"Beyond Exile: Day-by-Day Armageddon" by J.L. Bourne

277 pages

In this second "Day by Day Armageddon" novel, the young narrator and his small band of zombie-apocalypse survivors are just trying to get through each day. Then a loosely organized military squadron invades the group's fortress, and, as a result, our diarist ends up on a mission in "the outside" that leaves him alone among the zombie hordes. Along the way, he encounters another mysterious military organization and discovers some information about the cause of the zombie plague.

I enjoyed parts of this story even more than the first book, but some sections in the middle were repetitive and didn't hold my attention. Also, I got a bit annoyed as the characters rely primarily on firepower to keep the zombies at bay and always seem to have plenty of ammunition that just sort of appears from nowhere--everyone knows that blades are better because blades don't need reloading! There's not a lot of character development in this book, and I'd like to see more of that. Still, it was worth my time, and the cliffhanger at the end left me anxious for the next book.