Devils Unto Dust by Emma Berquist

Devils Unto Dust

by Emma Berquist

Keep together. Keep your eyes open. Keep your wits about you.

The desert is unkind in the best of times. And the decade since the Civil War has been anything but the best of times for Daisy Wilcox—call her Willie—and her family. This tense, heart-pounding alternate history about a young woman fighting to survive the unthinkable will keep fans of Westworld and The Walking Dead reading late into the night.

A horrifying sickness has spread across the West Texas desert. Infected people—shakes—attack the living, and the surviving towns are only as safe as their perimeter walls are strong. The state is all but quarantined from the rest of the country. Glory, Texas, is a near ghost town. Still, seventeen-year-old Willie has managed to keep her siblings safe, even after the sickness took their mother. But then her good-for-nothing father steals a fortune from one of the most merciless shake hunters in town, and Willie is left on the hook for his debt. With two young hunters as guides, Willie sets out across the desert to find her father. And the desert holds more dangers than just shakes.

This riveting debut novel blends True Grit with 28 Days Later for an unforgettable journey.

Reviewed by limabean74 on

4 of 5 stars

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I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I started this book. I am not a huge fan of zombies and I was a little nervous. I am very happy I read this book because it was not what I expected.


  • Set in a Dystopian world, it has a sort of western feel to it. I can't remember if it ever gave a time frame out year but it seemed like it was set more in the future.

  • I never experienced character build like this, it was really slow, the book almost revolved around the build of these characters.

  • The Story is told in Willies (Daisy Wilcox) POV. You are seeing the entire book through her eyes and learning about each character from her. You learn a lot about her and it's progressive, so it happens over the entire length of the book.

  • The Garrett Brothers and Willies brother Micah are traveling across the desert to find their father and bring him back to repay a debt that is making life for his kids worse than it is.

  • The "shakes" are the zombies, they aren't in the book a lot but the fear of them jumps from the pages.

  • The story is just a lot of walking and reflecting, explaining the surroundings and how Willie is feeling.

  • It had a lot of twists and turns. One of the twists, ripped my heart out. I was shocked. This happens almost at the end. I was also not expecting a lot of what happened to happen. This book had me on the edge of my seat.



I think the reviews on this book are mixed but for me, I loved it. One of the best character build in a book and this story had me on the edge of my seat and I was finding it very hard to put down. Emma Berquist is a new to me author and one I plan to keep an eye on, because, I would love to read something else from her. Highly recommend in my opinion. I really enjoyed this

Thanks for stopping by to check out my review.

Have a great day and Happy Reading!

This review was originally posted on Because reading is better than real life

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 10 September, 2017: Finished reading
  • 10 September, 2017: Reviewed