Book Review and Giveaway: "Isolation" by Denise R Stephenson

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

"Isolation" is the story about a handful of people dealing with a world I can't even begin to imagine. The story starts in kind of a lookback at how a deadly virus changed the world, and then comes to current time and how the sickness has changed the world and what it means for the survivors.

A horrible sickness has broken out in the world and is spreading quickly. It's incredibly unpleasant (lots of bloody diarrhea) and deadly. The government struggles with how to contain it, especially because they don't know how it spreads.

So it starts with a "no touching your face" ban. I would have been screwed from the get go on this rule! I always have to make a conscious effort to not touch my face or lean on my hand. But not because of any diseases, because I'll break out in zits.

Anyway.

The restrictions tighten and tighten until contact and outside movement is basically nonexistent. Can you imagine? I'm sure there's some people who would really enjoy not leaving their house or having any contact with people. I know that would drive me crazy. I'm totally a touchy feely/hugger so I'd totally wither and die without human contact. I'd be like the sad baby monkeys in Harry Harlow's terrible experiments. (Anyone else have friends in psychology who talk about this?) But then a random touch in a pretty uncomfortable situation leads to something interesting for two people...

I thought this book was interesting because it seems like if this scenario is present in a book the world kind of grinds to a halt. That is not to say that the world of the book isn't insane, because it is. But there seems to be a functional government, laws and rules, fail safes, and people in charge of endless bureaucracies. Usually everything just ends up in chaos and fire and looting and horror. While there is still horror, at least this new world doesn't seem to be defined by it.

I give this book a 3 out of 5. I liked the concept, and the above mentioned differences about how this world continued to thrive. I didn't like it because it talked about all the gross symptoms while I was trying to eat my lunch, bleh! haha. Also there was one character who we heard their POV and we never found out what happened to them, which kind of bummed me out. It was in the earliest days of the outbreak so I'm going to assume her story didn't have a happy ending!

 Ready to read it? There's  giveaway  happening, go on and enter to win it! (US only)