White Horse by Alex Adams, 292 pagespublished April 17, 2012 (review book from Simon and Schuster)
For people who are worried about genetic mutations, and corporations playing around with DNA and letting it into the population: I wouldn't recommend this book! If, however, you like apocalyptic books (like The Stand, or The Road) White Horse is a book to add to your collection. Be warned however: it is the first in a proposed trilogy, and when this one ends, you will be wanting the next book. Great last sentence! (but I'm not telling). Also warning, it's pretty gruesome in parts, but I read a little fast over those parts, sort of with my fingers covering my view.
Thirty year old Zoe narrates the book in first person, so we only see the story from her perspective, as an urn appears in her apartment and people are starting to get sick around her. She begins seeing a shrink, but the world is changing with all the sickness and death. The time line goes back and forth; then, when Zoe worked at Pope Pharmaceuticals and people begin getting sick, and now, as she makes her way across a devastated Europe. There is intrigue (the company she worked for), danger (navigating the new landscape as a lone female), and romance, as she tries to meet up with her boyfriend, hoping he is still alive.
Human beings may no longer be a viable life form, but Zoe is determined to keep her human characteristics and morals. This is not easy in the new world. I'm trying to imagine all the ways this trilogy will head. There is still a political aspect of governments and who is in charge. Plus the new genetic creatures that are around, and the individual relationships that Zoe has with others. Lots of potential!
