The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People Paperback – February 26, 2012

I have to admit, I read the first chapter and almost deleted it. One of the main characters is a serious drug addict and at first I thought the book would just be about his delusions. I'm glad I kept reading. There are 2 POVs - the drug addict who travels through time and the girl he sees in the future that struggles to survive in a disease and zombie-infested land. The story gets more intense with each chapter. Though I generally don't care much for drugs and those who use them, this book portrays "Bosley" without excuses, with the ugly, bad and good, and makes him very human and believable. The other POV character, Ocean, is also well-written. Being able to make both the girl and the drug addict seem so real with completely different personalities takes real talent.

I also have to admit I'm not a zombie fan, it's an overdone concept and I'm tired of it. Even so, I enjoyed every page of this book. The plot was well written and the suspense kept me on edge the whole time. I will be looking for more of this author's books.

WARNING: If you do not like profanity, you will not like this book. It is full of it. In context, I understand why the author wrote it that way, but I know some people do not like to read profanity.

I'll be perfectly honest--I don't like time travel stories. The few I've tried to read which I've thankfully forgotten have always been a mix of one thing or another: convoluted, nonsensical, unrealistic (in the sense that they are staying true to the times they are travelling to,) that sort of thing. That isn't to say that all of them are like that, but The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People was not a book I would've willingly picked up based on its description. But given that I usually try to give all books with a unique idea a chance (especially, in this case, time travel mixed with the undead,) I decided to give it a go.

Boy, I'm glad I did.

The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People begins with a narrative that might appear as off-putting as it is interesting. Told from the perspective of whom we initially assume is a crazed druggy, the novel begins by telling us of Bosley Coughlin's exploits with a great `Eye' that shows him a vision of the distant future, which is not pretty in the least. Even he can hardly believe the idea of an America and a young girl who, at only fourteen, is struggling to survive and starving amidst the undead, but when a woman he knows begins exhibiting what he calls `The Seven Signs,' the future becomes a distinct possibility, and he must do all he can to stop it.

Perhaps the most distinct and well-done thing about William Todd Rose's The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People is its ability to seamlessly transport you between not only two different characters, but two different settings. Told, as I said, partially from Bosley's view in the present, the narrative shifts to the future where we run into Ocean, the fifteen-year-old girl whose fate our present-day narrator desperately wants to change. This presents us with an incredibly-easy and cohesive story to read. It seems like it could be two distinct tales, yet at the same time are intertwined; one plotline is so radically different in idea from another they don't seem to make sense; and the two narrators, an older man and a young girl, seem completely unlike one another, yet here's the thing: it's so seamless that your subconscious allows the two to merge to make the story one. That's no easy feat, all things considering, but Rose's power not only lies in interconnecting plots. Suspense, here, is key. Never is a chapter ended on a cliffhanger that doesn't make sense, and while in some cases you would rather just skip ahead to see what was going to happen, Rose wrote the suspense so deliberately that the events coincide with one another. It's like watching two rows of dominos fall at the exact same time. The pace never falters, the dread never lets up, and the mystique of the matter continues all the way up until the end, and persists even after it.

The Seven Habits of Highly Infective People is one of the best genre novels I've ever read. I can't call it just sci-fi, and I can't call it just zombie-horror, but I sure as hell can call it amazing. Five stars to this incredible work of fiction. This marks Rose as a name that has to be watched.

This book takes a bit to get into. It is set up that way,there are 2 main characters in 2 different time zones, that are connected. Each chapter bounces back and forth setting up the details of each one and their own storylines.

One is a small girl who lives in an apocalyptic future where the undead have risen due to a plague and humanity has fallen. This young girl is trying to survive as best she can, but then is discovered by a group of survivors who bring her in and give her safety and companionship. As her story progresses one sees that things are not quite what they seem.

The other story deals with a hippie type character, whom thru the use of hallucinogens and meditation, can see the future, and the young girl. He lives in the present world before the plague has hit. His visions tell him who is the carrier of the disease that will wipe out the human race and bring on the apocalypse. His goal is to stop the disease from spreading in the hopes that the future he sees through the young girl will never come to pass. Most important to him is his preventing the horrors the young girl has lived through and is living through never happen. He wishes to spare her of such a life, by stopping the outbreak his wish is she grows up living a regular happy life.

The story starts off a bit hard to follow, but soon you can tell whats going on. The characters are well done, there are some nasty twists to the story that keep it flowing. But in the end its message is even in the worst of circumstances, sometimes the will to do good prevails, but not in the way one plans.

A good story. The ending was not the predictable one that you expected. It is an interesting book in many ways and worth reading.