Book Review - "Kill or Cure" by Rebecca Levene

Kill or Cure

By Rebecca Levene

The Story
Jasmine has spent five years underground, locked in a secret government bunker with no one but the skeletons of her dead colleagues for company. Outside, the world has gone to hell, a mysterious virus killing all but 1 in 20 of the world’s population.

It’s enough to drive anyone mad – but Jasmine’s crazier than most. The cure she was working on had an unexpected side effect, psychotic symptoms which only the most powerful drugs can suppress. Jasmine’s rescuers, the pirate rulers of the New Caribbean, don’t care. They need Jasmine’s help to discover what it is that has turned the inhabitants of Cuba into rabid killers. Jasmine’s quest to find a cure for this new plague, as well as for her own barely suppressed madness, draws her across the fractured continent of America and in to the darkest recesses of her own past. – Abaddon Press


The Deal

We have a scientist who is living a messed up, drugged out life. Alone in a caved in underground facility, with a lifetime supply of food and morphine, she waits for someone to come along. Then somebody does. She is then spirited away and forced to detoxify on an ocean liner turned into a floating fortress. There she must work on the cure to the virus, that she created years ago, that turns the living into the walking dead or worse.

The Afterblight Chronicles, which this is a book in that series, is about life after a virus attacks mankind that quickly kills earth’s population. Only people with O negative blood type are spared, however they are not “safe” by a long shot.


The Bottom Line

I loved this book. If had an award to give out for the “2007 Best Post-Apocalyptic Story” this would have received it. This book had many tough storylines: isolationism, drug addiction, horror, and sci fi elements. Think the Resident Evil movies, but much better.

Of course, I am going to say this is a BUY. It’s a buy and read more than once. One of the very few stories that I can say I read cover to cover in a couple days.

Best Quote

“I can help you,” the Voice in my head said “I’m the only thing that can.”