Book source ~ ARC. My review is voluntary and honest.

Jesse is from Australia and one of four teenagers who crawl out some subway wreckage in NYC when what looks like the apocalypse begins. The city is mostly in ruins. There’s no one in authority around to ask for help. It’s just them. And some kind of infected people who drink anything they can get their mouths on. Especially blood. WTF Jesse dubs them Chasers because they chase anyone they think will make a good meal. They have to find a safe place to stay and figure what to do when the world around them has gone to shit. Piece of cake, right?

This isn’t a horrible story. Well, I mean, what happens is horrible and the aftermath is a nightmare, but the story itself is okay. The writing style is totally weird so I was irritated by it, but there’s a reason for it as you’ll see if you stick it out to the end. There are really no answers by books end and I find that most unsatisfactory. This book feels like it’s a set up for the future books. Not a whole lot going on, but the back story is now set to move forward. It’s like eating one of those snack-sized chocolate bars. Nice, but now what you really want is a full-sized one. ( )

A great start but stutters out shortly thereafter.

Zombie fiction has become such a hugely popular thing lately and I can't help it I've been swept up and can't get enough.

Chasers is told entirely from Jesse's POV. He is a decent character and I got to really like him. I did like the other kids different personalities, I thought a lot of their behavior probably spot on. But almost the entire book is just all of them being holed up on the restaurant level of a skyscraper. Repetitive daily scavenging and lazing around for the most part.

Now, what was seriously aggravating was the lack of dialogue punctuation through the whole novel!

Chasers sounded like it would be a good addition to the young adult scene. I felt that this wasn't even a real zombie book. I tell you there were about FOUR zombie scenes. Four! What kind of zombie book only has roughly four scenes with them in it? The book is called "Chasers" and yet these "chasers" were barely seen, and hardly felt. Though admittedly I did like the concept of them being thirsty, not hungry for flesh like the typical genre zombie.

Depending on the kind of zombie book you are going, most of them still set your teeth on edge or instill this kind of tempered anxiety in you as you read. Unfortunately, I didn't feel anything with Chasers other than bored out of my mind. There was an awesome twist ending that I didn't see coming at all. It that made a lot of other stuff earlier on make sense, but it wasn't enough to redeem the overall experience for me. ( )

Really liked this, didnt know what to expect but it took me by surprise. The twist at the end was awesome. Looking forward to reading book 2. ( )

It started out awesome, because I liked the scenario and I was really into the story but then it started to lose steam. Paranormal is a fave for me but I just got bored with thIs one. Probably not going to continue on with the series either. ( )

Chasers, the first book in the Alone series, seems to put a lot of weight on its ending . . . and it almost works. Almost.

In New York City as part of some UN, gifted teens program, Jesse is on the subway with his group, Dave, Min and Anna when tragedy strikes. Yet, neither the fireball nor the death they see below ground seems to be the worst of it. Once they manage to make their way up, they encounter destruction -- and people who no longer seem to be people.

On the run for their lives, Jesse and the others will have to keep their wits about them and stay safe.

The ending of Chasers is definitely shocking and did leave me thinking. However, once I thought beyond the ending and thought back over the rest of the book, I realized not much happened. It wasn't an 'on-the-run' thriller with danger at every turn, though you knew they were under threat.

Nor was it quite a character study looking at how Jesse dealt with this new, amazing situation he found himself in. It was a small bit of both but not quite enough of either.

The characters spend time in in the 30 Rock building (really, the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza) and while having a recognizable building for the plot makes sense, it was also distracting. The obvious inaccuracies pulled me out of the story; a fictional building wouldn't/couldn't have been inaccurate.

The two female characters in the book seemed to be either whiny, scared, or one saying her future plan might be to "marry money and do nothing." (pg 7) It may just be how they came across but it seemed like the male characters took the initiative, had the ideas and did the reassuring while the girls were, well, the damsels in distress.

I will give the second book a try to see how it goes. This first book may have been a setup for the second (and third) books, in which case I may enjoy it more. If there isn't more action -- or even introspection -- and some character difference, I don't know, though. ( )