The Line Between

The Line Between
By: Tosca Lee

“frighteningly believable," as written in the book's summary is an accurate takeaway after reading this. Especially after also reading the author's note detailing the real-life inspiration to the story, I kinda freaked out for ten seconds and planned my own doomsday bunker with all my favorite foods and weapons, and of course a generator so we could still watch Wheel of Fortune... And then I realized I just don't have time to worry about that right now. Hashtag momlife, hashtag Jesus will protect me.

I love how Tosca integrated the cult escapee into a pandemic survival plot.

It's an interesting dynamic of how Wynter handles the crisis- filtered through the lens of all the lies she's been believing and the brainwashing she endured. Yes, it's a bit of a stretch how well-adjusted Wynter seemed to be coming out of the cult. I think she'd be pretty worthless in such a high-tension situation, but I've decided to attribute it to the influence of Shae that she was still semi-attached to all things outside world and could assimilate faster than a normal escapee.

Unlike zombie-apocalyptic stories, I like how this disease created zombie-like people (irrational, violent, and unpredictable) in a realistic way—early onset-dementia caused by an ancient bacteria that we have no vaccine or immunity for. (Insert plug for the Atlantis Gene trilogy if you like these kind of books).

It was also fun to have the book set in my neck of the woods- good ole Des Moines and the Midwest- no one writes books about such geographic treasures!

The book was fast-paced and lived up to it's 'thriller' label. I am very much looking forward to the sequel to this book and seeing how the disease-riddled America fights back. Well-done.