The zombie apocalypse has hit the world. Humans are surviving, but barely. Fifteen-year-old Amy lives with her mother who's on the front lines, more like a security officer to keep the zombies out of their town and destroy them if they attack. One day her mother suddenly leaves without any warning and Amy is all alone. Around this time a new plague has started. People became sick with a disease that can't be diagnosed. People grow hungry for no reason and eat anything and everything. Even the undead have the same symptoms and soon no one can tell the living and zombies apart. With no plan, Amy strikes out on her own, knowing she may not survive.

Along her travels she meets Lisa, who is known as an Ex. Lisa is a zombie, but is still human in her thoughts and feelings. She doesn't have an insane hunger and doesn't want to eat human flesh. Plus if she's hurt, she recovers, as Amy learns when Lisa cuts herself and there's no scarring or bruising. Amy doesn't trust Lisa, but since she's all alone, she goes with her.

Mother Nature isn't on their side either because a tornado rips through their shelter and destroys all their food and items. And then a man and woman in a car drive by. They force Amy and Lisa to come with them to a compound run by Exs, where they make the humans, known as Frails, work the land, cook for them, and keep everything running. Amy wants to escape in the hopes of locating her mother and finding a safe place away from all the horrors that have taken over the world.

FRAIL should appeal to fans of zombie apocalypse fiction but there's a great deal of confusion within these pages. There's a lack of world building and things are just thrown out as if the reader will be fine with it and take it at face value. There's no reason given why this plague has happened and why it affects everyone, even the dead. The writing here lacks an overall sense of cohesiveness. Amy comes across emotionally stilted, which I guess is understandable because of all she had been through, but she's so unresponsive to the world around her, as if she has become one of the mindless undead.

Joan Frances Turner's fans may enjoy FRAIL, but with some reservations.

Book Summary

Being human is a disadvantage in post-apocalyptic America...

Now that the Feeding Plague has swept through human and zombie societies, it seems like everyone is an "ex" these days. Ex-human. Ex- zombie. Except for Amy, that is. She's the only human survivor from her town-a frail. And if the feral dogs, the flesh-eating exes, and the elements don't get her, she just may discover how this all began. Because in this America, life is what you make it...