THE OUTSIDE (THE HALLOWED ONES #2).

THE OUTSIDE by LAURA BICKLE.

BACK COVER BLURB: One girl. One road. One chance to save what remains.

The world is not what it once was. Two thirds of the population has been killed by a plague of vampires, and the survivors hide out in isolated territories - both protected and trapped by forces beyond their understanding.

Exiled from her Amish community and shunned for her refusal to adhere to the new rules of survival, Katie enters an outside world of unspeakable violence with only her two 'English' friends and a horse by her side. Together they seek answers wherever they can find them - but each sunset brings the threat of vampire attack, and each sunrise, the threat of starvation.

- An abridged version, for the full synopsis which may contain spoilers click here.

FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter One}: The hard part about the end of the world is surviving it, surviving when no angels scoop you up to fly you away to heaven.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 39}: I shuddered at the sound of the squeak of fingertips on the window, the scrape of a fingernail.

SOURCE: A gift from Mr T.

MY THOUGHTS: Having previously read The Hallowed Ones, part one in this two part series, I was both delighted and yet anxious to read this. Delighted because the first book was one of my favourite reads of 2014 and anxious worrying could this possibly be as good.

Thankfully every bit as good and, depending on what you were expecting, even better.

I say depending on what you were expecting as if you were expecting this to be firstly and foremostly a vampire story you might be a tad disappointed as whilst, yes, there are vampires to me this was equally (probably even more so) a story of relationships, of survival, of faith (one of the highlights for me was Alex explaining the 'End Times' according to various religious beliefs), of science vs religion ..... and more.

Picking up shortly from the events that occurred in The Hallowed Ones (whilst there are some recaps as to what happened previously this is one of those series I recommend has to be read from the beginning) The Outside sees Amish Katie (aka Bonnet) and Englishers Alex and Ginger, not forgetting, Horace, their trusty steed, on the road throwing them (and us, the reader) into the unknown - an unknown populated by vampires (non-sparkly, 'traditional' vampires who are afraid of the light etc - and Kate on a journey that sees her horizons widened, her faith tasted beyond anything she had expected.

Like its predecessor this is a novel I could wax lyrical about for some time. I loved the mix of the scary (thankfully the not too scary) with the psychological, Alex's no-nonsense common sense with what could be thought of as Katie's blind faith.