The worst book of the seven I’ve read so far in 2026 (and it’s not close), Dating After the End of the World by Jeneva Rose isn’t my typical kind of read, but I could have enjoyed it if it had been executed better.
As with all my reviews, I’ll be objective about the writing technicalities, and specify where I feel something is valid but not to my taste. My final rating will be an average of my objective score and my personal opinion. Spoilers are signposted.
So what is it?
short_synopsis
A doctor flees to her prepper father’s compound when zombie’s rise up, only to find her childhood bully has taken residence in her bedroom.
plot
If you were to go into this blind, as I did, you’d be forgiven after the first couple of chapters for thinking this is a quite serious book. In reality, it’s a romantic comedy, and the sudden shift in tone gave me whiplash.
It follows the standard formula for such a story, which is fine if you like that sort of thing, but I disliked how predictable it was. The “twists” were not a surprise.
One plot point relies on the time it takes for a bitten person to turn into a “zombie” to be exact to the minute. Forgiving that we’re dealing with the fantastical, that’s just not how biology works.
MINOR SPOILER BEGINS
As they were running for their lives at the time a biting happened, and no-one stopped to check the time, how did they know the exact moment someone was due to turn? They couldn’t have, so two subsequent sequences felt contrived.
MINOR SPOILER ENDS
MAJOR SPOILER BEGINS
In the beginning, the main character’s fiancé abandons her when they’re attacked. When her fiancé returns towards the end, his excuse for ditching her is awful, yet the main character barely questions it. It was unbelievable that she’d so quickly accept his nonsense and get back with him, especially as she’d hardly given him a second thought since the moment he ditched her.
MAJOR SPOILER ENDS
people
The main character is not likeable and comes across as a teenage girl, not an experienced doctor.
When her fiancé abandons her (right at the beginning), she seems peeved but nothing more than that. I’d expect some heartbreak, and maybe some real anger, but there’s neither.
For a doctor who will presumably have made an oath not to harm anyone, she has no issue with killing. Yes, there’s the rationale that she’s in peril, but a little introspection afterward would have added realism and made her more relatable.
Her love interest also acts as if he’s still a teenager. It’s “bully to lover” which, as someone who was bullied, is a bonkers concept.
The other characters were sketches with little depth at best, clichés at worst.
MAJOR SPOILER BEGINS
When the fiancé returns at the end, he’s such a ridiculously cartoonish villain that it wasn’t funny.
MAJOR SPOILER ENDS
place
This is a very narrowly-focussed story. There’s no mention or thought of how wide the zombie apocalypse is, whether there’s other groups of survivors nearby they could help or trade with or be fearful of, or any long-term planning. They all seem to accept immediately this is the way the world is now and will be forever, and there’s nothing to do about it.
prose
The occasional nice turn of phrase was heavily outnumbered by clunky moments. The language was functional rather than evocative. The “banter” between the two love interests felt more like bickering and was tiresome.
There were multiple occasions where there was a lack of research or editing, and the action scenes in particular suffered from inaccurate or unbelievable moments that kept pulling me out of the story. Individually, they might have felt like nitpicking, but in this volume, they were annoying.
As a romantic comedy, it was light and fluffy, except for some of the wounds and injuries which were strangely gruesome, one in particular that was way over the top and farcical.
In the end, one of the biggest problems was I just didn’t find it funny.
conclusion
Whilst I liked the concept, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone. I don’t tend to read romantic comedies, but can be certain there will be better examples.
My score: 1 out of 5
A list of the book reviews posted to my blog is here.
Arrowmaker Books 