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sarahsg's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This was another recommendation. Owen told me about this and I was instantly interested but it still took me 5 years to get around to reading it. It was fantastic. The use of common Irish colloquialisms made this feel very conversational in nature at times and I think this helped me relate to the characters more.
I love the ending, both that (almost) everything worked out as best it could and that the story starts again, with a new found family on the island.
I love the ending, both that (almost) everything worked out as best it could and that the story starts again, with a new found family on the island.
charlotteprt's review against another edition
2.0
Very slow start, I am glad I continued, but was then left disappointed when all the action happened in the last few chapters & the ending with so many unanswered questions
I would have liked more background into the apocalyptic world, & also a bit of resolution about what happened to all the sides characters
Ah well, life is full of disappointments
I would have liked more background into the apocalyptic world, & also a bit of resolution about what happened to all the sides characters
Ah well, life is full of disappointments
mehsi's review against another edition
3.0
Welcome to an Ireland in the future, filled with zombies.
I was very much excited when I saw that my library added this one to their limited collection of English. A horror/zombie book? Sign me up.
So this was a pretty interesting zombie book focusing more on atmosphere than creepy stuff. Sure, there are zombie encounters, but mostly it just focuses on the world, how desolate it is. How there is danger everywhere. Which I just love. Often in zombies it is all about the action, about putting as much gore into it as one can do. But in this one it is about a girl, the world changed, and how she is trying to find her way.
I loved that we see the now, the girl with the wheelbarrow and all that happens after, but that we also see how she came to be where she is now. How her childhood was, how her training started, how things started to spiral into chaos and bleakness. While the Now parts were definitely my favourite, I still appreciated the Then parts as they gave more insight in the character we are following through this desolate and rotten land.
I found it freaking scary that the zombies could talk, or at least in the beginning. We see how Maeve turns into a zombie and talks to Orpen. Really, a zombie is already a big fat NOPE NOPE NOPPPPPEEE and then this one can talk? Lure you in? Charm its way into your juicy meats? Eh, no. But well done to the author, that was exceptionally done.
I loved seeing various signs and marks left by other people over the years (and maybe even some from the beginning that were left), OK it was at times heartbreaking especially the warnings.
The zombies, or Skrake were really well described. They brought chills to me. I wouldn't want to encounter that.
The ending had me feeling mixed. On the one side, yay for Orpen. On the other hand... does she really want to go to the place her mom and Maeve ran from? Knowing what C told her?
However I had several issues. Like with how Orpen just had Maeve around, bitten and dead, in a wheelbarrow for a long time and later we learn that something else happened as well. I would think that being in the zombie apocalypse for so long would have people know what to do with a zombie relative or friend. You don't take them home or carry them around. You help them. Because from all the books I read about zombie changing and what you become when you have changed... it hurts like a fucker. Your body dies, then resurrects into something it is not. I get she wanted to find a cure, but this isn't just about Maeve. This is about someone else as well.
Then there is the fact she had SO MUCH training yet she doesn't seem to know how to kill a zombie immediately. It is first wrestling and struggling, then she stabs it somewhere, another stab, another stab, more wrestling and then finally she remembers to stab it in the head. I would think that the first thing you learn in ANY training in a zombie apocalypse is how to dispatch a freaking zombie the fastest way. Not just have a lovely wrestling match with it.... Also that she kept talking how she had training and blabla but in the mean time when it came to zombies she was just as bad as the three people she was with.
Also I was confused for a long time on the Phoenix City. I know of a Phoenix City (or something thereabout) but that is in the US, not in Ireland. Later on we learn that it is Dublin called that.
Orpen acted more like a kid rather than a teen. I thought for most book she was around 10, but instead, she is probably more like 15-16-ish. I guess partially this has to do with her being on a secluded island with no one around, but I wonder if that is really all to it.
Who the FUCK makes a freaking pyre of FIRE in a zombie apocalypse. Dear C, you are on the run from stuff, from people who are hunting for you, and you make a fire? So you can maybe find your groupmembers again? Hello. Zombies?? They love fire and light and such. *rolls eyes*
All in all though I did enjoy reading this one. It was different from many zombie books and while I do love action-paced zombie books, this one is a nice fresh breath in my Halloween reading. Still scary, but also not too scary.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
I was very much excited when I saw that my library added this one to their limited collection of English. A horror/zombie book? Sign me up.
So this was a pretty interesting zombie book focusing more on atmosphere than creepy stuff. Sure, there are zombie encounters, but mostly it just focuses on the world, how desolate it is. How there is danger everywhere. Which I just love. Often in zombies it is all about the action, about putting as much gore into it as one can do. But in this one it is about a girl, the world changed, and how she is trying to find her way.
I loved that we see the now, the girl with the wheelbarrow and all that happens after, but that we also see how she came to be where she is now. How her childhood was, how her training started, how things started to spiral into chaos and bleakness. While the Now parts were definitely my favourite, I still appreciated the Then parts as they gave more insight in the character we are following through this desolate and rotten land.
I found it freaking scary that the zombies could talk, or at least in the beginning. We see how Maeve turns into a zombie and talks to Orpen. Really, a zombie is already a big fat NOPE NOPE NOPPPPPEEE and then this one can talk? Lure you in? Charm its way into your juicy meats? Eh, no. But well done to the author, that was exceptionally done.
I loved seeing various signs and marks left by other people over the years (and maybe even some from the beginning that were left), OK it was at times heartbreaking especially the warnings.
The zombies, or Skrake were really well described. They brought chills to me. I wouldn't want to encounter that.
The ending had me feeling mixed. On the one side, yay for Orpen. On the other hand... does she really want to go to the place her mom and Maeve ran from? Knowing what C told her?
However I had several issues. Like with how Orpen just had Maeve around, bitten and dead, in a wheelbarrow for a long time and later we learn that something else happened as well. I would think that being in the zombie apocalypse for so long would have people know what to do with a zombie relative or friend. You don't take them home or carry them around. You help them. Because from all the books I read about zombie changing and what you become when you have changed... it hurts like a fucker. Your body dies, then resurrects into something it is not. I get she wanted to find a cure, but this isn't just about Maeve. This is about someone else as well.
Then there is the fact she had SO MUCH training yet she doesn't seem to know how to kill a zombie immediately. It is first wrestling and struggling, then she stabs it somewhere, another stab, another stab, more wrestling and then finally she remembers to stab it in the head. I would think that the first thing you learn in ANY training in a zombie apocalypse is how to dispatch a freaking zombie the fastest way. Not just have a lovely wrestling match with it.... Also that she kept talking how she had training and blabla but in the mean time when it came to zombies she was just as bad as the three people she was with.
Also I was confused for a long time on the Phoenix City. I know of a Phoenix City (or something thereabout) but that is in the US, not in Ireland. Later on we learn that it is Dublin called that.
Orpen acted more like a kid rather than a teen. I thought for most book she was around 10, but instead, she is probably more like 15-16-ish. I guess partially this has to do with her being on a secluded island with no one around, but I wonder if that is really all to it.
Who the FUCK makes a freaking pyre of FIRE in a zombie apocalypse. Dear C, you are on the run from stuff, from people who are hunting for you, and you make a fire? So you can maybe find your groupmembers again? Hello. Zombies?? They love fire and light and such. *rolls eyes*
All in all though I did enjoy reading this one. It was different from many zombie books and while I do love action-paced zombie books, this one is a nice fresh breath in my Halloween reading. Still scary, but also not too scary.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
pierce_ellinwood's review against another edition
2.0
I love an apocalyptic novel and this was a short one that I was able to power through during a snow day. It’s a page turner and it keeps coming at you fast, but there’s not much else going for it.
It gets comparisons to McCarthy’s stark prose and I see his influence but it falls well short of that. It doesn’t have the same poetic grace and rhythm and Davis-Goff doesn’t do a great job with descriptions of action or place. There were moments when she alluded to the beauty of Ireland but never actually made it feel anchored there. There were “action” sequences that were impossible to decipher and which ended as quickly as they started with no tension. And for a world that’s supposedly overrun by zombies (?), there were very few zombies and a lot of running back and forth through small villages on the road. The characters made a lot of dumb decisions that didn’t make sense for their motivations.
Overall it just felt pretty tired and unoriginal and the writing isn’t good enough to make up for it being a story retread.
It gets comparisons to McCarthy’s stark prose and I see his influence but it falls well short of that. It doesn’t have the same poetic grace and rhythm and Davis-Goff doesn’t do a great job with descriptions of action or place. There were moments when she alluded to the beauty of Ireland but never actually made it feel anchored there. There were “action” sequences that were impossible to decipher and which ended as quickly as they started with no tension. And for a world that’s supposedly overrun by zombies (?), there were very few zombies and a lot of running back and forth through small villages on the road. The characters made a lot of dumb decisions that didn’t make sense for their motivations.
Overall it just felt pretty tired and unoriginal and the writing isn’t good enough to make up for it being a story retread.
kleonard's review against another edition
3.0
A good post-apocalyptic, people-eating zombie novel set in Ireland and on one of its offshore islands. Orpen, her Mam, and Maeve, her Mam's lover, live mostly safely on their small island after a zombie plague kills off most of the world. Maeve trains Orpen on combat; Mam teachers her about medicinal herbs. When Mam and Maeve must travel to the island, Orpen, still a small child, fends for herself. Mam comes back infected, and Maeve forces Orpen to begin making the hard decisions and even harder actions her life now requires.
hendyface's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
dmcvey2719's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
beq3's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this book. The writing is excellent and never falters. It's a very good read with the inner yearning and desire to grow and stretch herself very vividly depicted in Orpen. Even in the face of almost certain death. Her love for her mother and Meave and her jealousy of their relationship really resonates. Their desire to keep her safe but at such cost, being completely isolated on an island off the coast of Clare is very immediate and understandable. The zombies are real and the fighting palpable and tense. You are aware that danger is everywhere all the time. But this is not a zombie fest type book, the focus is Orpen.
The back story is never told. You are thrust into this world with the same patchy knowledge of the characters and you never get answers or a full world view.
This is book full of women. With men being vague but threatening figures and largely absent. The one male that is in it is well meaning but unprepared and weak. Unable to protect his chosen partner and family, unable to fight effectively, and nearly brings on a complete catastrophe with his lack of foresight or real sense of danger.
Despite the death, devastation and destruction I found this story about Orpen's journey off the island and finally encountering a wider world to be a hopeful book. I felt none of the utter despair that The Road engendered. Ireland is very lush and wet and quite recognisable, especially through the use of specific Irish vernacular, turns of speech etc.
Though I must say I think the author's sense of the distance from an island off the coast of Clare to Dublin might be a bit elastic! References to "klicks" made me wince as well as talk of "patterns of rain" as it just rains randomly here all the time, there's no regular afternoon rain as such. But these are v small criticisms.
Overall a great read, would recommend.
The back story is never told. You are thrust into this world with the same patchy knowledge of the characters and you never get answers or a full world view.
This is book full of women. With men being vague but threatening figures and largely absent. The one male that is in it is well meaning but unprepared and weak. Unable to protect his chosen partner and family, unable to fight effectively, and nearly brings on a complete catastrophe with his lack of foresight or real sense of danger.
Despite the death, devastation and destruction I found this story about Orpen's journey off the island and finally encountering a wider world to be a hopeful book. I felt none of the utter despair that The Road engendered. Ireland is very lush and wet and quite recognisable, especially through the use of specific Irish vernacular, turns of speech etc.
Though I must say I think the author's sense of the distance from an island off the coast of Clare to Dublin might be a bit elastic! References to "klicks" made me wince as well as talk of "patterns of rain" as it just rains randomly here all the time, there's no regular afternoon rain as such. But these are v small criticisms.
Overall a great read, would recommend.
lostinagoodbook's review against another edition
4.0
Disclaimer: I received this book free from Netgalley.
The terms “well written” and “post-apocalypse” don’t always go together. Neither do “thoughtful” and “zombies”, but here we are. This does remind me a little of The Road, but is not so distressingly bleak. I think it reminds me most of a recent title A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher.
Orpen was raised by her birth mother and her mother’s partner, Maeve, on a secluded island off the coast of Ireland. They have trained her to face a hostile world, zombie-like creatures, and the threat of a disintegrating human society. They can’t keep her safe forever, and this book begins with her on the road trying to find her place in the hellscape this world has become.
It is a well written book. Orpen’s language reflects her isolation, but also her intense love for her family. The story itself is a rumination on dealing with grief and loss, as well as how we cope with the dangers of the world ouside our small circle of intimate friends and family. Do we choose to isolate ourselves, or do we take a chance and leave the safety of our homes in a search for meaning and belonging? Orpen, is a courageous and capable young woman whose desire to see more of the outside world at once endangers and illuminates her life.
Song for this book: Hounds of Love – Kate Bush
The terms “well written” and “post-apocalypse” don’t always go together. Neither do “thoughtful” and “zombies”, but here we are. This does remind me a little of The Road, but is not so distressingly bleak. I think it reminds me most of a recent title A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher.
Orpen was raised by her birth mother and her mother’s partner, Maeve, on a secluded island off the coast of Ireland. They have trained her to face a hostile world, zombie-like creatures, and the threat of a disintegrating human society. They can’t keep her safe forever, and this book begins with her on the road trying to find her place in the hellscape this world has become.
It is a well written book. Orpen’s language reflects her isolation, but also her intense love for her family. The story itself is a rumination on dealing with grief and loss, as well as how we cope with the dangers of the world ouside our small circle of intimate friends and family. Do we choose to isolate ourselves, or do we take a chance and leave the safety of our homes in a search for meaning and belonging? Orpen, is a courageous and capable young woman whose desire to see more of the outside world at once endangers and illuminates her life.
Song for this book: Hounds of Love – Kate Bush