Kelly Sinclair

A SARS-like virus jumps from swine to humans, and millions die as the mortality is 90%. Except that some people are literally immune--even when they work in close contact with infected folks. The 'immune' ones just happen to be gays and lesbians. These people who used to be ostracized or marginalized are now the only ones left to run the country. There's a lot of resentment from the remaining un-gay population. There is also the fact that people who aren't openly gay are being outed by their immunity.

The author gives a plausible scenario of the kind of civilization that survives after such a catastrophic event, and how various people cope with the horrific challenges involved--the massive deaths, the widespread panic, and the desperate struggles of the remnants of government to maintain order amidst the chaos.

The entire book is told from the POV of several characters. There is one major problem a a result of this author's choice of storytelling device. The characters are totally unrelated. And their lives do not intersect. The author cycles through the character's individual stories alternately...totally confusing the reader (I had to keep flipping back to where the previous character's chapter to even remember who they were and whats their story). As a result, there isn't enough character development to care about any of the characters. There was just too much going on. I can't help but compare this book to another end-of-the-world apocalyse tale, 'The Growing' by Suzanne Beck. Instead of the virus, the culprit in that book was androids taking over the world. That book had me reading all night. It was around 800 pages long (i think) but that is how it should be. This book was just too short...with too many things going on...and had too many characters. There is an incredible story to tell, and the author maybe should have created a series of books, rather than lump all the couples in 1 book. IMHO.… (mere)