Emily is alone. Two years after the end of the world, she talks to herself and smashes heads with her favorite sledgehammer. This is not the life she imagined for herself as her eighteenth birthday rolls past.
It’s time for her to look beyond her safe, little hiding place to the world beyond. The madness of the apocalypse is ending, the dangerous in-betweeners – those no longer quite human, but not yet dead – are few and far between. The deaders that cover the world are going still, their senses dulled by time and the elements.
The problem is that there are no people…none. Emily has found not a single living human when she’s dared to step outside her safe-zone.
As Emily weighs the heavy cost of surviving alone and begins to accept the inevitable, everything changes once again. One of the deaders at her gate turns out not to be a deader at all. He’s an in-betweener different from any other she has seen before, and he carries a message. If Emily has the courage to step beyond her gate and the skills to survive a perilous trip in a dead world, she might just have a chance at life…a life with humans… after all.
At 24, Sam is one of the good guys. He loves his mom, apple pie, and Sunday sports. When the world around him went crazy, his first year as a special education teacher came to a tragic end. Since then, he’s found himself with a brood of five found children, from baby Jon to the almost-grown Veronica. He’s done his best, scavenging the city around them for food and keeping them alive and hidden, but resources have run dry and it’s time to move. Now that Jon is two years old, Sam thinks they can take the risk.
And Sam has just found what might be their salvation. A lone – and possibly crazy – girl at the edge of town, safe behind warehouse walls.
Eighteen year old Emily has a system. She wakes, eats, brushes her teeth, then spends the morning bashing the monsters that gather at her fences. That’s labeled as cardio on her schedule. Vigorous cardio.
The last time Veronica checked, the world outside was still dead… and still covered by the sort-of-undead remnants of humanity. That was this morning. Now, she has to run that gauntlet to try and save Emily, just as Emily once saved her.
Between bashing heads and scavenging for what’s left, it’s all Veronica can do to keep going. She won’t give up though, not on the world, not on Emily, and most especially not on the possibility of a cure.
That’s right. I’ve gotten so much mail from readers about this series that I’m gobsmacked! I’m gratified beyond belief that readers are loving the series and connecting with the characters. I just didn’t expect so much connection. Many… okay most… of those who write me want to know more about the earlier stories for characters like Sam, Violet, Tom, Charlie & Savannah, plus Gregory and Matt.
At first, I wasn’t so sure about it, but now that I’ve written the short story, Vindica, (Violet’s origin story), I realized there was a whole lot to write and many stories that needed to be told. The Book of Sam is the first of those novels. And it’s a big, fat novel too.
What’s different? Well, in The Book of Sam, we start at the actual beginning of the Nanite Apocalypse. As in, day one. Unlike The In-Betweener, where we joined Emily after two years of apocalypse had already passed, we join Sam at the moment of. That means that you can use The Book of Sam as an alternate beginning point for the entire series! Most people still think the order of publication is best, but there are options.
Sam’s first year of teaching is over and he thinks he’s got a handle on being a responsible adult. Life is smooth sailing and he couldn’t be happier if he tried. Then everything changes in one terrible day and he’s not ready for any of it.
Savannah’s final year of college just went from bad to spectacularly awful. Instead of boring summer classes and dollar shot night, the world has gone insane. People everywhere are tearing each other apart. It’s not ideal.
Yep, Christmas Between Life and Death was a gift to my VIP List in 2015, but is now permanently available on Amazon.
At reader request (okay, demand), I’ve written an epilogue to beat all epilogues. At over 20,000 words, it’s a good chunk of words. So many of you wanted to know what happened after the end of the story in Between No More. (To be more specific, what happens between that year and the epilogue 20 years later). Those answers lie inside Christmas Between Life and Death.
Ever wonder what happened to the crew between the end of the last book and the epilogue?
Wonder no more.
In this holiday volume of the Between Life and Death series, there are no epic battles, no desperate search for the truth, no struggles to find love in a world of the dead. In Christmas Between Life and Death, the crew experiences the calm after the storm. With the smoke cleared and the battlefields left behind them, they now have to face a world that needs to be celebrated. They need to bring the traditions back.
It’s time to re-imagine Christmas.
"I'm not a huge fan of zombie fiction, but I am a big fan of Ann Christy's books so I gave 'The In-Betweener' a try. So glad I did because this is trademark Christy complete with wonderful characters, a strong narrative, and impressive world building along with some interesting ideas to contemplate... This is a wonderful story, well written and well thought out, with an intriguing heroine and some really well done action sequences. It's a little bloody at times, but contains some very poignant moments as well. All in all, a great novel from a writer who truly has mastered the craft."
"As usual, the world Ms. Christy creates is well-researched and fully realized. I loved Emily, and I loved her mother and their relationship. Both of these women are smart and tough. It was nice to read a book with a positive mother-daughter relationship, as so many parental relationships in dystopian novels are terrible or non-existent. Emily is alone for most of the story and I couldn’t help but ache for her loss and loneliness. I am not normally a fan of the typical zombie book, but I love and trust Ann Christy’s work. Thankfully, The In-Betweener is not a typical zombie book. Yes, there are “zombies,” but the basis for their condition is scientific and medical, not simply because of a crazy supernatural virus. Christy is at her best when she is highlighting the dangers of human hubris and our shocking ability to ignore the fact that we are doing things we just should not be doing. There is some violence and a little bit of gore in the story but nothing gratuitous, which I appreciated."
"Terrific author. Great story. Excellent editing! I first discovered Ann Christy from her Wool offshoot stories. I very much enjoyed those and as usual when I find an author I like, I scoured Amazon for more from her. I’ve torn through quite a few of her works and have not been disappointed! I really love that her stories are well written, with great characters, and with no irritating typos. I’ve not found inconsistencies or sentences I’ve had to read two or three times to figure out. As a voracious (and picky) reader I really appreciate excellent editing! I’ve abandoned books and authors for less. I highly recommend this book and this author."
"When I first started reading, I thought, "I hope the author has something new to add to the post-apocalyptic zombie genre, because it's getting a bit old and hackneyed." Ann Christy did not disappoint, did not fall into regurgitating what I've read or watched hundreds of times, did not settle for tried and true tropes that have become tired and boring. Instead, she expanded the conventions of the undead with an interesting new take on causality that is based on emerging medical technology. And the cause for the outbreak also makes stopping the undead different, harder, and more believable than most stories. It made my spine shiver, thinking about how plausible her scenario might be. I was hoping for something new and entertaining, and this well-written book delivered. Can't wait to read the rest of the series!"
"I really enjoyed the strong female leads, who display both courage and intellect (women in the sciences!), and the technology portrayed in this futuristic setting. I'm eager to read the sequel novels, which, from what I have seen, include new characters. I'll be interested to see how the living continue to survive and how society will rebuild... if it can. I've been hooked on Christy's books since reading this one, her stories and characters never fail to draw me in. She quickly moved her way into my top 3 authors! I recommend her to anyone interested in sci-fi survivalist novels."
Ganette Harley
February 24, 2021 - 6:25 am ·I just finished “Between life and death, the journal” I loved it! The story from writings in a journal as read by the new occupant in the house was a creative angle to tell day to day happenings to Jillian and her neighbors. I hated for it to end. One thing I did notice is that I never found a line said or done that was a total improbable scenario. I like that, it shows that the author is knowledgeable and the story was not rushed to finish.
Ann Christy
April 6, 2023 - 11:13 pm ·Thank you so much! I appreciate it so much when someone notices the little things, since those are the most work and almost never remarked on (or reviewed). I’m very glad you enjoyed the book. Ann
Gregg Eshelman
December 11, 2019 - 8:44 am ·These would be so much better as a TV series than that AMC series where they don’t call the zombies, zombies.
Shannon
October 13, 2016 - 6:42 pm ·I loved these 3 books!!! Love loved! I would also love a book about Emily and her “tribe” after they left the group. What did they do those 18 years and how did they live. I’d love to read about the world through their new human eyes. That would be so cool!
Ann Christy
December 31, 2015 - 12:42 pm ·I’m the same way when I find a new book that is different. I devour them!
Ann Christy
December 31, 2015 - 12:42 pm ·I’m so glad you enjoyed it! And yes, she ends that book in quite a pickle. 🙂 Ann
Johnny Guido
December 11, 2015 - 3:00 am ·Just got through reading “In-Betweeners”. Cannot say enough about the story. I love your way of humor along with the sadly realistic problems the Emily is putting up with. Now she has to worry about when she will change…
Awesome!
rebecca l. polen
November 17, 2015 - 8:31 pm ·where can i purchase these books,i would really like hardcovers cause the letters are bigger and easier to read, but they are so hard to find under the “the in-betweener”
thank you rebecca l. polen
Ann Christy
December 2, 2016 - 12:00 am ·I’m sorry I missed this comment all this time! Please accept my apologies for the delay. There are paperbacks of all four books now, but no board back books. The kindle version can be easily adjusted for font size though.