read sentences over in places, but not enough to distract from the work overall, and I really enjoyed my time with it.
In the end, I was looking for something shorter to read among all my current rereads, and I decided now would be a good time to check out Julian Greystoke's debut before her sequel to The Wolf and the Hawk comes out. I was not disappointed.
Regardless, it was good to read something with zombies again. Phoenix is a YA zombie apocalypse story with just a smidge of hope, in a similar vein to Jack Croxall's Wye and X, but Phoenix has a larger cast with more defined characters. I really liked Deidre's arc and her relationships with both Moth and Andy. It's the strength of these characters that made it hard to put the book down to go do 'necessary' things like work and sleep.
I really liked this iteration of the zombie virus. I don't know if Julian Greystoke based it on Encephalitis Lethargica, the unexplained epidemic that appeared and then disappeared from 1916-1930, but the initial virus in this book gave me a similar vibe. It reminded me a little of The Girl With All The Gifts in that both virus's are more extreme versions of things that already exist in our world.
However, I do need to mention that my kindle copy had many cases of extra words/grammatical mistakes that required me to read sentences over in places, but not enough to distract from the work overall, and I really enjoyed my time with it.
In the end, I was looking for something shorter to read among all my current rereads, and I decided now would be a good time to check out Julian Greystoke's debut before her sequel to The Wolf and the Hawk comes out. I was not disappointed.
June 23, 2016
This book falls somewhere around 3 1/2 stars for me. The action is fast paced, the characters are well defined for a novella, and the suspense is well woven. Though much of the book is a shambling, garbling trope (and a trope I don't often read...zombies are one fantastical element I have no problem pretending doesn't exist!) it is done with an eye for details that bring you shivers of both suspense and outright shuddery feelings.
SO, while this is not my normal genre and you can definitely tell that this is an early work for the author, I did enjoy read! If you like coming of age, discovering your inner strength, and not dying stories...well I think you should give this one a shot. (*disclaimer* not everyone doesn't die...)
SO, while this is not my normal genre and you can definitely tell that this is an early work for the author, I did enjoy read! If you like coming of age, discovering your inner strength, and not dying stories...well I think you should give this one a shot. (*disclaimer* not everyone doesn't die...)
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October 27, 2021It...was...a book....
June 19, 2019
This book is a ya coming of age story about a social outcast in the zombie apocalypse. It is definitely within the ya perspective, but it isn’t cringey or cheesy ya. This feels like an actual teenager as opposed to a soap opera like many ya books I’ve read.
This book is also written in a close 3rd person limited to Deidre’s pov, which as someone who likes being in the protagonist’s head I enjoyed. Her voice was very strong and very well done.
1st I’d like to say the formatting of this book is a bit weird. The paragraphs aren’t indented, and there’s a full line of space between every paragraph. It’s sort of like wattpad formatting. Also, the pages aren’t numbered which bothered me enough that I numbered each page myself before reading this book. However, since neither of these things effected how easy this book was to read they didn’t effect the rating, but I will admit they make this book feel more unprofessional.
Also be warned this book has a couple of typos which did affect the rating I gave it, but overall the writing has some things I liked, some things I didn’t, and kind of evened out to okay. However, I will note that I have read Julian Greystoke’s more recent writing and she has improved.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. The main negative is the writing having typos and being repetitive. Also, I do wish I had gotten a bit more character interaction scenes. Which this is a novella, so obviously it won’t have as many as a novel. However, if the writing hadn’t been repetitive in showing and telling I’m sure several short scenes could’ve been added without bulking up the story’s length. Which adding these scenes could’ve evened out the Deidre’s character arc, so it felt less drastic.
The positives of this story are the immersivness of this world, the well-rounded characters that feel like real people I would actually meet at school, and every single character interaction I did get because I really did enjoy them. Also, I really liked the “failed romance” in this story, it felt like a nice touch of reality a lot of ya romance lack. It actually made me emotional... don't tell anyone I said that.
The setup of the sleeping virus and its integration into the pre-apocalypse society was really believable and well done. This world felt like it could be ours.
I definitely recommend this story for someone looking for well done characters. Especially, if you’re awkward and have trouble making friends, because I really was in middle school and still am to an extent and Deidre felt like an actual representation of that, which I found really relatable.
Also, the brutality of some of the scenes was really shocking. I felt all the emotional punches in this book. I was sad when Deidre was, shocked when she was, and triumphant when she was. And I love the ending of this story, it really packed a punch!
Also, there’s a cute dog… just saying.
The truth is this is a fun story that just feels like it need one more round of story edits and one more round of prose edits. It’d be a great draft, but it doesn’t feel like a final product.
The prose are below average, the world and plot is average, and the characters are above average, evening out to an about average story.
So, despite this story’s flaws I really enjoyed parts of it. And having read multiple stories by Julian one thing I am certain of is that I really like her characters.
For a more in depth analysis, check out my youtube channel tropetrinitytrilogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tS04...
This book is also written in a close 3rd person limited to Deidre’s pov, which as someone who likes being in the protagonist’s head I enjoyed. Her voice was very strong and very well done.
1st I’d like to say the formatting of this book is a bit weird. The paragraphs aren’t indented, and there’s a full line of space between every paragraph. It’s sort of like wattpad formatting. Also, the pages aren’t numbered which bothered me enough that I numbered each page myself before reading this book. However, since neither of these things effected how easy this book was to read they didn’t effect the rating, but I will admit they make this book feel more unprofessional.
Also be warned this book has a couple of typos which did affect the rating I gave it, but overall the writing has some things I liked, some things I didn’t, and kind of evened out to okay. However, I will note that I have read Julian Greystoke’s more recent writing and she has improved.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. The main negative is the writing having typos and being repetitive. Also, I do wish I had gotten a bit more character interaction scenes. Which this is a novella, so obviously it won’t have as many as a novel. However, if the writing hadn’t been repetitive in showing and telling I’m sure several short scenes could’ve been added without bulking up the story’s length. Which adding these scenes could’ve evened out the Deidre’s character arc, so it felt less drastic.
The positives of this story are the immersivness of this world, the well-rounded characters that feel like real people I would actually meet at school, and every single character interaction I did get because I really did enjoy them. Also, I really liked the “failed romance” in this story, it felt like a nice touch of reality a lot of ya romance lack. It actually made me emotional... don't tell anyone I said that.
The setup of the sleeping virus and its integration into the pre-apocalypse society was really believable and well done. This world felt like it could be ours.
I definitely recommend this story for someone looking for well done characters. Especially, if you’re awkward and have trouble making friends, because I really was in middle school and still am to an extent and Deidre felt like an actual representation of that, which I found really relatable.
Also, the brutality of some of the scenes was really shocking. I felt all the emotional punches in this book. I was sad when Deidre was, shocked when she was, and triumphant when she was. And I love the ending of this story, it really packed a punch!
Also, there’s a cute dog… just saying.
The truth is this is a fun story that just feels like it need one more round of story edits and one more round of prose edits. It’d be a great draft, but it doesn’t feel like a final product.
The prose are below average, the world and plot is average, and the characters are above average, evening out to an about average story.
So, despite this story’s flaws I really enjoyed parts of it. And having read multiple stories by Julian one thing I am certain of is that I really like her characters.
For a more in depth analysis, check out my youtube channel tropetrinitytrilogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tS04...
January 3, 2019
I came across the author’s YouTube channel a couple of times, and one day I found myself greatly enjoying her videos. I decided I might as well check out her work.
This was a fine little big adventure. Besides a handful of spelling errors and some awkward sentences, I have nothing to reproach. Maybe if I were more familiar with the genre this would read more ordinary, but this is my first zombie apocalypse piece of media, and I quite enjoyed it.
I liked that it was based on the characters’ interactions. “No shit it was based on the character’s interactions”, I hear you say. I’ll explain.
The worldbuilding was very basic: modern day USA somewhere, and some vague zombie virus. The plot was quite basic as well: a bunch of teens have to survive the zombie plague. The writing was more a means to an end and the characters were not all that interesting by themselves (that’s what happens when the whole cast is teens and kids, not enough life experiences to shape their personalities).
However, their dynamics stole the show. This is no great epic. The story knows it, and therefore allows itself to delve in precious moments of weakness, mourning, hierarchy, instinct, bravery, and slow but steady transformation and self-recognition, in the day to day of a zombie apocalypse.
Maybe because I am very much like that, I liked how Deidre recognized in herself the awkwardness, fear and love, as if emotion was something alien she wasn’t sure how to handle and noticed it every time it appeared. (I’m probably describing the average teenager, but when have I ever understood people). I also appreciate that her transformation didn’t happen overnight. It makes me feel like I too could be useful during a zombie apocalypse.
Oh, I almost forgot. Perhaps I skipped a line where it was explained, but I kept wondering how come none of the kids had their phones, a radio, a car (Deidre’s car at that), and also, why exactly the power and water were out. Professional deformation tangent: .
Thanks for reading!
This was a fine little big adventure. Besides a handful of spelling errors and some awkward sentences, I have nothing to reproach. Maybe if I were more familiar with the genre this would read more ordinary, but this is my first zombie apocalypse piece of media, and I quite enjoyed it.
I liked that it was based on the characters’ interactions. “No shit it was based on the character’s interactions”, I hear you say. I’ll explain.
The worldbuilding was very basic: modern day USA somewhere, and some vague zombie virus. The plot was quite basic as well: a bunch of teens have to survive the zombie plague. The writing was more a means to an end and the characters were not all that interesting by themselves (that’s what happens when the whole cast is teens and kids, not enough life experiences to shape their personalities).
However, their dynamics stole the show. This is no great epic. The story knows it, and therefore allows itself to delve in precious moments of weakness, mourning, hierarchy, instinct, bravery, and slow but steady transformation and self-recognition, in the day to day of a zombie apocalypse.
Maybe because I am very much like that, I liked how Deidre recognized in herself the awkwardness, fear and love, as if emotion was something alien she wasn’t sure how to handle and noticed it every time it appeared. (I’m probably describing the average teenager, but when have I ever understood people). I also appreciate that her transformation didn’t happen overnight. It makes me feel like I too could be useful during a zombie apocalypse.
Oh, I almost forgot. Perhaps I skipped a line where it was explained, but I kept wondering how come none of the kids had their phones, a radio, a car (Deidre’s car at that), and also, why exactly the power and water were out. Professional deformation tangent: .
Thanks for reading!
March 3, 2019
I wasn't sure what to expect since this isn't the type of book I typically read. I like that it got right to the action without a potentially cumbersome back story. The plot kept moving and the characters were well developed. Deidre felt very real, like a teenage girl truly would act and think, and it was satisfying to have her come into her own at the end.
January 15, 2018
I'm not a zombie fan by any means, but I LOVED this book!
It did have a few typos, like any book, but it was well done, the plot was different than your average zombie books and movies. It wasn't about someone saving the day, but simply surviving, which was a nice change.
It did have a few typos, like any book, but it was well done, the plot was different than your average zombie books and movies. It wasn't about someone saving the day, but simply surviving, which was a nice change.
April 19, 2018
A great take on a genre that’s often tired and full of predictable tropes. I very much enjoyed it!
January 26, 2026
Zombies zombies everywhere and ain't no time to think!
...interesting.
...interesting.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews