In Switzerland for an academic conference, Jon Keller—a history professor at Stanford—is staying at L'Hôtel Sixième.  Featuring 1000 rooms, breathtaking views, and a fading elegance, the isolated resort sprawls on acres of lovely country land in the middle of nowhere.  This becomes a problem when frantic news reports announce that nuclear bombs have fallen on major cities in both Europe and the U.S.  Panicked guests stampede to the door, speeding toward the nearest airport and train station.  With no transportation left, Jon and a handful of others become stranded at the hotel.  As news stations and the Internet shut down, they're left with zero information, no viable means of escape, and little hope for survival.

Two months after the disaster strikes, Jon is one of 20 or so people still living in the hotel.  Some have since wandered off or committed suicide; those who remain eke out a semblance of a life, trying to stave off the boredom and cabin fever that rules their lives.  With supplies dwindling, the guests also must figure out how to find more food, protect themselves against roving bands of desperate survivors, and whether or not it's time to move on from what has been a relatively safe haven.  While these conflicts plague the hotel community, another problem arises—the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the building's water tanks.  Horrified, Jon vows to find out what happened to her.  The situation at the resort is bad enough without having a cold-blooded murderer among them.  As their patchwork society crumbles around them, Jon and his comrades search for the killer among them while battling to hold on to not just their sanity but their very humanity.

The Last by Hanna Jameson is an intriguing genre mash-up that combines a compelling murder mystery with a tense dystopian/post-apocalyptic survival tale.  It's not a pulse-pounding thriller, but more of a contemplative study of human nature.  Which isn't to say it's boring.  It's not.  In fact, it's an engrossing novel that asks some interesting questions about right and wrong, self-interest vs. community, what truly matters when the world has gone to hell, and what makes us human.  While I didn't end up loving The Last, I did find it an absorbing, thought-provoking read.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel)

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The War Between the States was in full-swing when the country got the shock of its young life—its dead soldiers were not remaining dead.  They were rising up, hungry and rabid.  With shamblers turning everyone in their paths, war was derailed and desperate Americans had to learn to fight the growing zombie menace.  An enterprising government came up with a brilliant solution.  To create an army of monster-slayers, it passed the Native and Negro Reeducation Act, which required every Native and Negro child to attend combat school starting at 12 years old.  While certain cities have since been declared shambler-free, these "throwaway" children still have plenty of fighting to do in order to keep their betters from being bitten.

At 17, Jane McKeene is in her third year at Miss Preston's School of Combat for Negro Girls in Baltimore.  Despite being the daughter of one of the wealthiest white women in Haller County, Kentucky, Jane's mixed-race ethnicity destines her for a life of servitude.  Although her fondest desire is to return home to check on her family—from whom she has heard nothing—she's making the best of  her situation.  She's training to be an Attendant, a combination chaperone/bodyguard for rich white girls.  While such a career will hardly give her the freedom she craves, it beats harvesting cotton or slaving away in a hot kitchen.  Besides, she's a skilled fighter.  If she can just manage to keep her mouth shut and her manners in check long enough, a secure future will be hers.

When local families start to vanish, Jane's skeptical of the official "shambler attack" explanation.  Something else is going on, something much more disturbing.  Not one for leaving well enough alone, she launches her own investigation into the strange disappearances.  Before she knows it, she's embroiled in a plan more sinister than she ever could have imagined.  With her bright future, not to mention her very life, on the line, she has to escape and find her way back to Kentucky.  The shamblers aren't the only monsters Jane encounters as she fights for survival in a grim, violent world that considers her—and others like her—very much expendable.

I've been dying to read Dread Nation, a debut novel by Justina Ireland, ever since I heard about it.  I was thrilled, then, when I won a copy of it from YA author Mindy McGinnis (if you like book giveaways, you have to check out her blog).  The story gripped me from the very first page with its intriguing blend of horror, adventure, alternate history, and humor.  Jane's impossible not to like.  She's tough and sassy, but also compassionate and loyal.  It's easy to root for her as she struggles to make her way in a grisly world where her life is valued only for its sacrificial power.  With plenty of action to keep readers turning pages, Dread Nation is an entertaining novel so engrossing you almost don't recognize its allegorical nature.  Ireland definitely has some messages—about race, about individual worth, about the value of all life—that she's trying to get across.  And she succeeds without breaking the story's stride in the least.  In short, I loved this book.  I can't wait to see what happens next to the intrepid Jane McKeene.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of the Ashes trilogy [Ashes; Shadows; Monsters] by Ilsa J. Bick)

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