Title: The Survivor
Author: Ursula K. Raphael
Available: In Kindle form from Amazon
Synopsis: "A female survivor of a zombie apocalypse finds herself overwhelmed with hunger pains. Her starvation is taking its toll on her body. In the past, she avoided the others, fearing what they might do to her, but now she must risk an encounter in order to find food. Once she finds something to eat, she has to fight for what little is left. Fortunately, the others have no idea what has followed them to their campsite."
Review: Let me start by saying that this is not a story for the faint of heart. It's raw and gruesome. Told in the first person, it does very well to evoke the desperation of its apocalyptic atmosphere.
As it's a short story, this review won't be terribly long since I don't want to give too much away, but it's very well written. The brutality of parts was enough to make me wince, but the narrative flowed so well that it carries you right along.
The "twist" at the end was enough to make me stop. It was one of those: "Wait... what?" moments that had me rereading parts from the beginning to see how it had rolled out, how I missed it, what hints there were. That's always a good thing.
I read in some other's reviews that they would like to see it longer, in a novel version. I can't say whether I agree or not. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more of Raphael's work and this story would have potential for that, but there was something very... impactful (yes, I made up a word) in this short form.
Being as I said, not for the faint of heart, I can't quite give it a 5 Fireball rating since it wouldn't be for everyone, but I did think it was very well done and so I give it 4 Fireballs.
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