JeanzBookReadNReview: BLOG TOUR - DAY ZERO - DAY ZERO DUOLOGY BY KELLY DEVOS

Title: Day Zero

Series: Day Zero Duology

Author: Kelly DeVos

Genre: Teens & YA

Publisher: Inkyard Press, Harpercollins,
Harlequin Teen (US & Canada)

Release Date: 12th November 2019

BLURB from Goodreads

If you're going through hell...keep going.

Seventeen-year-old coder Jinx Marshall grew up spending weekends drilling with her paranoid dad for a doomsday she’s sure will never come. She’s an expert on self-heating meal rations, Krav Maga and extracting water from a barrel cactus. Now that her parents are divorced, she’s ready to relax. Her big plans include making it to level 99 in her favorite MMORPG and spending the weekend with her new hunky stepbrother, Toby.

But all that disaster training comes in handy when an explosion traps her in a burning building. Stuck leading her headstrong stepsister, MacKenna, and her precocious little brother, Charles, to safety, Jinx gets them out alive only to discover the explosion is part of a pattern of violence erupting all over the country. Even worse, Jinx’s dad stands accused of triggering the chaos.

In a desperate attempt to evade paramilitary forces and vigilantes, Jinx and her siblings find Toby and make a break for Mexico. With seemingly the whole world working against them, they’ve got to get along and search for the truth about the attacks—and about each other. But if they can survive, will there be anything left worth surviving for?

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REVIEW

It was the cover of this book that originally attracted me to it, along with the title, Day Zero. I wanted to know why it was Day Zero and what Day Zero was too, so this curiosity led me to read the blurb. I find prepping fascinating, so when the blurb says that the main character whose nickname is Jinx is used to doing drills that her father thinks necessary for an impending doomsday that interested me even more.

I like the rather desolate looking cover, with the one female character on it, whom I would say is Susan, the main character in the book. Though throughout the majority of the book she is being called Jinx by her family and friends even though she hates the nickname and what it suggests. The genres I have seen listed for this book are Teens and YA, which though I agree with, as an adult reader I have to point out I really enjoyed reading this book, so think Adults would read this book too, I would also add post-apocalyptic to the genres.

The books main character is Susan Marshall, but everyone calls her by the nickname of Jinx even though she really hates it. Susan/Jinx lives with her younger brother Charles, her mother and her new husband Jay and his two children from his previous marriage, Toby, who is older than Susan/Jinx and Mackenna who is the same sort of age as her. Jinx takes refuge in her own room a lot and plays video games such as Repulicae. Jinx has been planning a marathon session with her computer and Republicae all day at school, right down to calling at the Halliwell’s store for snacks and energy drinks. It’s whilst she is at the Halliwell’s with step sister Mackenna and little brother Charles that there is the first indication that something strange is going on. Their biological father Dr Maxwell Marshall is a computer science professor and is really into “being prepared” and as part of their childhood both Jinx and Charles have re-enacted so many possibilities for natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Dr Maxwell Marshall has even written a book on the subject called Dr Doomsday’s Guide To Ultimate Survival. So, when there’s an explosion nearby, whilst everyone else panics, Jinx and her brother Charles slip straight into “drill mode.” However, this is only the very beginning of things turning bad for the combined Marshall-Novak family.

Jinx see’s a cryptic message, and

It seems with all evidence pointing towards Jay Novak being the guilty party that sent the computer malware to the bank along with being involved the bombing of the bank, he will be charged and convicted. When he is arrested and his wife Stephanie Stephanie (Jinx & Charles mum) decides she goes wherever he is being taken, it leaves Jinx, Mackenna and Charles to fend for themselves and try to keep one step ahead of those trying to capture them too. Stephanie manages to call Jinx and instructs her to stay on the move and find her father, apparently Maxwell Marshall may be the only one who can help Jay and restore the banks to what they were before the political terrorist attack. Stephanie seems to think that her ex-husband Maxwell can help to clear Jay’s name somehow, or knows someone who can help.

The book covers the journey, adventures and misadventures that Jinx, Mackenna, Toby, Charles have whilst trying to lay low, yet find their way to Dr Marshall.

Their odds of staying hidden do improve when Dr Marshall aka Dr Doomsday sends them some help and an evacuation plan in the form of Gus Navarro. Navarro attended a convention that Jinx was at with her father and had kept in touch with Dr Doomsday ever since.

My favourite character was of course Susan aka Jinx, the way she slips straight into the drills her father has had her and her younger brother doing is what protects her and those around her. Jinx and Mackenna begin their journey being at odds and having lots of differing opinions. When it comes to Charles, the two girls do come together to protect him, though Mackenna and her older brother Toby tend to let him eat whatever he wants despite the fact he has type 1 diabetes. Jinx ends up having to be the bad guy and try to find healthy food, test his insulin levels and give him his injections too. Jinx and Mackenna do end up coming together and displaying a united front when them and their little family are under threat. In fact, Jinx has to do something she would have never thought herself to be capable of to save her step sisters life at one point in the book.

I immediately loved the character of Gus Navarro, and was hoping he would feature more as the book and plot developed. I loved the relationship slowly blossoming between him and Jinx. I hope there is much more of this couple in the next book.

The character I enjoyed hating was of course, Tork, the ruthless guy who is tracking Jinx and her group, as well as seemingly wanting to speak to her father too. He always seems to be that one step ahead. At one point the possibility of “someone on the inside” the banking system is mentioned, and yes, I did have that in the back of my mind as well as thinking that Dr Maxwell was too obvious to be the culprit. Having said all that, when it gets to a certain point in the book when the “insider” is revealed I was, like wow! I hadn’t thought of that, but it is an amazing twist.

My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were Wow I really didn't see that end coming! Seriously looking forward to reading more!! Brilliant, this book held me firmly from first word to the last.

To sum up I really did enjoy this book, it grabbed my attention within the first few words and kept a hold of me until the very last words. I honestly did not see that ending coming at all. I felt so sorry for Jinx, she had lost a lot by the end of the book. I can’t wait to find out what she will do in the next book. She has proven herself more capable than she ever thought she was in this book, and hopefully she will have the help of Navarro as well as her step family.

DR DOOMSDAY'S RULES

FOR SURVIVAL

RULE ONE

Be prepared

RULE TWO

Don’t wait for help

RULE THREE

Stay together. Stay safe.

RULE FOUR

Do what you have to do.

Things will break down faster than expected.

RULE FIVE

Be prepared to leave everything you know behind.

RULE SIX

Trust no one.

RULE SEVEN

You can never tell what some people are capable of.

RULE EIGHT

It is essential to establish a chain of command.

RULE NINE

Cover your tracks.

Let your plans be dark as night.

RULE TEN

It’s better to avoid trouble than beat trouble.

RULE ELEVEN

Save yourself.

In the end that might be all you can do.

RULE TWELVE

Don’t get comfortable.

RULE THIRTEEN

People who panic don’t survive

RULE FOURTEEN

Never surrender.

Don’t put your fate in the hands of your enemy.

RULE FIFTEEN

There will always be casualties

DR DOOMSDAY SAYS

Dr Doomsday says…..

Everyone in this world seeks power. Those who will stop at nothing to attain it will also never willingly relinquish it.

Failure to understand your adversaries is dangerous. Failure to identify them can be fatal.

Certain situations don’t call for brains or brawn. They take nerve. Survival is an act of will.

Survival mode is the ability to tune out anything unrelated to one’s current situation. Disaster is rarely sudden. It builds like a storm, apparent to anyone paying attention to the weather.

There’s no such thing as a worthy adversary. Opponents whose skills match or exceed your own are terrible, existential threats. If they must be dealt with, understand you’ll never experience a sense of triumph and maybe never find any relief.

If you can’t outrun the past, you can hide from it.

Stay focused on what’s in front of you. Worrying about the big picture will get you killed.

Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies in the morgue.

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

You can lie to everyone but yourself.

In a disaster situation, your principles will always be pitted against your odds of survival.

We often give our enemy the means of our own destruction.

Violence is not only an acceptable solution. Sometimes it is the only solution.

Survival is relative.

Maintaining a constant state of awareness is draining. Yet, the time you think you can relax is the exact moment disaster will typically strike.

It’s always a surprise when you realise that love can do more damage than hate.

EXCERPT

Dr. Doomsday’s Guide to Ultimate Survival

Rule One: Always be prepared.

I exhale in relief when Makenna pulls the car into the Halliwell’s Market parking lot. The store is one of the

only places in town with Extra Jolt soda, and I have to buy it myself because Mom won’t keep any in the house.

She thinks too much caffeine rots your brain or something. Halliwell’s is a low squat brown building that sits across the street from the mall and is next door to the town’s only skyscraper.

The First Federal Building was supposed to be the first piece of a suburban business district designed to rival the hip boroughs of New York. The mayor announced the construction of a movie theater, an apartment complex and an indoor aquarium. But the New Depression hit and the other buildings never materialized.

The First Federal Building alone soars toward the clouds, an ugly glass rectangle visible from every neighborhood, surrounded by the old town shops that have been there forever. Most of the stores are empty.

We park in front of the market.

Our car nestles in the long shadow of the giant bank building. Charles gets out and stands on the sidewalk in front of the car. Mackenna opens her door. She hesitates again. “Listen, I know you might not want to hear this or believe it. But my book report wasn’t about hurting you or getting revenge. I’m trying to get you to see what’s really happening here. That Carver’s election is the start of something really bad.

We could use you at the rally. You’re one of the few people who understands Dr. Doomsday’s work. You could explain what he did. How he helped Carver cheat to win.”

“I’ve been planning this raid for months,” I say. My stomach churns, sending uncomfortable flutters through my in-sides. I don’t know what it would mean to talk about my father’s work. What I really want to do is pretend it doesn’t exist. Pretend the world is normal and whole.

I reassure myself with the reminder that there’s no way Mackenna is going to the rally either. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Charles give us a small wave. Before Mackenna can say anything else, I get out and grab my backpack.

Inside Halliwell’s, I pick up a blue basket from the stack near the door. The small market is busy and full of other people shopping after school or work. The smell of pine cleaner hits me as we pass the checkout stations. They are super serious about germs and always cleaning between customers.

We come to the produce section, and I leave Mackenna and Charles at the Click N’Go rack checking out the seed packets that my brother collects. Dad got Charles hooked on this computerized gardening that

uses an e-tablet and a series of tiny indoor lights to create the ideal indoor planter box. Each

week, they release a new set of exclusive seeds. Their genetic modifications are controversial.

All the soda is in large coolers that line one of the walls of the market. They keep the strange stuff in the corner. Expensive root beers. Ramune imported from Japan. And! Extra! Jolt!

I put a few bottles of strawberry in my basket. I snag some grape too. For a second, I consider buying a couple of bottles of doughnut flavor. But that sounds like too much, even for me. The chips are in the next aisle. I load up on cheese puffs and spicy nacho crisps.

They keep the Click N’Grow kiosk in the store’s tiny produce section between small tables of apples and bananas. Charles has selected several handfuls of seed packets. My brother dumps them in my basket.

Mackenna grimaces at the top packet. “I still don’t like that first one. It’s pretty. But still. It’s…carnivorous.”

Charles smiles. “It’s a new kind of pitcher plant. Like the Cobra Lily.” He points to the picture on the front of the seed packet. “Look at the blue flowers. That’s new.”

“It eats other plants,” Mackenna says.

“You eat plants.”

“But I don’t eat people,” Mackenna says. “There’s got to be some kind of natural law that says you shouldn’t eat your own kind.” Charles giggles.

My brother’s gaze lands on my selection of soda and chips. “Can I get some snacks too?”

Crap.

I usually don’t buy unhealthy snacks when I’m with my brother. I smuggle them in my backpack and have a special hiding space in my desk.

“What’s your number?” I ask him.

My brother has type 1 diabetes, and he’s supposed to check his blood sugar after meals. He can have starchy or sugary snacks only when his glucose level is good, and usually only on special occasions.

Charles pretends he can’t hear me. That’s not a good sign.

“Charles, what’s your number?”

He still doesn’t look at me. “I forgot my monitor today.” “Well, I have mine.” I kneel down and dig around for the spare glucometer I keep in the front pocket of my backpack. By the time I get it out, Mackenna has already pulled Charles out of his blazer and rolled up the sleeve of his blue dress shirt. I wave the device

over the small white sensor disk attached to my brother’s upper arm.

After a few seconds, the glucometer beeps and a number displays on the screen.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

“Charles! What did you eat today?”

My brother’s face turns red. “They were having breakfast-for-lunch day at school. Everyone else was having pancakes. Why can’t I have pancakes?”

I sigh. Something about his puckered up little face keeps me from reminding him that if he eats too much sugar he could die. “You know what Mom said. If you eat something you’re not supposed to, you have to get a pass and go to the nurse for your meds.”

My brother’s shoulders slump. “No one else has to go to the nurse.”

Charles is on the verge of tears and frowns even more deeply at the sight of my basket full of junk food.

“Look,” I say. “There are plenty of healthy snacks we can eat. I’ll put this stuff back.”

“That’s right,” Mackenna says, giving Charles’s hand a squeeze. “We can get some popcorn. Yogurt. Um, I saw some really delicious-looking fresh pears back there.”

“And they have the cheese cubes you like,” I add.

We go around the store replacing the cheese puffs and soda with healthy stuff. I hesitate when I have to put back the Extra Jolt but I really don’t want to have to make my brother feel bad because I can drink sugary stuff and he can’t. We pay for the healthy snacks and the seed packets.

I grab the bags and move toward the market’s sliding doors. I end up ahead of them, waiting outside by the car and facing the store. The shopping center behind Halliwell’s is mostly empty. The shoe store went out of business last year. Strauss Stationers, where everyone used to buy their fancy wedding invitations, closed the two years before that. The fish ’n’chips drive-through is doing okay and has a little crowd in front of the take-out window. Way off in the distance, Saba’s is still open, because in Arizona, cowboy boots and hats aren’t considered optional.

I watch Mackenna and Charles step out of the double doors and into the parking lot. Two little dimples appear on Mackenna’s cheeks when she smiles. Her long braids bounce up and down. Charles has a looseness to his walk. His arms dangle.

There’s a low rumble, like thunder from a storm that couldn’t possibly exist on this perfectly sunny day.

Something’s wrong.

In the reflection of the market’s high, shiny windows, I see something happening in the bank building next door. Some kind of fire burning in the lower levels. A pain builds in my chest and I force air into my lungs.

My vision blurs at the edges. It’s panic, and there isn’t much time before it overtakes me.

The muscles in my legs tense and I take off at a sprint, grabbing Mackenna and Charles as I pass. I haul them along with me twenty feet or so into the store. We clear the door and run past a man and a woman frozen at the sight of what’s going on across the street.

I desperately want to look back.

But I don’t.

A scream.

A low, loud boom.

My ears ring.

The lights in the store go off.

I’ve got Mackenna by the strap of her maxidress and Charles by the neck. We feel our way in the dim light. The three of us crouch and huddle together behind a cash counter. A few feet in front of us, the cashier who checked us out two minutes ago is sitting on the floor hugging her knees.

We’re going to die.

Charles’s mouth is wide-open. His lips move. He pulls at the sleeve of my T-shirt.

I can’t hear anything.

It takes everything I’ve got to force myself to move.

Slowly.

Leaning forward. Pressing my face into the plywood of the store counter, I peek around the corner using one eye to see out the glass door. My eyelashes brush against the rough wood, and I grip the edge to steady myself. I take in the smell of wood glue with each breath.

Hail falls in the parking lot. I realize it’s glass.

My stomach twists into a hard knot.

It’s raining glass.

That’s the last thing I see before a wave of dust rolls over the building.

Leaving us in darkness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelly DeVos is from Gilbert, Arizona, where she lives with her high school sweetheart husband, amazing teen daughter and superhero dog, Cocoa. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. When not reading or writing, Kelly can typically be found with a mocha in hand, bingeing the latest TV shows and adding to her ever-growing sticker collection. Her debut novel, Fat Girl on a Plane, named one of the "50 Best Summer Reads of All Time" by Reader's Digest magazine, is available now from HarperCollins.

Kelly's work has been featured in the New York Times as well as on Salon, Vulture and Bustle.

AUTHOR LINKS

Author Website

Twitter: @kdevosauthor

Facebook: @kellydevosbooks

Instagram: @kellydevos

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