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mehsi's review
4.0
This time Allison isn't around, we have a new girl in town and her name is Sadie!
This book wasn't as good as Allison's, but it definitely picked up near the middle/end, and had some really great parts.
The previous book was from Allison POV and in this book that is Sadie Walker. The book still takes place in the same world as Allison's. In fact, Sadie is a big fan of Allison. I know that throughout the book I was hoping that these two would meet. But after a while I just didn't have the hope any more. With the way the story goes... But thankfully there is another event that does happen, that made me really happy.
Before I start with the good I have to mention the blurb. I was really excited about the blurb. Sadie goes to find her nephew who has been kidnapped (apparently there is a crazy market for orphaned kids), and I found myself eager to read the book to see her traverse this dangerous world full of zombies and crazies to find her nephew. Sadly, and I don't consider this a spoiler (since it happens so early on), the whole kidnapping thing is done with a wheeze or a sneeze. The book starts off calmly (well as calm as one can get), then the action starts, and at page 25.... the kidnapping is over. Yep, page 25 of 343-ish pages! Isn't that absolutely fucking amazing? So I am removing -0.5 stars from the total because of this. Can't people just write a good blurb for once?
Because the rest of the book is about her fleeing, landing on a creep-fest of an island, some romance (because why the heck not), a lot of creepiness, of course our friends the zombies are also there (did you know they can swim? NOPENOPENOPENOPE!). I loved how the normal days got sliced in pieces by death, by zombies, by something far more evil than zombies lurking in the darkness. This may sound weird, but I loved how there were normal days, just filled with eating, foraging, some happy things, something to counter all the death normally so prevalent in this world.
Yep, our group has bigger problems this time. Not only are there zombies, and they can swim (thus an island isn't safe any more), but we have something eviler. It is a typical trope in zombie books. You shouldn't always fear the zombies, humans are generally worse. Trust is something you don't give to everyone. I am glad that the author added a big villain, it gave the book even more creepiness. Who the villain was? Mm, I have to say I kept guessing until the end. I had some suspicions, but with the world being as it is... anyone could have suffered a too big of a trauma and ended up craycray.
The reveal was done really well, and I was oooohhiinng and screaming at our crew to just effing run away. And fast.
The romance? Eh, I wasn't that happy at times. But then again, I am not a big fan of love triangles. And we do have one in this book. Moritz > Sadie < Whelan. Of course you could quickly see who would be the true couple, and I was happy with who that turned out to be. They are the best match with Sadie! Though I didn't like how they first attracted the attention of Sadie (really, that was just stupid).
Sadie... mm, it took me a while to like her. She has a big attitude and an even bigger mouth. Makes some stupid horror cliche decisions, judges people very harsh (for just having big breasts and juicy on their ass for example). But she is also a great aunt (at least she tries), she can draw (I wish we could have seen some pictures), and she won't give up even when faced with some pretty shitty things.
Sadie's best friend, and also Whelan's best friend? I loved both of them. They were just too awesome. I wouldn't mind a book from their POV.
Also, like any zombie book, don't get too attached to characters.
All in all, definitely still a book that I enjoyed, and that I hope to read again one day (maybe in combination of a re-read of Allison's book). And I hope that we will have another book in this series one day.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
This book wasn't as good as Allison's, but it definitely picked up near the middle/end, and had some really great parts.
The previous book was from Allison POV and in this book that is Sadie Walker. The book still takes place in the same world as Allison's. In fact, Sadie is a big fan of Allison. I know that throughout the book I was hoping that these two would meet. But after a while I just didn't have the hope any more. With the way the story goes... But thankfully there is another event that does happen, that made me really happy.
Before I start with the good I have to mention the blurb. I was really excited about the blurb. Sadie goes to find her nephew who has been kidnapped (apparently there is a crazy market for orphaned kids), and I found myself eager to read the book to see her traverse this dangerous world full of zombies and crazies to find her nephew. Sadly, and I don't consider this a spoiler (since it happens so early on), the whole kidnapping thing is done with a wheeze or a sneeze. The book starts off calmly (well as calm as one can get), then the action starts, and at page 25.... the kidnapping is over. Yep, page 25 of 343-ish pages! Isn't that absolutely fucking amazing? So I am removing -0.5 stars from the total because of this. Can't people just write a good blurb for once?
Because the rest of the book is about her fleeing, landing on a creep-fest of an island, some romance (because why the heck not), a lot of creepiness, of course our friends the zombies are also there (did you know they can swim? NOPENOPENOPENOPE!). I loved how the normal days got sliced in pieces by death, by zombies, by something far more evil than zombies lurking in the darkness. This may sound weird, but I loved how there were normal days, just filled with eating, foraging, some happy things, something to counter all the death normally so prevalent in this world.
Yep, our group has bigger problems this time. Not only are there zombies, and they can swim (thus an island isn't safe any more), but we have something eviler. It is a typical trope in zombie books. You shouldn't always fear the zombies, humans are generally worse. Trust is something you don't give to everyone. I am glad that the author added a big villain, it gave the book even more creepiness. Who the villain was? Mm, I have to say I kept guessing until the end. I had some suspicions, but with the world being as it is... anyone could have suffered a too big of a trauma and ended up craycray.
The reveal was done really well, and I was oooohhiinng and screaming at our crew to just effing run away. And fast.
The romance? Eh, I wasn't that happy at times. But then again, I am not a big fan of love triangles. And we do have one in this book. Moritz > Sadie < Whelan. Of course you could quickly see who would be the true couple, and I was happy with who that turned out to be. They are the best match with Sadie! Though I didn't like how they first attracted the attention of Sadie (really, that was just stupid).
Sadie... mm, it took me a while to like her. She has a big attitude and an even bigger mouth. Makes some stupid horror cliche decisions, judges people very harsh (for just having big breasts and juicy on their ass for example). But she is also a great aunt (at least she tries), she can draw (I wish we could have seen some pictures), and she won't give up even when faced with some pretty shitty things.
Sadie's best friend, and also Whelan's best friend? I loved both of them. They were just too awesome. I wouldn't mind a book from their POV.
Also, like any zombie book, don't get too attached to characters.
All in all, definitely still a book that I enjoyed, and that I hope to read again one day (maybe in combination of a re-read of Allison's book). And I hope that we will have another book in this series one day.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
birdloveranne's review
4.0
I didn't like the ending as much as the rest of it. but it was a good, interesting story, nevertheless.
jeslyncat's review
2.0
2.5 stars. And barely. I loved Allison Hewitt is Trapped so, so very much. The first half of this read was stellar. And then…language I couldn’t forgive and logic completely forgotten, and so, so many plot holes that didn’t pay off and weren’t explained. I liked that Roux explored later in the Zombie apocalypse. I liked the romance a lot of reviewers hated, I’m fine with that, and honestly, it feels more realistic than not. But…so much of this story is non-sensical and illogical that I just couldn’t look past it. It’s like the first and second halves were written by different people.
jrobles76's review
4.0
A good follow up to Allison Hewitt is Trapped, takes place in the same universe, and expands on the internal mythology. While zombies cannot swim, they can walk underwater. "Just when you thought it was safe..." For zombie lovers, the undead are featured more and are used to good effect. The fear is more palpable in this book.
Like the last book, human relationships take center stage; these books are about how humanity will be effected by the zombie apocalypse. How does this bring out the best and worst in people? Do we lose our humanity? What do we consider important?
What I think is great about the series is that the author knows these questions cannot be answered universally but must/will be answered individually. Each of us will have to decide for ourselves how we respond. In the apocalypse trust will be our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.
Overall I love this book. I hope she writes more in this series.
Like the last book, human relationships take center stage; these books are about how humanity will be effected by the zombie apocalypse. How does this bring out the best and worst in people? Do we lose our humanity? What do we consider important?
What I think is great about the series is that the author knows these questions cannot be answered universally but must/will be answered individually. Each of us will have to decide for ourselves how we respond. In the apocalypse trust will be our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.
Overall I love this book. I hope she writes more in this series.
sugaqueen88's review
3.0
Ups and downs
Originally I wasn't expecting anything worth while. The first book was okay but nothing spectacular. I still picked this one up though so it obviously wasn't awful.
I hated Sadie at first. I think a lot of that came down to the narrator on the audiobook. Once I switched to reading instead of being read to she was a little more tolerable. That said, this book has some issues. The one that bugs me the most is Shane. He's supposed to be eight but throughout the book the way he's written fluctuates so that he can seem anywhere from four to twelve. That's a big age gap to be spanning. In some scenes he's portrayed with the meek shyness of a toddler with the capability to hide in a cupboard and in other places he has more teenage aloofness than the actual teenagers. So, he wasn't the most well written child I've ever read about.
Otherwise this is on par with the last book. It's a relatively cookie cutter zombie apocalypse. There are some twists that make the overall plot better. The better plot and worse characters leave my rating the same as book one, 3 stars. If Sadie was less annoying and Shane was a solid seeming age the plot could've elevated this above and beyond my opinion of book one. That kind of plot twist had potential but my lack of investment in the characters let it fall flat.
Originally I wasn't expecting anything worth while. The first book was okay but nothing spectacular. I still picked this one up though so it obviously wasn't awful.
I hated Sadie at first. I think a lot of that came down to the narrator on the audiobook. Once I switched to reading instead of being read to she was a little more tolerable. That said, this book has some issues. The one that bugs me the most is Shane. He's supposed to be eight but throughout the book the way he's written fluctuates so that he can seem anywhere from four to twelve. That's a big age gap to be spanning. In some scenes he's portrayed with the meek shyness of a toddler with the capability to hide in a cupboard and in other places he has more teenage aloofness than the actual teenagers. So, he wasn't the most well written child I've ever read about.
Otherwise this is on par with the last book. It's a relatively cookie cutter zombie apocalypse. There are some twists that make the overall plot better. The better plot and worse characters leave my rating the same as book one, 3 stars. If Sadie was less annoying and Shane was a solid seeming age the plot could've elevated this above and beyond my opinion of book one. That kind of plot twist had potential but my lack of investment in the characters let it fall flat.
beckykirk's review
3.0
Decent zombie book, not as good as the first one. I think what bothered me most was Sadie wanting a 'normal' life for her young nephew. It's a zombie F-ing apocalypse, there's no such thing as normal any more!
buffyb's review
2.0
This is the follow-up to Allison Hewitt is Trapped. It takes place after the initial zombie outbreak and it features a different cast of characters.
Nutshell blurb: The city of Seattle has been walled up to protect the inhabitants from the zombies that roam outside. The wall becomes breached, forcing Sadie, her nephew and her friend to flee.
I absolutely loved the first book but this one fell flat for me. I didn't like Sadie AT ALL and I found that there were far too many references to other books, films, tv shows and various aspects of popular culture. I understood most of them but the generations after me are unlikely to know what the heck she's talking about. It's pretty annoying and gets old after a while.
The action is fantastic and it's an exciting story but characterisation is everything to me. It's not good to wish for the main character to get eaten by zombies.
The main character continuously makes stupid decisions but tells herself that she'll never make the same mistakes again. But she does. She makes the stupidest decision at the very end (which I won't spoil for you) and nobody calls her on it. If I lived in a zombie-filled world and one of my camp-mates made this decision, I would consider killing him/her if I ever saw him/her again. But no one seems to care that she did what she did. It's incredibly frustrating to read things like this.
She's also very helpless and relies on others to continually save her.
The author has committed a cardinal sin in my eyes and I feel compelled to point it out.
Please repeat after me: We DO NOT talk trash about another author's writing in our own work.
Of what do you speak, you might ask?
Well, I'll tell you. There's an entire conversation where the characters discuss (and bash) Twilight.
Now, I know that it's super-cool to not like Twilight or anything by Stephanie Meyer and that there have been flame wars all over the internet as to whether or not it's "good". But does that really matter? Are we all not entitled to like or dislike a book according to our own personal tastes?
There's a pettiness and arrogance to immortalising your hatred of someone else's work in your own novel. You're pretty much letting the world know that you think that you're more talented and that your story is better than that of the person you're slating. That's not cool or edgy. It's just kind of mean.
I was really disappointed when I got to that section. I feel that Ms. Roux's writing is quirky and fun and that it can stand on its own without needing to bash another author's work.
Why did you do it, Madeleine? Why????
It completely coloured my perception of this book. From that point on I felt that I was reading the work of a bully; someone who tears others down to make herself look better. Is she really that kind of person? I don't know, but it really struck a chord with me. I'm not sure if I will read the next one when it comes out.
Nutshell blurb: The city of Seattle has been walled up to protect the inhabitants from the zombies that roam outside. The wall becomes breached, forcing Sadie, her nephew and her friend to flee.
I absolutely loved the first book but this one fell flat for me. I didn't like Sadie AT ALL and I found that there were far too many references to other books, films, tv shows and various aspects of popular culture. I understood most of them but the generations after me are unlikely to know what the heck she's talking about. It's pretty annoying and gets old after a while.
The action is fantastic and it's an exciting story but characterisation is everything to me. It's not good to wish for the main character to get eaten by zombies.
The main character continuously makes stupid decisions but tells herself that she'll never make the same mistakes again. But she does. She makes the stupidest decision at the very end (which I won't spoil for you) and nobody calls her on it. If I lived in a zombie-filled world and one of my camp-mates made this decision, I would consider killing him/her if I ever saw him/her again. But no one seems to care that she did what she did. It's incredibly frustrating to read things like this.
She's also very helpless and relies on others to continually save her.
The author has committed a cardinal sin in my eyes and I feel compelled to point it out.
Please repeat after me: We DO NOT talk trash about another author's writing in our own work.
Of what do you speak, you might ask?
Well, I'll tell you. There's an entire conversation where the characters discuss (and bash) Twilight.
Now, I know that it's super-cool to not like Twilight or anything by Stephanie Meyer and that there have been flame wars all over the internet as to whether or not it's "good". But does that really matter? Are we all not entitled to like or dislike a book according to our own personal tastes?
There's a pettiness and arrogance to immortalising your hatred of someone else's work in your own novel. You're pretty much letting the world know that you think that you're more talented and that your story is better than that of the person you're slating. That's not cool or edgy. It's just kind of mean.
I was really disappointed when I got to that section. I feel that Ms. Roux's writing is quirky and fun and that it can stand on its own without needing to bash another author's work.
Why did you do it, Madeleine? Why????
It completely coloured my perception of this book. From that point on I felt that I was reading the work of a bully; someone who tears others down to make herself look better. Is she really that kind of person? I don't know, but it really struck a chord with me. I'm not sure if I will read the next one when it comes out.
koalathebear's review
2.0
Not as good as I had hoped it would be. It had a lot of potential but I couldn't get invested in the characters and for a zombie novel, it's important that you care about the people.
nicolemhill's review
2.0
Sadie Walker is undoubtedly the thing that drags Sadie Walker is Stranded down. She is not a Mary-Sue. She is a Mary-Shit, You Are Going to Get Us All Killed and Then Glibly Comment on It.
I prefer Allison Hewitt, happy-go-lucky ax murderer. That said, the world, inhabited by both characters, is still creative.
I prefer Allison Hewitt, happy-go-lucky ax murderer. That said, the world, inhabited by both characters, is still creative.
linbee83's review
3.0
This one took me a couple tries to finish. It was good, but started a bit slow for me. The ending...man. I hope she writes some more zombie books!