Resistant (Resistance #2) - a review by Rosemary Kenny
After serving the latest in a long line of delinquent crime imprisonments, feisty Dana is being given an inspiring pep-talk by Ms Jenkins; it's hopefully the last sentence. Disillusionment comes when Dana overhears Ms Jenkins start to give exactly the same spiel to the next hooligan into her office!
Dana's looking forward to being reunited with her young sister, Max, whom she's missed so much; unfortunately she'll have to wait as Max's mother and their (joint) father are taking her to the zoo for the day.
At her boyfriend's flat shortly afterwards, Dana's horrified by the sights within...then forced to extreme action to escape with her life when he attacks her and insatiably tries to drink her blood. She's also alerted to similar abhorrences on a much larger scale when she watches a news broadcast, that says emergency services are overwhelmed by victims of this wave of rioting and violent blood-lust, which has spread world-wide! Arrested for double murder [of Darren and his previous victim, still naked and dead in the flat's bedroom] Dana despairs; only a breakout of the zombie virus among the other prisoners enables her to return home and save Max from a horrible fate.
What will happen to Dana and Max? How can life every return to normal when nobody knows what caused the outbreaks or how to stop them? Who rescues Dana from the nightmare environment at the jail? Will she be able to find and rescue Max after the two sisters are separated? What are the implications when Dana proves immune to the effects of the virus? Where will she and Hugo go to find Max - and a possible cure?
This fascinating novel by the inspired apocalyptic writer Perrin Briar gives a unique and believable what if...? scenario of an alternative future existence, peopled by well-developed characters in an engaging storyline to start an exciting series. I would willingly recommend it to fans of apocalyptic, rites-of-passage, overcoming-the-odds, fantasy novels of any age with a taste for feisty female protagonists in stories with gritty potential realism...5 stars at least...or more!