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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Oh my god this was so awful! The characters were dull, the plot boring, settings not all that impressive. And the writing style! So many run-on sentences and grammatical errors! I don't know how I managed to get through 308 pages of this. 2 stars because I thought the pacing was good, and the author is good at suspense/heart pounding moments (at least for me)
Re-read in July 2014. Originally read a few years ago.
Maybe I grew as a reader or just read too many reviews of this book, but when I first read it...it was amazing and I gave it 5 stars right away.
Now...it gets 4. I liked it less, which sucks.
Maybe I grew as a reader or just read too many reviews of this book, but when I first read it...it was amazing and I gave it 5 stars right away.
Now...it gets 4. I liked it less, which sucks.
Since I am now merging all my stuff, yay re-reads are here. I am posting the updated review with the old text in bold, new in normal.
This is a re-read of this book. Not sure if I will also read the rest of the series, but I at least wanted to read this one.
Like with another Re-read I did 2 days ago I will copy my old review and give new comments. Bold = old. Normal = New.
Why did I suddenly decide to re-read this one? Well, I started with Bright Smoke, Cold Fire. It seemed a bit similar to this one. A city walled off against zombies. The walls need to be sustained, maintained. There are secrets everywhere. Death is everywhere.
Sadly, that book turned out to be a dud, so I had to find this one and read it. Luckily, I got the whole series, I just needed to find them on my shelves.
Imagine a village, in a forest. Sounds lovely no? Now add a fence surrounding it, also add some zombies. Now it doesn't sound so lovely.
Welcome in the world where Mary lives. A world where zombies took over and the living live in small communities surrounded by fences.
I am still amazed at how the author managed to think of this idea. It is so haunting. The fact that you are always surrounded, always praying, always surviving. There can be a breach any time. Any day your life can be over. Then there are secrets, regulations and much more. I am a bit sad that we never truly find out all of the secrets. How much did the Sisterhood know?
The book was great. I loved the settings, loved the secrets that slowly unfolded.
I didn't always like Mary, sometimes she was just a bit to egotistical. She is willing to sacrifice a whole lot just for a story she heard when she was little. A story about the ocean. And she won't stop until she gets there, no matter what it takes. I didn't like that she couldn't pick between the two brothers and how she just went from one to the other.
Yep, I am still totally agreeing with the me of 4 years ago. I did find Mary egotistical. It is nice to have hope, it is nice to have faith. But her dreams did cause several things, not all of them good. She could never settle down, she could never rest. She wanted that ocean and she would do whatever it took to get there. Even if it meant leaving people.
The whole Travis > Mary < Harry thing? Urgh. I was just a bit tired of it even 4 years after the first read. Mary loves Travis, Travis is loving her, but not being honest about it (though we do find out later why), Harry loves Mary. Oh, and did I mention that someone else also loves Harry. Yep. :\ Even when zombies are clawing in your life, you have time for a love drama like this.
I didn't particularly like Harry. Yes, later on, but at the beginning I found him bleh. How he could not see that Mary had no interest in him. That all she saw when she looked at him was a good friend, a best friend even, but nothing more.
I still hope that we will find out more about how the zombies came in existence in the next books, because not many questions were answered.
While by now I read the whole series, I can't really remember if we ever got an explanation, it has been too long ago for me to remember the right details. But yes, after reading this one, I know how the me of 4 years ago felt. There is just barely any information on what happened. We do get some snippets near the end when Mary finds a scrapbook. But it is so little it doesn't really show much.
As the spoiler says, yes, I still do wonder about that. Then again, I also wonder a lot about the Sisterhood and what they were doing, what their knowledge was.
The ending was too sudden. What happened to the other people? Where did she go? Was she just accepted like that? From what I can see the next book is about Mary's daughter. I just hope in the book they will let us know what happened and not just skip and let us in the dark.
Yep, the ending was quite sudden. I am also curious what happened to the other characters, will they be OK? Will they be safe? Will they live? Also where did Mary end up? I would have loved an epilogue about this new place, about how they accepted Mary.
I can't remember if the next book shows a peek at what happened to those left behind, but I do hope so, it would be terrible if this is how it ends for them.
Good book for everyone looking for mystery and zombies. :)
I enjoyed the re-read more than the first read, so I would correct this sentence with: Awesome book for everyone looking for creepiness, a haunting feeling, mystery, and of course zombies! Brains!
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com
This is a re-read of this book. Not sure if I will also read the rest of the series, but I at least wanted to read this one.
Like with another Re-read I did 2 days ago I will copy my old review and give new comments. Bold = old. Normal = New.
Why did I suddenly decide to re-read this one? Well, I started with Bright Smoke, Cold Fire. It seemed a bit similar to this one. A city walled off against zombies. The walls need to be sustained, maintained. There are secrets everywhere. Death is everywhere.
Sadly, that book turned out to be a dud, so I had to find this one and read it. Luckily, I got the whole series, I just needed to find them on my shelves.
Imagine a village, in a forest. Sounds lovely no? Now add a fence surrounding it, also add some zombies. Now it doesn't sound so lovely.
Welcome in the world where Mary lives. A world where zombies took over and the living live in small communities surrounded by fences.
I am still amazed at how the author managed to think of this idea. It is so haunting. The fact that you are always surrounded, always praying, always surviving. There can be a breach any time. Any day your life can be over. Then there are secrets, regulations and much more. I am a bit sad that we never truly find out all of the secrets. How much did the Sisterhood know?
The book was great. I loved the settings, loved the secrets that slowly unfolded.
I didn't always like Mary, sometimes she was just a bit to egotistical. She is willing to sacrifice a whole lot just for a story she heard when she was little. A story about the ocean. And she won't stop until she gets there, no matter what it takes. I didn't like that she couldn't pick between the two brothers and how she just went from one to the other.
Yep, I am still totally agreeing with the me of 4 years ago. I did find Mary egotistical. It is nice to have hope, it is nice to have faith. But her dreams did cause several things, not all of them good. She could never settle down, she could never rest. She wanted that ocean and she would do whatever it took to get there. Even if it meant leaving people.
The whole Travis > Mary < Harry thing? Urgh. I was just a bit tired of it even 4 years after the first read. Mary loves Travis, Travis is loving her, but not being honest about it (though we do find out later why), Harry loves Mary. Oh, and did I mention that someone else also loves Harry. Yep. :\ Even when zombies are clawing in your life, you have time for a love drama like this.
I didn't particularly like Harry. Yes, later on, but at the beginning I found him bleh. How he could not see that Mary had no interest in him. That all she saw when she looked at him was a good friend, a best friend even, but nothing more.
I still hope that we will find out more about how the zombies came in existence in the next books, because not many questions were answered.
Spoiler
I would also love to know why the sisters sent Gabrielle to the zombies. Was there a reason? Was she turning or did they just not want anyone to know about the other villages. (hide spoiler)While by now I read the whole series, I can't really remember if we ever got an explanation, it has been too long ago for me to remember the right details. But yes, after reading this one, I know how the me of 4 years ago felt. There is just barely any information on what happened. We do get some snippets near the end when Mary finds a scrapbook. But it is so little it doesn't really show much.
As the spoiler says, yes, I still do wonder about that. Then again, I also wonder a lot about the Sisterhood and what they were doing, what their knowledge was.
The ending was too sudden. What happened to the other people? Where did she go? Was she just accepted like that? From what I can see the next book is about Mary's daughter. I just hope in the book they will let us know what happened and not just skip and let us in the dark.
Yep, the ending was quite sudden. I am also curious what happened to the other characters, will they be OK? Will they be safe? Will they live? Also where did Mary end up? I would have loved an epilogue about this new place, about how they accepted Mary.
I can't remember if the next book shows a peek at what happened to those left behind, but I do hope so, it would be terrible if this is how it ends for them.
Good book for everyone looking for mystery and zombies. :)
I enjoyed the re-read more than the first read, so I would correct this sentence with: Awesome book for everyone looking for creepiness, a haunting feeling, mystery, and of course zombies! Brains!
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com
First off, I loved the topic. I'm something of a zombie fan and I love, love, love the idea of a zombie apocalypse that has been over for thousands of years. Fantastic idea.
I really liked the main character and most of the time I don't at first, so this was a nice change for me. She was brave and determined, obsessed with a beautiful story passed down through generations, and she knew her own dreams. The storyline moved quickly, and of course the zombie scenes kept me up all night turning pages.
The sour note of this book for me... the relationships between the characters. I'm sorry, but a love quadrangle??? Ridiculous, thanks. Not to mention, I just didn't believe in ANY of the relationships in this book. Maybe if there had been more background, to lay the foundation for me... I just didn't buy that Mary loved Travis. Or Harry loved Travis. Or that Jed loved his own SISTER, since he spent the entire book being nothing but lukewarm about it.
That being said, I am going to pick up the next book in the series. Hopefully the relationships are a little less... silly and unbelievable. :)
I really liked the main character and most of the time I don't at first, so this was a nice change for me. She was brave and determined, obsessed with a beautiful story passed down through generations, and she knew her own dreams. The storyline moved quickly, and of course the zombie scenes kept me up all night turning pages.
The sour note of this book for me... the relationships between the characters. I'm sorry, but a love quadrangle??? Ridiculous, thanks. Not to mention, I just didn't believe in ANY of the relationships in this book. Maybe if there had been more background, to lay the foundation for me... I just didn't buy that Mary loved Travis. Or Harry loved Travis. Or that Jed loved his own SISTER, since he spent the entire book being nothing but lukewarm about it.
That being said, I am going to pick up the next book in the series. Hopefully the relationships are a little less... silly and unbelievable. :)
So much potential, so much good in this book, and yet I ended up resenting it. The zombies were scary, the setup interesting (small enclosed community in the middle of the woods, constantly fending of bloodthirsty undead, come on! doesn't this sound appealing?), the tortured love was tortured indeed, the characters fleshed out surprisingly well, the tension and the pacing just right, and the concept couldn't be better. Everything suggests I should love this potent mixture of horror and romance with all my heart, but unfortunately...
No.
It was all too much, all to intense and over the top to my taste. I'm not sure if I'd be reading the sequel. I know I'd get sucked right into the story again, the book is like crack - addictive and detrimental to my well being. It almost gave me ulcers. And yet despite the unhealthy soap opera ridiculousness, give me the sequel, and surely I'd grind my teeth and keep on turning the pages.
PS. The rave reviews and hoards of goodreaders eagerly anticipating the sequel are not helping. Not at all.
No.
It was all too much, all to intense and over the top to my taste. I'm not sure if I'd be reading the sequel. I know I'd get sucked right into the story again, the book is like crack - addictive and detrimental to my well being. It almost gave me ulcers. And yet despite the unhealthy soap opera ridiculousness, give me the sequel, and surely I'd grind my teeth and keep on turning the pages.
PS. The rave reviews and hoards of goodreaders eagerly anticipating the sequel are not helping. Not at all.
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes