Review: Deadheading by Paul Cristo

A bizarre sickness is infecting the planet, turning its victims into contorted piles of flesh. Lewis barely notices though, rarely looking up from his number-crunching job and voracious appetite for streaming entertainment. But his life changes forever after waking up one morning to find the world’s population eradicated. Stranded without food or water, he’s forced to use ingenuity to survive, foraging resources from the desolate city around him.

Until he discovers he’s not alone.

Lewis’s new life is threatened by a violent gang of gun-wielding scavengers. He learns these men are harvesting survivors, inflicting slavery and torture for a horrifying purpose.

Outmanned and outgunned, Lewis and some newfound friends must band together, employing their collective wit and cunning against a deadly foe to avoid being killed. Or worse… captured. 

DEADHEADING is a post-apocalyptic journey of survival, ingenuity, and a dollop of vengeance. 

Deadheading is a new release and debut from author Paul Cristo.  It’s not quite This Is the End, but it’s got a really funny layer of satire running through the entire novel.  It’s also not exactly Zombieland, since there aren’t zombies, but it has that humorous element.  You wouldn’t think Lewis, our main character, would be cut out for surviving the end of the world, but man is it fun reading as he tries to survive! 

The inciting event here is a global pandemic that transforms and kills people and WOW did I feel it when Lewis talked about not having some necessities.  It’s really topical and almost too real for at some points because of the current global pandemic.  It’s a rollicking adventure through the end of the world with a funny narrator and danger around every corner.  I really reminded me of The Martian because Lewis has to figure out how to do so many things from finding books in a library.  He doesn’t exactly grow potatoes in dirt fertilized with his own feces, but it’s nicely similar.

There is some gore, but that’s to be expected in an adult level science fiction book.  It’s post-apocalyptic in the best way and I really enjoyed it!  Lewis is great and I laughed out loud multiple times while reading this!  This is a really promising debut and I’m excited to see what Paul Cristo writes next!

Thank you to the author for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!