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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
medium-paced
I loved this from the very first page. It's the first zombie book I've read where large parts of the book are from a zombie's point of view. She's only a sorta-zombie, so it's not all kill, kill, kill. In truth, it's a very subtle, very lovely book, more about emotion than gore. Highly recommended.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Well, this lived up to the hype as far as I'm concerned. And I'm not a fan of zombie books, nor did I especially enjoy the Mike Carey book that I tried.
So this book is indeed a zombie story ( I don't feel like that's really giving much away, but comments on another review thought that was spoilery) and takes place after the great disaster/infection has happened. Melanie, one of our main POV characters, is a little girl, but she is locked in a cell every evening and in order to go to school, she is fastened into a wheelchair by arms, legs and neck. Melanie loves school, though, and especially loves Miss Justineau, her favorite teacher. She fantasizes about rescuing Miss Justineau from terrible danger. Here I must give kudos to the author, because I daydreamed about exactly this thing when I was a little girl- rescuing my day-to-day heroes. I never needed to be saved in my fantasies; I always did the saving.
Anyway, it probably won't surprise you much that Melanie has a chance to make her daydreams real, although not in the way that she imagined. And the title of the book does give away the ending, although I won't say more than that- even with that clue, I didn't quite see the ending coming.
We do have other POV characters: Miss Justineau has a voice, and so does Parks, the sergeant in charge of securing the environment surrounding the school, along with Private Gallagher and Dr. Caldwell, who is trying to find a cure for the world.
This book got to me. I dream about zombie stories when I read these books (one reason I don't like to read a lot of them) and got creeped out reading this book in the house alone. Melanie was utterly heartbreaking, and I felt the tension ratcheting up in the book as the stakes grew higher. This book could have felt mawkish or manipulative, but it didn't. This is a 28 Days Later or World War Z type of book- is it possible to rebuild after the world has ended for all but a few?
Well, this lived up to the hype as far as I'm concerned. And I'm not a fan of zombie books, nor did I especially enjoy the Mike Carey book that I tried.
So this book is indeed a zombie story ( I don't feel like that's really giving much away, but comments on another review thought that was spoilery) and takes place after the great disaster/infection has happened. Melanie, one of our main POV characters, is a little girl, but she is locked in a cell every evening and in order to go to school, she is fastened into a wheelchair by arms, legs and neck. Melanie loves school, though, and especially loves Miss Justineau, her favorite teacher. She fantasizes about rescuing Miss Justineau from terrible danger. Here I must give kudos to the author, because I daydreamed about exactly this thing when I was a little girl- rescuing my day-to-day heroes. I never needed to be saved in my fantasies; I always did the saving.
Anyway, it probably won't surprise you much that Melanie has a chance to make her daydreams real, although not in the way that she imagined. And the title of the book does give away the ending, although I won't say more than that- even with that clue, I didn't quite see the ending coming.
We do have other POV characters: Miss Justineau has a voice, and so does Parks, the sergeant in charge of securing the environment surrounding the school, along with Private Gallagher and Dr. Caldwell, who is trying to find a cure for the world.
This book got to me. I dream about zombie stories when I read these books (one reason I don't like to read a lot of them) and got creeped out reading this book in the house alone. Melanie was utterly heartbreaking, and I felt the tension ratcheting up in the book as the stakes grew higher. This book could have felt mawkish or manipulative, but it didn't. This is a 28 Days Later or World War Z type of book- is it possible to rebuild after the world has ended for all but a few?
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
sad
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:
Complicated
adventurous
tense
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed this book! I saw a bunch of reviews before I started that mentioned the ending being disappointing, but I thought it was good. It felt like the natural course of where the book was headed, and it didnt necessarily wrap everything up, but also the mystery is part of it. I really liked the aspect of Melanie struggling with fighting the urge to become a "hungry" when around her friends , and I wish the book focussed on that a bit more. I also think that there could have been more of an exploration of the Junkers, like what they are doing and how they have survived. Otherwise was a quick and fun read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol
I have to accept that I am never going to finish this book.
The vague marketing, the mysterious blurbs, it all worked on me - I HAD to know what was going on in this book. Alas, I had built it up to be some mystery much greater than that of
It's probably entirely my fault for thinking some original, awesome, different thing would be going on, but my expectations were extraordinarily high and then when I caught on to what was going on, I was bummed out.
I gave up on the book
The writing is good and the premise is interesting, I just couldn't do it. If you are questioning whether or not you want to read it, go ahead and have it spoiled for you what the "gifts" are, because it would have made a world of difference for my level of interest and expectations.
The vague marketing, the mysterious blurbs, it all worked on me - I HAD to know what was going on in this book. Alas, I had built it up to be some mystery much greater than that of
Spoiler
zombies.It's probably entirely my fault for thinking some original, awesome, different thing would be going on, but my expectations were extraordinarily high and then when I caught on to what was going on, I was bummed out.
I gave up on the book
Spoiler
a couple of days into their escape from the institution. I just couldn't convince myself to read ANOTHER book about people on the run from zombies and trying to survive in the wide world. Maybe in a couple of years, but right now I've been inundated and I've run out of shits to give.The writing is good and the premise is interesting, I just couldn't do it. If you are questioning whether or not you want to read it, go ahead and have it spoiled for you what the "gifts" are, because it would have made a world of difference for my level of interest and expectations.