Love The Rising? Readers share 72 books like The Rising...

This book is one of my all-time favorites, because even though I knew it was fiction, it felt like nonfiction as I was reading it. It was that authentic, and that alive. I truly felt like I was reading an actual history book about an event from my own world. 

The narrative structure was also amazing, telling the entire story through interviews with survivors of the zombie war, and I was riveted by those stories. They showed me what it was like to face that zombie horror, which made me desperate to know what happened, how they survived, and how they managed. Although I was reading, it felt like I was watching actual people tell their tales.

Insecurity is huge in end-of-the-world stories. As humans, we have always sought shelter and security from the wilds of nature, animals, and the things we cannot see in the dark. We created fire and fences and walls and locked doors—to this day, in our modern era, we still need these things. At the end of the world, security is tantamount, but what if you need to go beyond your secured barriers? What if behind these walls, things aren’t actually as safe as you think they are? Finding out why a character would breach their safety is intriguing. After all, a story would be very different if the characters never ventured out of their homes, but if it’s safer inside, why would they go out?

Call me weird. I’m not a fan of series books. Unless, that is, they’re written by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. The problem with a book series for me is that I get bored of the same idea book after book after…zzzzzz. But when someone writing a book series is constantly bringing new ideas to the table, it keeps me reading. Couple that with characters we care about, and a heavy focus on moving the plot forward, and I’ll finish a book in no time and be eager to read the next one. This, my friends, is the first book in one of those series. 

The first of a series, this book introduces Angel Crawford, a high school dropout with an alcoholic dad, a dead-beat boyfriend, and an addiction to prescription drugs. When things in your life are that bad, waking up as a zombie is more of an opportunity than a setback – especially when her newly undead status comes with a fresh job at the morgue and access to all the brains she can eat. But her new job and secret lifestyle come with a big side portion of murder mystery. This whole series is a fun urban fantasy romp that goes down smoother than a feast of brains. 

When zombies meet the political thriller energy of 24 or Designated Survivor, I’m always going to be in. So it blows my mind that I’m late to the party when it comes to Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy.

This means that I have to confess that I’m not quite finished reading Feed. I know, I know. Rather bold of me to go ahead and include it in a recommendation list, huh? But when you know, you know.

This book has far too many things I love not to include it. It’s got a survivable, post-zombie world. A scary-believable viral premise. Two reporters who are determined to break the story of a lifetime, no matter the risk. And a deadly, twisting political conspiracy. I mean, this is so much story candy all wrapped up in an undead bow. 

Pierce writes intelligent military zompoc because he’d been in the thick of things during the Rhodesian war. He knows a thing or two about writing battle scenes because he’s done a thing or two in real life. This story is different because it isn’t about a tiny group of survivors trying to make through the apocalypse. It’s bigger in scope and encompasses one governor and the national guard doing all they can to hold the line against the undead hordes. Intelligent writing and “believable” scenarios set this military thriller apart from many of the rest.

Chris may not be the most notable in this list, but his place is deserving. So often – and I’m guilty of this too – the zombie apocalypse is tackled head-on by a team of superhuman snake eaters. While this makes for great fiction, there’s also a beauty in showing how the average person would fare. Chris’ Zombie Castle series, and also his EMP trilogy UKD, gives the reader that perspective. It’s almost a happy apocalypse, a feel-good end of the world, and shows characters who keep their spirits up no matter what they face.

In Dead City, Ian Keys created a drug that stopped the ravages of the zombie infection and allowed infected to live alongside humans again…or did he?

The cure he’s developed may not be a cure afterall and the company that hired him is keeping dangerous secrets from the world, with a secret agenda that threatens all of humanity.

If Ian can’t find out the truth in time, the world as he knows it may be destroyed.

I got caught up in the suspense, wondering what would happen next and if Ian would survive or get caught by the company or the zombies.

Sarah Lyons Fleming writes beautiful prose. She also writes characters that you’ll fall in love with (or hate) and want to keep reading about. The main character, Cassie, embarks on an epic journey through the zombie apocalypse for a second chance at love with her ex-fiancee. Along the way, she has to rediscover who she is and grow to overcome everything that the world keeps throwing at her. The action is great, but it’s the relationships between the characters that make this a truly excellent series. I cried my eyes out reading these books and the others set in the same universe, which isn’t something I often do. But however heartbreaking parts of them may be, Sarah Fleming always leaves room for hope for love and a future.

Otto is an average guy going to work in a divided America when the zombie apocalypse occurs.

Suddenly there are zombies everywhere, but if anyone can survive the zombie apocalypse, it’s Otto, who’s got a gun collection and loyal friends and family willing to do whatever it takes to survive the zombies and find out what caused the zombie apocalypse.

I loved the sense of humor and the wacky adventures that balanced the overall horror of the story.