Also by this author: Limerence, Odium II, Limerence 2Nina wasn’t always a bitch. But surviving an apocalypse has made her that way.
It’s the end of the world, and the dead have risen. Devastation reins and destruction lives. Mankind is holding on by bloody and desperate fingers. Death comes when you least expect it; in the quiet of the night or in the harsh light of day. It sneaks in and takes everyone and everything you ever loved, until you’re left with nothing at all. And the person standing in the aftermath is forever changed.
Even after finding a protective haven amongst the chaos, Nina learns that the worst monster is mankind itself. Hope is gone. A heart is broken and humanity is slipping away.
But for Nina, catastrophe has made her stronger. If she wants to keep breathing, she has to be.
After all, being hard is the only way to survive.
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Odium 0.5 is another emotionally devastating installment in Claire C. Riley’s The Dead Saga. While all the books center around Nina, Riley really focuses on what happened before book one when she left the supposed sanctuary. As a reader, I really felt like this was a necessary addition to this series. For so long, we have been kept in the dark about how bad things really were. We were given hints, but now we really know what happened and why Nina is the way she is. This book has reminded me that sometimes the zombies in stories aren’t the worst monsters in the world.
I’m so glad Claire C. Riley finally gave us more of Nina’s back-story. I feel like I understand the character so much better now. I have followed this series from the beginning and at times found myself wishing she would shut up and quit bitching. I get it now though. While she can be somewhat annoying at times, there’s a reason for it. She has been through so much and instead of giving up, she has continued to fight. Granted, she kind of bitched about it most of the time, but I think I understand why. She’s much stronger than I initially gave her credit. Nina is definitely more of a fighter than I ever realized.
One of the things that initially drew me into this series is that when I first read Odium 1, it was the first zombie themed book that ever made me feel anything. Each book has been more and more emotional for me. This author continues to rip out my heart, chew it up, and then try to spit it back into my chest. Yes, my heart is back in my chest, but it’s definitely not in the condition it was to start with. Her writing makes me feel things that I never thought my black little heart would, or even could.
The Dead Saga is an amazing series, and Odium .5 is just one more heart-wrenching piece of the puzzle in a world we have come to love as well as fear. I recommend it to anyone who likes to become emotionally invested in a series and doesn’t mind the zombies who participate.
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Excerpt
One year later.
The klaxon blares to life, making me jump. A shiver darts up and down my spine and I sit up and peer into the blackness surrounding me. The whispered voices of my sleeping companions tell me that everyone is feeling the same fear.
Deaders.
Goddamned deaders, they’re here, knocking at our door again.
“It’s okay, sweetie. Just cuddle into Mama and close your eyes.”
I listen to the mother to the left of me talking to her little boy. I can’t remember what he looks like or what his name is, though we have been living in the same bare bricked room for over a week now. The mother, again I have no clue what her name is, is on her own. Somewhere along the line they lost the father and husband. Somewhere along the line. The little boy is whimpering and she starts to hum to drown out the noise of the loud gunfire outside.
With every shot fired, I flinch. I flinch like I’m the one being shot. Like each bullet is driving its way into my body, tearing through my muscles and fat, bone and sinew, and killing me. Because yes, I want to die. I’m just too chickenshit to let it actually happen. Self-preservation is an annoying trait to have, and yet, as humans, we all seem to have it instilled in us. We hate what this world has become…that it now belongs to the undead. Because after a year, there has still been no sign of the tide turning, of mankind taking back what was stolen from it—life. No, there will be no coming back from it, and even if there is, things will never ever be the same again. Yet we can’t stop fighting the good fight. We can’t stop trying. And we can’t stop breathing.
None of this is a new revelation to me, and it also isn’t an old one. It just is. I don’t want to be in this world, a world where deaders rule. Where we lose loved ones to death only for them to come back to life and try to eat us alive. I don’t want to live this life of poverty and homelessness, and yes, I’m well aware that I sound like a spoiled rich bitch, but whatever.
I grip my blanket and pull it around myself—an attempt to block out all of the depressing thoughts that are currently rampaging through my aching, tired body, no doubt. But of course it’s impossible. You can’t block out what I’m feeling, what I’m experiencing. You can’t block out this life because it insists upon being heard, being known, and being felt.
Death insists on being lived.
© Copyright Claire C. Riley 2015
Also by Claire:
About Claire C. Riley
Claire C. Riley is a USA Today and International bestselling author with almost twenty novels of various genres to her credit.
A lover of all things dark and dirty, she likes to write characters you love to hate but can’t help falling in-love with. She isn’t afraid to challenge herself, or her readers, to step outside of their comfort zones.
She also writes under the pen name of Cee Cee Riley, where she writes in the MC romance and post-apocalyptic romance genres.
Claire lives in the United Kingdom with her husband, three daughters and one naughty beagle, where she can be found whiling away her days playing board games with her kids and reading.
Author of:
Odium The Dead Saga Series
Odium Origins Series
Limerence (The Obsession Series)
Out of the Dark Series,
Twisted Magic,
Beautiful Victim
Blood Claim
Co-authored books with Madeline Sheehan:
Thicker than Blood,
Beneath Blood & Bone,
& Shut Up & Kiss me,
And by Cee Cee Riley:
The Ride or Die a Devil’s Highwaymen MC Novel Series
And coming in November – The Devil’s Highwaymen NOMAD series.
Author of:
Odium The Dead Saga Series
Odium Origins Series
Limerence (The Obsession Series)
Out of the Dark Series,
Twisted Magic,
Co-authored books with Madeline Sheehan:
Thicker than Blood,
Beneath Blood & Bone,
& Shut Up & Kiss me,
And soon to be released by Cee Cee Riley:
The Ride or Die Series
