**This review contains spoilers**

Well, what can I say about The Other Life? Let’s see…

Susanne Winnacker’s The Other Life is an intense, fast-paced dystopian thriller with just a touch of horror to suck me in and keep me entertained. It was like a tamer version of The Crazies meets 28 Days Later. Most people automatically think zombies, but that’s not even close. Zombies are resurrected dead people; the Weepers, as they are called, are not dead. They’re just infected. With rabies, to be exact. But it’s some scientifically mutated(I guess that’s the right word) version of rabies which turns humans into fur-covered beasts, for lack of a better term, that only want to eat human flesh.

Sherry and her family(mother, father, grandmother, brother, and sister) all live in a bunker, safe from everything going on in their world. They’ve been down there for 3 years, waiting and hoping for the government to give a signal that everything is right as rain. The days go by and the only thing that happens is tensions rise and the food runs out. Deciding to risk life and limb, Sherry and her father set out to try and find some food for the rest of the family. When they arrive at a store, they are ambushed by Weepers. Sherry is saved by a boy named Joshua, but her father is taken by the beastly creatures.

Joshua takes Sherry back to Safe-Haven, which is where she meets a band of survivors who take her in and clean her up. Knowing she can’t stay there without her father or the rest of her family, she and Joshua go out on a mission to bring them all back. Getting her mother, grandmother, and siblings is easy; finding her father is not.

The Other Life pits humans against once-human Weepers(called that because it looks like they are crying constantly) in an insane battle for survival. Every now and then, you catch a glimpse into Sherry’s “other" life; the time before the rabies virus took over and wiped out most of humanity…or so she and the others believe.

Near the end, one of the characters offers up some information that completely shatters the illusion and makes for a nice twist. Of course, the book ends without much closure, so I am hoping there will be sequels. This books screams for one…or two…or more. I know I need to find out what’s going to happen and if there will be any sort of hope for the band of survivors.

Overall, the book was a quick, yet exciting read, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a little bit of horror with their dystopian fiction.