This is a tough book for me. It was somewhere between a 3 1/2 and 4 star. I am sure if I was still a teenager I would have loved this book but as an adult it had some problems. Some of the character interaction was very predictable and clichéd. Frankly if I never read another teen book with a love triangle my life will have lost nothing. This story line has played out. Authors need to move on from it.

On the really big plus side is the world. I loved it and most of the characters in it. It was a clever use of a virus and creating division. I will read the second book because I did love the world and liked the characters. I would have liked them more if there had been no love triangle. There was tension a plenty just surviving the world. ( )

I have a sweet spot for Dystopian YA. It was a very intriguing idea. It also didn't fall into the trap of having a large focus on a romantic relationship. ( )

A terrible virus was accidentally released in the Eastern United States, people fled west, now there's a wall to the west of the Mississippi. Healthy people live in the west, the sick and the outcasts live in the east. This virus has three stages: the early fever when the body tries to fight it off; the middle stage where the body mutates; and the final stage where the victim becomes insane and aggressive--Ferals.

To save her father, Lane has to go beyond the wall. She's aided by a soldier who'll do anything to cure the virus and an outcast who'll do anything to help her father.

This book had a huge Island of Dr. Moreau vibe coming from the "manimals" or those who are in the middle stage of the virus. The virus is able to carry and download DNA, meaning the infected now have at least one kind of animal DNA mixed with their human. (Do not ask me about the science. I do not understand the science. See: Dr. Moreau reference.) In some places they live side by side with the uninfected, in others they are slaves and worse. (Yes, worse. As in bred and killed for your fur and leather worse.)

The surprises in this book weren't really surprises, but that didn't take away from the story. It seems as if it's being set up for a love triangle, but there are plenty of things preventing that from taking center stage, so that's good. And it was very refreshing to see the corporation who accidentally released the virus taking responsibility for it instead of being the evil overlords.

(Provided by publisher) ( )

Step into the Feral Zone, where the stakes are high, the romance is steamy, and the dangers are unlike anything you've ever seen. . . .

Lane McEvoy gets the shock of her life when she learns that someone she loves has crossed into the Feral Zone, the forbidden wilderness east of the Mississippi River. Few have dared set foot in the Zone since the devastating biological disaster that killed millions and left the survivors . . . changed. But now Lane has little choice. She travels east, completely unprepared for what she finds in the ruins of civilization . . . and afraid to learn whether her humanity will prove her greatest strength or a fatal weakness.

In this bold and utterly original trilogy, acclaimed author Kat Falls brings you to the very edge of civilization and dares you to jump.

Really enjoyed this book. Exciting, with appealing protagonists, vile villains, and lots in between. The narrating main character is a strong, yet flawed and vulnerable teenage girl forced on a quest to save her father. Lots of action, a little sex, quite a bit of violence, but not described at grotesque length. Just right. ( )