Synopsis:
Welcome to the apocalypse. On repeat.
On any given day, millions of people are in London. Now they’ve gone. But they’re still hungry, and these dead don’t walk… they run.
At moonrise, London reboots: sirens, smoke, sprinting dead. Parkour-hardened survivor Zane survives by motion, flying from roof to roof, balcony to bus. He wakes every day beside his former friend, forcing a last-second swan dive off Tower Bridge for breakfast.
Death isn’t an exit; it’s a restart.
Zane hunts for the cause, a way out, five lifetimes of searching. His only clue, a flash across the financial district. Until one day, a bedsheet hanging from the Tower of London sends him to the Sky Garden to meet Nina. He measures days in rooftops and near-misses; she measures them in the things time refuses to delete. Together, they face a crumbling London, unravelling time, and intersecting only once every five days.
With Nina at his side, Zane will stop running and start fighting back, even if it risks time itself.
CTRL-Z is a breathless and gory daily apocalypse with gallows humour and zombies.
Run. Reset. Repeat. Remember.
Review:
Looking for a zom-rom-com with Edge of Tomorrow vibes? Thought so. How about bags of humour, a breathless pace and a surprisingly layered plot that isn’t thrown at you all at once but peeled back piece by piece to paint a picture that starts horrifying in nature, but in the end becomes a struggle for the very existence of all humankind?
Yet remains heart-warming, sweet at times, while the world falls apart in gore-laden pieces.
Did I say it was breathless? Oh, and sweet it is, but Nina is kick-arse too.
Benson has built a story concept that sounds deceptively simple. A lone man, Zane, waking up every day next to his deceased but hungry best mate Steve in a crashed van on London Bridge. Through repeating the same respawn after every death, or at the first sign of the moon above Canary Wharf, whichever comes first, Zane discovers he’s not alone. Yes, there are the zombie hordes that chase him everywhere (these are the zombies from World War Z or 28 Days Later – no lounging about here), but out there is Nina, and romance blossoms on every fifth reincarnation.
Together they discover the fate of the world, and by learning through death (think about it) realise that time is running out.
So let’s deal with a few zombie elephants in the room. One, repeating the same day sounds a little, well, repetitive. But Zane has free will and remembers everything. We are led down this path skilfully, including markers placed with a deft author’s hand, so each day is fresh and new. Secondly, it sounds relentless in pace. There are few moments for the reader to take a breath admittedly, to pause and think over events. But this book is exactly that – a mad-dash to the end that takes you on a rollercoaster ride of zombie action. I read it in four sittings. It was exactly what I needed, so this is a ‘pick your moment’ read.
So, is it the perfect zom-rom-com on rocket-powered roller-skates? There are times when the writing becomes so fast-paced with little passive voice, that it can bounce you out of the moment, usually when you are looking for a little calm amid the storm. But these I can forgive as you are drawn once again back into the frenzied world of Zane and Nina.
I loved this book. Take a risk on an indie author; they may surprise you.
I would like to thank the author for the ARC. CTRL-Z releases fittingly on 31st Oct
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