Scorched, the convoluted story about a girl who could start an apocalypse just by hatching a dragon. It’s a dragon apocalypse!
You know, I honestly donScorched, the convoluted story about a girl who could start an apocalypse just by hatching a dragon. It’s a dragon apocalypse!
You know, I honestly don’t know why I picked up this book from my ARC stacks. I just felt like dragons. But I probably should have guessed, based on the dragon coping a feel of the the girl on the cover there, that this book wouldn’t be for me. I stuck with it, though, and gave it a fair shot. All the way to page 136 when I had to stop for my sanity’s sake.
So the writing itself wasn’t the worst. I had no real problem with its descriptors or anything but the three main characters drove me completely up the wall.
The plot tried to pull this WHAT A TWIST style story structure. Trying to keep you guessing on who Trinity should trust. The clear answer being your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman and nobody else. Spiderman would have known what to do.
The most aggravating thing about this novel is that a few pages can’t go buy without Connor mooning over Trinity. Or Trinity mooning over Connor. Or Caleb mooning over Trinity. I didn’t get up to the part where Trinity moons over Caleb, but I’m pretty sure it would happen eventually. And when people were kissing only a few hours after meeting, I wanted to throw the book at the wall and sing I Feel Pretty to myself until the pain went away.
“She was beautiful, he thought. The history texts did not do her justice. Sure, she had the same tangles of black curls falling down her back in waves, the same delicate features. But no photo could capture her long lashes, sweeping across freckled cheeks, or the way her lower lip plumped as she frowned in her sleep. And they certainly couldn’t capture the fiery passion in her black eyes, illuminating the spark that was so strong within her.” And no photo could capture my pain at having to read this shite every time Connor or Caleb decided to go all star-eyed over the most specialist special girl who ever specialed. Because Trinity is the uberspecial. She kicks off the apocalypse, she has super powers, she’s bonding with a queen dragon, she’s gorgeous, she’s going to be world famous/infamous. Two uber hawties travelled back in time ala Terminator to save her.
Kill. Me. Now.
And can we talk about the use of the word Fleck? Instead of swearing in the book, Connor and Caleb use the word Fleck.
[image]
Look, first of all, you’re a Young Adult novel. It’s okay to swear. Really. I give you permission to use the word fuck. And don’t try to tell me that it’s possible that 200 years in the future, people will have replaced fuck with fleck. It’s never going to happen. Fuck is a perfectly serviceable, good word that isn’t suddenly going to be replaced by some random reiteration of it within a few generations. It’s just… Stop it, okay? Just bloody swear because you’ve made me do enough of it already.
Basically, this book is a hot mess and I demand reimbursement for the pain it’s put me through. That or, I dunno, a puppy....more
This is a review for the much awaited conclusion of Penryn and The End of Days trilogy. I'm still waiting for this much awaited conclusion because I rThis is a review for the much awaited conclusion of Penryn and The End of Days trilogy. I'm still waiting for this much awaited conclusion because I refuse to believe what I just read was it.
[image]
It's not that End of Days was necessarily bad or poorly written. No, it's not that. The writing is consistent with her previous novels and the novel itself was reasonably satisfactory. But I didn't want satisfactory for the end of Penryn and Raffe's journey.
This was supposed to be epic. Earth shattering. The emotions were supposed to be soaring out of control on a unicorn with no sense of direction except for up! This was supposed to be a roller coaster ride of emotions that doesn't stop until everyone on it has puked on each other's faces.
There was more emotion, sexual tension and drama in Angelfalls pinky finger than in End of Days' whole body. Where did that raw emotional connection go? What happened with these characters that they are just so blasé about each other and that I am, in turn, blasé about them?
God, by the end of the book I was just like:
[image]
I'm not trying to be mean about this. I know it's hard to really knock it out of the park, but that's what this series deserved. It was owed so much more than this. I'm angriest because I know that Ee has it in her to wring truly powerful moments of raw emotion from her characters and readers. I felt it when Penryn was paralysed in Angelfall. I felt it when Raffe first realised Penryn was alive again in World After.
Yet I honestly can't think of a single moment of End of Days that sticks out to me as emotive or heartfelt. No single moment where my heart ached for the characters or the situation. Not a single Eeism, which I define as a condition when you want to marry a book because it gave you so many feels.
This isn't the review I wanted to be writing for End of Days. I kind of wish, now, that I had never read it and could keep going on imagining something more epic for these Starcrossed Lovers. Something that would do the story justice as a final book.
Otherwise known as Tumble & BORE (sorry, I hadn’t seen anyone use that pun yet). Tumble & Fail: the most boring apocalyptic book ever. A Tumble & Fall
Otherwise known as Tumble & BORE (sorry, I hadn’t seen anyone use that pun yet). Tumble & Fail: the most boring apocalyptic book ever. A gentler, kinder soul might say that it’s a character-driven novel exploring the way three teens face the oncoming apocalypse. That gentler and kinder soul would be wrong. The apocalypse is treated like background radiation. It keeps getting mentioned, but it’s hard to see what the hell it’s got to do with the book. Honestly, you could remove it and most of the book would scarcely be affected which is problematic considering how much the book rides on that concept.
This book is made even more boring since, for a bunch of people about to possibly die, and have everyone they love die, these are the most disaffected people ever. No joke, the first hundred pages or so of this novel is people standing around going:
[image]
“Hey, heard about that apocalypse thing?”
“Yeah, sucks. Wanna make out?”
“Sure.”
There you go. If you were interested in Tumble & Fall, you now have a basic grasp of the plot – times three! This is possibly the most disconnected and emotionless novel I have ever read. Even Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality was more interesting because at least it was funny! Zan gets the closest to some kind of emotional impact, but it’s over a boy who died 10 months ago. Where’s the examining of one’s life, the search for the meaning of it all, the desperate despair at an uncontrollable fate? If you’re writing a story about the oncoming apocalypse, here’s a tip, why don’t some of the characters spend some time actually agonizing over it. This novel spends so much time trying to be cool, yet fails to be anything other than frustrating.
The writing is abysmal, especially when it’s trying to be clever.
“Two things people make time for at the end of the world: Free food and a party.”
[image]
The two things everyone cares about is sex and doing all the illegal shit they couldn’t otherwise do unless the world was coming to an end. End times babies and our inherent affinity to breaking shit is proof of that.
Free food and a party? Don’t get me wrong, I will eat ALL the things if I know the end of the world is over. I’ll probably have cans of whipped cream on tap just so I can constantly be injecting it into my mouth. But a lame community center party with cocktail wienies? WHO DOES THIS?! You have a week to live people! It’s like you don’t even know how!
Here’s a tip:
-420 Party
-Booze
-Big ass speakers and a base.
-A packet of condoms (safe sex, kids! Even at the end of the world!)
-lube
-honey
-pine cones
-an enraged badger
-a bag full of feathers
-enough PVC glue to fill a vat
-a pool filled with corn flour slime
-inflatable pool filled with jello
-glow sticks
-whistles
-sparklers
-clothing optional policy
I don’t know about you, but that party sounds like it’d be totally illegal in at least 49 states but totally awesome in every single one of them! Boom. I should have written this novel.
Most of the time, unless I paid attention to the chapter header, it took me awhile to figure out who was who. I only figured out the difference between Zan and Sierra because one of them was constantly moaning about a dead boyfriend that I honestly couldn’t have cared less about. And the only thing that marks Caden’s chapters differently is that he’s checking out girls instead of boys and being even more disaffected than the other two characters. Which frankly seems like he bends the rules of the time space continuum to achieve.
What I want to know is, end of the world, why did Coutts pick the three most boring teenagers ever, living at the most boring place ever, to write about?
I stretched my brain to think about three characters I’d be even less enthused to read about and this was all I could come up with:
1. Someone whose goal is to document the full life cycle of the Boletellus obscurecoccineus fungus family before the end of the world. 2. A man desperately trying to convince family and friends to legitimately convert to Jedi-ism before the end of the world to save their mitochondrial souls (because he doesn’t really understand the force). 3. A mime trying to send a message of peace to the entire world through silent body motions – only to realize, sadly, that nobody cares. Because everyone hates mimes. Everyone.
Actually, I take that back. Those three people could actually manage to be more interesting.
Fail.
This book was given to me by the publishers for the purpose of an honest review. As you can see, there's no reason they would give me money, gifts or favors for this kind of stuff.
Adams has written a total psychopath, and sometimes I’m kind of worried because he doesn’t seem to think this character is necessarily a psychopath. OAdams has written a total psychopath, and sometimes I’m kind of worried because he doesn’t seem to think this character is necessarily a psychopath. Or maybe he’s fooling us. See, I interviewed him about this terrifying character and this was his response:
“I loved writing X because he doesn’t see himself as a bad guy at all. And maybe he’s not. What he has is a plan to save the world and the power to put it into action even though his means seem ruthless. But, like he tells Danby, God didn’t say to Noah, “Hey, beardy, get all the animals” – he said get two of each. X thinks it’s important to save people with skills to rebuild the world rather than try to save everyone. I think if you got access to government emergency plans, they’d have similar sort of ideas on the books. If you’re an author, sucked in. If you’re an engineer, we’ve got your Ark berth all made up. X’s point is also that circumstances have allowed him and Danby to create a new world from the ground up. There are no billionaires or politicians or celebrities to get preference over ordinary folk. Being able to explore his complexity – and Danby having to admit that he makes sense – made him feel very real and their relationship a joy to write. Those themes are picked up in the second book. Danby might not be as all-knowing as she can think she is. Or is she? Whaaaaaaaat?”
No, Adams. You’re a tops guy and I can’t wait to chug back beers with you one day (Editors note: OMG. We are so goddamn Australian it hurts), but no. He is eviller than someone who doesn’t like My Little Pony (the worst kind of evil).
I say this because The Last Girl is the best kind of Apocalypse book around. Not only original, but an actual apocalypse. With a lot of apocalypse books, you tend to see things just after the world has gone to shit. The story starts with a survivor, just after most of humanity is lost. The Lost Girl doesn’t shy away from all that, and Danby is in a situation where she has to choose who dies and who lives. Who she can save and who she has to abandon. That’s pretty intense. And that’s also hard work for a writer, thus why a lot skip it over in preference for getting down to the fun carnage bits. Believe it or not, it’s kind of hard to orchestrate a believable end of the world, from a writerly point of view.
Doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Mainly, it’s biggest issue is me. Because I’ve read so many bloody apocalyptic novels that they all tend to blend into each other. However, for someone mostly new to the genre – this would be a good place to start. Think John Marsden meets Pyscho, though I’m not sure Adams meant it to be this way. The concept is original, Danby is cool, but the set up isn’t. Love triangle, psycho boyfriend, only one girl who can save them all. It’s pretty run-of-the-mill stuff in Young Adult Landia. Shatter Me did the psycho boyfriend better, but since The Last Girl doesn’t have the horrible purple prose, it wins on all other accounts. And the setting in Sydney is refreshing to the usual middle America. Writing is pretty good.
It took me a while to get into this book. The love-triangle thinggie didn’t help, but then things get full on scary and that’s when the book gets good. The first half of the book is a 2.5 star read for me, but the second half was a solid 5 star because it gets suspenseful as all hell. The narrative itself feels kind of critical of social media, and Adams seems to be aware of that. Is constant connectivity a good or bad thing? I feel like that’s what The Last Girl is really asking. And it’s answer is that we don’t really want to be connected to everyone at all times, we only think we do. We want everyone to know that we’re eating a cake in the shape of Steampunk Harley Quinn’s face for our birthday party, but not that we think anal beads would be a fun thing to try this weekend. And that’s an interesting distinction, one it pays to wonder if future generations will have to struggle with more than us. The line between our real selves and our online selves becomes increasingly blurred. And what if we stop knowing the difference? The implausibility of the story vehicle aside, The Last Girl asks a lot of questions. Ones I’d be happy to answer as soon as I’m finished looking up pictures of cats who like cheese burgers and can’t spell.
I have no complaints, people. I’m putting this on my Christmas List Recommendation Guide Thinggie for Teenagers. I guess I’m just waiting for book #2 to come out to see if it can really deviate into amazing territory, and if Adams can keep up the momentum from the second half of the book. It seems to me, his strength lies in the psychological thriller side, which the second book seems to promise a lot of.
Until then, peanut butter jelly time! (Because I’m shallow and all moral quandaries result in the celebration of useless memes.)
[image]
This book was provided to me for review purposes. Nobody paid me for it and I received no favours or gifts for it. This is a problem. Where's my goddamn pony?! I was promised a pony! Can someone get back to me asap with my pony?!
I have kidnapped your review. Your review is not harmed and shall be released as soon as you meet my demands.
In exchange Attention Mister Rick Yancey,
I have kidnapped your review. Your review is not harmed and shall be released as soon as you meet my demands.
In exchange for giving you back your review, which I am prepared to do, you will first need to provide for me:
1 copy of The 5th Wave #2 – undamaged, complete, unmarked (except for your signature or a stylized message to me).
This copy of The 5th Wave #2 must also contain certain characters unharmed and ready for me to snuggle them in my imagination.
Characters include:
Cassie – Because she’s badass
Zombie – Because he’s adorable.
Nugget – Don’t ever even think about hurting him.
Ringer – She is my hero.
The Silencer (I won’t mention its real name here so as not to spoil) – This character is essential. Failure to provide this character will result in immediate disposal of your review. I’m not even kidding.
Please leave my requested item in my PO Box. Do not call the police – they can’t help you for I am no longer human at this point but a starved, ghost-like creature dependent on my next hit of The 5th Wave lest I waste away. If I see that you have called the police (or the next best thing, your publisher) then you will leave me with no choice but to kill the review.
I’m sorry it had to come to this, Mister Yancey. I had hoped that we could come to some kind of reasonable arrangement. But you had to go and write a wonderful book and the next one is not due for publication until August 2014. August 2014? Now do you see how you have pushed me into a corner here? I’m an everyday hero, doing what I must to survive.
Once my demands are met, I will upload the review as promised. Think about this, Yancey. Nobody needs to get hurt here. We can all win.
Sincerely,
Kat Kennedy
An ARC was supplied to me by the publisher for the purpose of greater understanding American line dancing. Alas, all I used it for were review purposes that I was in no way paid for. Bummer.
Steph, baby, honey-munchkin. You are going to love this one. I usually don’t do Dystopians much anymore. Steph still loves them though, so I’m kind ofSteph, baby, honey-munchkin. You are going to love this one. I usually don’t do Dystopians much anymore. Steph still loves them though, so I’m kind of excited to see how she’ll feel about it. I didn’t know what to expect because I hadn’t loved Bracken’s previous work, Brightly Woven. Yet this book was getting rave reviews. All I can say is, my god that writer’s done her work. This was a massive improvement on both a technical level and story-telling level.
Ruby lives in a world where an entire generation of children spontaneously sprout super-human powers. This results in her being towed off to a concentration camp where she is raised under constant threat of death and inhumane conditions. But when Ruby breaks out of Thurmond, the Dystopian equivalent of an Auschwitz, she finds that life on the outside isn’t much better. She meets up with a group of kids and the adventure goes from there with a lovable cast of characters. The back drop of this hauntingly close dystopian world begins to unfold.
As I said, Bracken’s writing has improved dramatically. Her only real issue involves vague writing in connection to action scenes and I would have ideally preferred a smoother, tighter plot. The scene where a van is attacked is a good example. It’s a confusing hot mess to figure out what exactly happened. The writing, uncharacteristic considering the rest of the novel, was not smooth at all and there was a strange disjointed feeling – the same one that had plagued Beautifully Woven. This is a pretty significant development. Almost as good as getting out a near perfect debut novel, is learning and developing and improving so much on the next, which Bracken has clearly done. Especially when I read it thinking, “Is this even the same author?” For this, Bracken, I salute you!
[image]
But this is a very character driven novel and as such, the characters are a big part of what makes it a great read. Liam, Chubs, Suz, Clancy – these are the big characters that keep you reading alongside Ruby. If you don’t connect to Ruby or these other characters, then you will struggle to enjoy it at all. The novel races almost from start to finish – though readers will have to excuse a little bit of a bumpy beginning. Darkest Minds seems to have something to say about true freedom, but I can’t actually decide what main theme it’s working on. It’s not a perfect novel, there’s still plenty of improvement to be had in tightening the plot, technicalities and smoothing out some of the narration. The romance between the two leads wasn’t as convincing as I would have liked. It’s never ideal when a reader wonders what even connects them, let alone binds them in love, but I felt it was an enjoyable book.
In fact, this would be the one aspect of Bracken’s writing that I feel has been neglected. North and Sydelle had a much more believable connection with a more developed romance than Ruby and Liam got. However, the story manages to move along at a brisk pace without ever really falling into being stagnant or boring. Darkest Minds mostly hits all the high notes and, in my opinion, it’s well worth checking out. People keep saying that Dystopia is a dead genre, but I think Steph and I are very happy to see it fighting the odds!
The ARC was provided to me for review purposes. I did not receive any money, gifts, favours or dragons for reviewing it. Though I'd have liked the dragons./>
Taylor’s gift is her ability to infuse every page with magic and emotion. I admire her writing even when my critical self finds fault with the story itself. Somehow, Dreams of Gods and Monsters is both far superior and somewhat inferior to Days of Blood and Starlight. Though neither can compare to the perfection of Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
It’s been so long since I actively disliked a book that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. The more I tried to separate my dislike for the chIt’s been so long since I actively disliked a book that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. The more I tried to separate my dislike for the characters and storytelling and try to analyze it impartially, the more I found myself saying, “Bugger this! Drink anyone?” to the empty air around me.
Crewel is a post-apocalyptic dystopian world in which women are oppressed and tightly controlled. It is a world where matter and people can be weaved and stitched through special looms that Spinsters use. This should have been right up my alley. It was definitely right up something, but it wasn’t my alley.
Unfortunately, Crewel is a heavily character-based novel. I say unfortunately because there isn’t a single character with more complexity or depth than a kiddie pool and certainly none of them are even a fraction of the fun. Even the main character, whose head we live in, is so vague and two dimensional that any actions and emotions she displays felt disconnected from the reality of the novel. This story, even in its most intense moments, was emotionless and the opposite of affecting. It was like watching a play only the stage is at the bottom of the cliff and you’re at the top. So far removed that you can see what the actors are doing but engaging in them or the story is impossible.
There are a number of characters the narrator expects us to care about: Elanor, Valery, Amie, Jost, Erik, Pryana. However, most of these characters barely even have a role. Most of Valery’s speaking lines come after the Great Tragedy that befalls her – and they’re still only a few lines. Elanor as well, while having a slightly bigger role, is little more than a convenient plot device and represents one of the only semi-positively written female characters. Her role is so tightly packed into being a convenient tell-machine for the narrator to pass information, and to resolve a later plot point that there is nothing else to her.
The plot itself is a hot mess with no direction or focus. It flits around distractedly, trying to accomplish everything and achieving nothing. Don’t even get me started on the ending! The main selling point of this novel is the weaving – which Adelice does almost none of since she spends more time making goo goo eyes are boys than she ever does interacting with women or doing the damn thing this book was named after.
This is made even worse when you consider the face that the romance in this book is justifiably scoff-worthy. There isn’t even enough material between them for one convincing romance. Since Adelice is about as interesting as wet cardboard, it’s hard to imagine anyone falling for her. Each boy barely fares better. Their personalities combined still wouldn’t save them from being inhumanely dull. They are just two more wooden puppets in a whole cast of wooden puppets.
For a novel that is supposed to be about the struggles of women in a highly patriarchal world, this novel was dreadfully sexist. When I spoke to a friend about this issue, they said, “I tend to disagree with a lot of the criticism re: the book being sexist, but think you could probably make a more compelling case.”
Well, buckle up your seatbelt, sunshine*! Here’s my case!
*Seatbelt not actually required.
Readers can and should make a deal about the slut-shaming and complete lack of positive female characters. That’s an issue all in itself. But then, I guess, one could also sweep that aside with justifications. Because there are unpleasant and horrible women out there – because women are people, and people come in a mixed bag. And a society so entirely preoccupied with purity would result in citizens slut-shaming girls for acting outside of those bounds. So there’s obviously an important discussion to be had on those topics, even though they are not definitely sexist on their own, only kind of sexist.
For me, the true test came when I considered what my Southern and Imaginary mother always told me and that is, “Honey cupcake, y’all should know that actions speak louder than words.” So true, Southern and Imaginary mother. So true. So whilst this book may have given lipservice to how unfair life was for women and how that TOTALLY wasn’t right or good, what service did the narration and plot actually have to say about women? Put it this way: When comparing the relevance and representation given to male and female characters in relation to their contribution to the novel, what does it say about women?
Almost every single male character we meet is important. Cormac, Jost, Erik are the three big ones. There are only a handful of other males with speaking roles in this book and they’re fairly neutral in their representation. People just doing their job. Only one male with a speaking role is depicted badly, which is a drunk, handsy official at a party – and he is still not portrayed worse than the woman trying to vie for his attention. At least, the characters narrating the situation focus on how disgusting she is, while he only gets a passing mention. I think there may be a waiter who has a speaking role for the purpose of showing how segregated and unfair they world is, but that’s it.
Compare that to the novel’s complete and utter lack of focus on women – which is pretty disgraceful for a novel that’s supposed to be about women’s struggles in a patriarchal society. The only important women in this book are Adelice and the women who torment her. We are introduced to whole batches of women, who are immediately dismissed by the character and text as meaningless and valueless. The girls from Adelice’s hometown? Just simpering morons waiting to get mated. Even her own younger sister cares for little else. It seems no one is as deep and thoughtful as Adelice. Then when she enters Coventry with a large group of her peers, they are immediately shown to be jealous and power-hungry, but ultimately completely inconsequential. We don’t meet any of them ever again whilst Jost, Erik and Cormac receive the large bulk of Adelice’s, and the narrative’s attention. Because they’re what really matters, ya know? What the menfolk are doing. The only exception to this rule, because it is a pattern repeated yet again when Adelice joins the Spinsters who are also cliquey and immediately dismissed from the narrative as pointless and worthless like the literally dozens of other women we meet, is Maela and Pryana. Maela is a power-hungry psychopath and Pryana is a power-hungry, vicious, idiot. Both are stupid and extremely ineffective at what they do. Female solidarity doesn’t exist in this novel. Unless you’re referring to the convenient plot-device that is Elanor. She is the sole exception.
Add to this the fact that the women in this novel all act inexplicably irrational. There is evil Cormac, and evil Maela and evil Pryana. Only one of them acts intelligently and with rationale – I’ll let you pick which one. You can depend on the evil women to be emotional, lashing out and sometimes hysterical. Behaviour that is never depicted in the men. For example, Maela asks Adelice to remove a strand from the weave. The strand is a person who doesn’t need to be removed and doing so could harm the weave, so she refuses. Maele takes her scalpel and tears into the weave out of anger. It turns out this was a school where Pryana’s sister lived. So Pryana… blames Adelice?! Because that totally makes sense. And she spends the rest of the novel irrationally tormenting Adelice. Valery, similarly blames Adelice for things that are entirely out of her control. It is so manufactured and senseless that it made the novel ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as the fact that Adelice spent the novel entirely focused on boys. The plot went something like this:
Adelice’s family dies
Cormac
meets horrible girls
boy
boy
Cormac
stuff about weaving
boy
boy
boy
boy
Cormac
More horrible girls
boy
boy
boy
Cormac
Cormac
Even Loricel, supposedly the one, decent woman in power in this book is little more than a caricature. You can’t claim a feminist text when the narration itself, despite constantly being surrounded by women, decides that all the male characters are so much more interesting and worth focusing on. When the few male characters are afforded exponentially more important roles than any of the many, many female characters – many of whom don’t even get the honour of a name or mention outside of just Horrible Female #35 who says horrible thing to Adelice. When the rate of decent male character so far outstrips the demonstration of decent female characters that there isn’t even room for comparison, you have a problem. You have a book that wants to say something about women, but ignores them in favor of focusing on men.
That is really fucking sexist. So… Bugger this! Drink, anyone?...more
See how happy, how healthy, how loving they are. ImaginSee this family?
[image]
Or this family?
[image]
Take a good long hard look at all of their faces.
See how happy, how healthy, how loving they are. Imagine you've known them your entire life and that you love each one more than life itself.
Now imagine if you were one of the people in that photograph with them.
Now imagine that I told you and all those other people standing and smiling with you that I was going to kill you all so that I could go for a trip to the beach...
Okay, now you know the basic plot of The Forest of Hands and Teeth.
I've mentioned before that I have a love/hate relationship with zombies. On one hand, I love reading zombie books and watching zombie movies. On the other I will then spend two weeks wide awake clutching a baseball bat while waiting for the shuffle of feet and the moans of the undead outside my bedroom door.
[image] I actually have something like this in my house...
I love the chase as things fall a part and slowly people are picked off one by one.
That's the thing that's almost a constant in the Zombie genre - is the psychological breakdown of the group. Usually in a zombie group, you'll find the differing personalities and human flaws are what slowly kills the group - not so much the zombies.
The difference between most of the zombie media, and this book, is that usually you watch things unfold from the sole sane person who is trying to keep all the crazies from turning themselves into meat patties and throwing themselves to the horde.
In this story you get to watch the gradual mental breakdown of a woman until she's willing to sacrifice anything and anyone just to live out a damn fantasy.
Okay, so I know the point of it is that there are dreams and dreams are important like freedom is important and you must always follow your dreams blah de blah blah!
Sorry, I'm a very pragmatic person.
Kill zombies first, fulfill life long dream of of seeing ocean second.
Yet, despite my utter hatred of the main character by the time I finished this novel, I still can't give it less than five stars.
I can't give it less than five stars because I spent most of this book gripping the bed covers in suspense. The characters were all great, realistic and interesting. Mary's decent into madness was COMPLETELY understandable and very well documented and this book was very well written and paced very well.
Then, of course, I had the satisfaction of knowing that if it had been me - I totally could have survived better than them. And that, my friends, is the biggest satisfaction you can get out of the zombie genre.
Oh yeah, baby.
My Zombie Plan totally beats the crap out of their Zombie plan.
Kat Kennedy
>
Books:
apocalypse-rah
(9)
Loading...
