Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Audio
Good, but not nearly as good as the Truthwitch series :) I still love her writing... Dennard is excellent at painting a picture with words.
Good, but not nearly as good as the Truthwitch series :) I still love her writing... Dennard is excellent at painting a picture with words.
I liked it. Yes, there were some parts that lagged but it was a unique take on the living dead. Plus, I liked Clarence.
This is a YA Victorian Steampunk/Urban Fantasy story that follows a proper high-society young woman named Eleanor Fitt. She's at the depot waiting for her brother Elijah to return to town when the Dead Bell rings.
This means that the dead are rising and attacking in Philadelphia.
Much to Eleanor's horror, a zombie finds her in the depot and instead of attacking her, it delivers her a letter from her brother, informing her that Elijah is stuck in New York and can come home only "if I do what he needs." From the letter, it's clear that whoever is controlling the zombies is holding her brother prisoner.
So she decides to take on the task of finding her brother and to do so, she enlists the help of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who supposedly protect the city from supernatural forces, though we're not sure at this point whether they are legitimate and/or can be trusted - though they do have some pretty clever steampunk-like devices for battling the undead.
So along with the spirit-hunters, Eleanor searches for the necromancer — the one who's controlling the zombie army and no doubt has her brother.
This was quite an action-packed novel with a decent storyline, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. There was actually quite little focus on the zombies, and I would have liked to have seen more zombie action. And they weren't even real zombies — just basically corpses by black magic and being controlled by an unknown necromancer.
But I did like the premise of a YA Victorian steampunk-ish urban fantasy and thought that this aspect of it was a lot of fun even though the story ended up being somewhat predictable and only focused minority on the undead.
The story was fast-paced with plenty of oddball characters and a riveting ending, but at the end of the day, something was lacking for me. I guess I expected more zombies and more thrills, both of which were lacking in the story and I'm guessing that I'm not really the intended audience for this novel.
This is the first book in a series — a trilogy I believe — but one that I won't be continuing. I'm just not invested enough in this world or the characters.
This means that the dead are rising and attacking in Philadelphia.
Much to Eleanor's horror, a zombie finds her in the depot and instead of attacking her, it delivers her a letter from her brother, informing her that Elijah is stuck in New York and can come home only "if I do what he needs." From the letter, it's clear that whoever is controlling the zombies is holding her brother prisoner.
So she decides to take on the task of finding her brother and to do so, she enlists the help of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who supposedly protect the city from supernatural forces, though we're not sure at this point whether they are legitimate and/or can be trusted - though they do have some pretty clever steampunk-like devices for battling the undead.
So along with the spirit-hunters, Eleanor searches for the necromancer — the one who's controlling the zombie army and no doubt has her brother.
This was quite an action-packed novel with a decent storyline, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. There was actually quite little focus on the zombies, and I would have liked to have seen more zombie action. And they weren't even real zombies — just basically corpses by black magic and being controlled by an unknown necromancer.
But I did like the premise of a YA Victorian steampunk-ish urban fantasy and thought that this aspect of it was a lot of fun even though the story ended up being somewhat predictable and only focused minority on the undead.
The story was fast-paced with plenty of oddball characters and a riveting ending, but at the end of the day, something was lacking for me. I guess I expected more zombies and more thrills, both of which were lacking in the story and I'm guessing that I'm not really the intended audience for this novel.
This is the first book in a series — a trilogy I believe — but one that I won't be continuing. I'm just not invested enough in this world or the characters.
Something Strange and Deadly had been on my radar for awhile, so I was quite happy to receive it as a gift over the holidays. Zombies aren’t normally my thing, but the historical setting and the inclusion of the spirit-hunters made me more inclined to give this one a chance. For a “zombie” book, there’s scarcely any zombie action. If you, like me, don’t actually like zombies that much, that might be a good thing. If you’re a zombie aficionado, though, Something Strange and Deadly might not be the book for you.
I loved the historical setting and the spirit hunters. I liked that the spirit hunter aspect brought the book more to the supernatural, with the addition of a necromancer and spirits and such. It felt like a nice break to have a zombie outburst linked to an artificial, supernatural means rather than a straight zombie apocalypse. I’m a little confused on the designation of Something Strange and Deadly being classified as steampunk–there might be a few elements, but really, the setting is pretty standard Philadelphia 1876 with the addition of a Necromancer and some paranormal elements. The historical details were rich and detailed, but I found myself fuzzy on the finer points of the spirits involved and the Spirit-hunters. Certain things affect the spirits in certain ways, which is fair enough, but I wish there had been more development of this aspect in Something Strange and Deadly.
I did think on the whole Something Strange and Deadly was a fun read, plot-wise. Eleanor is searching for her missing brother, which doesn’t exactly sound fun, and the premise is serious, but somehow Dennard managed to weave these elements together in a way that conveyed the emotions but still kept the book seeming like a fast-paced adventure story. While I saw the plot twist at the end(and all the small twists, really) about a mile away, the way things wrapped up made sense for the book and was highly satisfying, despite the lacking of excitement at the big showdown.
Up until this point, most of what I’ve said about Something Strange and Deadly has been wholly positive. And I enjoyed this book just fine, but I would have enjoyed it much more if I had a better grasp of Eleanor’s character. Wishy-washy is a good term for her. Her actions and thoughts seemed to contradict each other so often–she wanted to do certain things, but just kept messing up in really illogical ways. It wasn’t until about 75% in to the book I decided she was a decent main character, which is saying something. I love when characters grow and develop over the course of the book, but Eleanor’s development in Something Strange and Deadly seemed. . . glacially slow. I just wanted more from her, this awesome main character I heard people talk about. Luckily, what Eleanor lacked in development, the side characters more than made up for it.
This review originally appeared on Book.Blog.Bake.
I loved the historical setting and the spirit hunters. I liked that the spirit hunter aspect brought the book more to the supernatural, with the addition of a necromancer and spirits and such. It felt like a nice break to have a zombie outburst linked to an artificial, supernatural means rather than a straight zombie apocalypse. I’m a little confused on the designation of Something Strange and Deadly being classified as steampunk–there might be a few elements, but really, the setting is pretty standard Philadelphia 1876 with the addition of a Necromancer and some paranormal elements. The historical details were rich and detailed, but I found myself fuzzy on the finer points of the spirits involved and the Spirit-hunters. Certain things affect the spirits in certain ways, which is fair enough, but I wish there had been more development of this aspect in Something Strange and Deadly.
I did think on the whole Something Strange and Deadly was a fun read, plot-wise. Eleanor is searching for her missing brother, which doesn’t exactly sound fun, and the premise is serious, but somehow Dennard managed to weave these elements together in a way that conveyed the emotions but still kept the book seeming like a fast-paced adventure story. While I saw the plot twist at the end(and all the small twists, really) about a mile away, the way things wrapped up made sense for the book and was highly satisfying, despite the lacking of excitement at the big showdown.
Up until this point, most of what I’ve said about Something Strange and Deadly has been wholly positive. And I enjoyed this book just fine, but I would have enjoyed it much more if I had a better grasp of Eleanor’s character. Wishy-washy is a good term for her. Her actions and thoughts seemed to contradict each other so often–she wanted to do certain things, but just kept messing up in really illogical ways. It wasn’t until about 75% in to the book I decided she was a decent main character, which is saying something. I love when characters grow and develop over the course of the book, but Eleanor’s development in Something Strange and Deadly seemed. . . glacially slow. I just wanted more from her, this awesome main character I heard people talk about. Luckily, what Eleanor lacked in development, the side characters more than made up for it.
This review originally appeared on Book.Blog.Bake.
Zombies in the 19th century? Hell yeah! What more could you want? One of my favorite paranormal creatures set in my favorite time period. This was simply wonderful. I just love the title, as well. Can't wait for the sequel, and I really hope that
Spoiler
Eleanor will follow the spirit-hunters to Chicago!
At first I thought, "Oh, another zombie book". After reading, I can't say I feel differently. The premise is okay, the characters okay, but this book was just... okay. Set in the background of the late 1800's Philadelphia, "Something Strange and Deadly" is anything but.
I found myself annoyed with most of the characters. The main character isn't anything new in terms of heroines. She doesn't want to fit societies norms, and is attracted to darker and stranger company. The character's mother truly grated on my nerves, but I could appreciate her sentiments. The mother was focused on attaining a marriage for her daughter, as the family would soon be bankrupt.
I feel like I was reading the Walking Dead with less interesting characters. I just feel completely underwhelmed with how Dennard handled writing for the era.
I found myself annoyed with most of the characters. The main character isn't anything new in terms of heroines. She doesn't want to fit societies norms, and is attracted to darker and stranger company. The character's mother truly grated on my nerves, but I could appreciate her sentiments. The mother was focused on attaining a marriage for her daughter, as the family would soon be bankrupt.
I feel like I was reading the Walking Dead with less interesting characters. I just feel completely underwhelmed with how Dennard handled writing for the era.
The beginning of this book was a struggle for me, but once I got going I enjoyed it. I will absolutely be reading the sequel.
I’ve been wanting to get my hands on this book for ages, but as it isn’t published in the UK, it’s taken me ages to find a good-quality second-hand paperback. But it was worth the wait! Susan Dennard’s debut novel transports us to a 19th-century Philadelphia with a zombie problem, and I was thoroughly swept up in the story. Eleanor Fitt’s brother has disappeared, and when Eleanor receives a note from him delivered by a dead man, she decides to seek out the Spirit-Hunters, a group dedicated to fighting the supernatural forces invading the world.
I’ve honestly never read a book quite like this. 19th century and zombies is a combination that works (perhaps surprisingly) really well, and the storyline is enjoyable with no dull moments. The developing romance between Eleanor and Daniel and the social complications of this are well-handled and the chemistry between the characters is one of the books’ strengths. A creepy and unique historical-paranormal mystery for anyone looking for a unique spin on zombies!
I’ve honestly never read a book quite like this. 19th century and zombies is a combination that works (perhaps surprisingly) really well, and the storyline is enjoyable with no dull moments. The developing romance between Eleanor and Daniel and the social complications of this are well-handled and the chemistry between the characters is one of the books’ strengths. A creepy and unique historical-paranormal mystery for anyone looking for a unique spin on zombies!
Victorian-era mystery/supernatural tale that incorporates necromancers, zombies and a feisty atypical protagonist who saves the day.