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robirb 's review for:
Hearing Red
by Nicole Maser
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wish I had known going in that this was primarily a romance, instead of an action/adventure with romance.
If I had to sum up Hearing Red in just one word that would be... Derivative. No one is reinventing the wheel here, that's for sure. Not that I think it's strictly necessary, in zombie fiction, but still...
Its meta awareness of its place in the zombie apocalypse genre was kind of a let down. There is no time whatsoever dedicated to worldbuilding, nothing is established, the book just assumes you've seen The Walking Dead and know the drill. How long ago did the outbreak happen? How did it happen? When or where exactly did it start? Anything special about this particular brand of zombies? No? Alright then.
Speaking of which, I don't strictly love that zombies are called "zombies", immediately drawing from that pocket of pop culture in quite a genre-savvy way - I feel like it evokes a certain level of camp and self-awareness that I'm not sure was the vibe here. And yet... the characters manage to be be the absolute LEAST genre-savvy you could imagine. The second the book described Tyler scratching at his ankle I knew he was infected. Yet for Saff it takes him falling over and throwing up blood to even begin to suspect something might be off. Really? Not even a question? "Are you infected"? I thought the zombie apocalypse had been going on for a while, shouldn't this be standard practice? How long have you lived in the apocalypse again??? Right, we don't know.
I suppose that the characters are supposed to be the real stars of the show, and to some degree they are. I have to admit that after a weird start, the developing relationship really started to grow on me. The problem is that there is so much time dedicated to their domesticity and the ins and outs of daily life in the apocalypse that I found myself bored out of my mind half the time. Where are the zombies in this zombie book??? After a while it all really started to feel like an excuse to write forced proximity. Which, sure, go off, but I wish the book had be marketed as such. This is more of a romance than it is anything else, and I don't really vibe with the genre.
The writing goes from plain to...bad? I noticed repetitions and lacking syntax even in audio form. I'm told the written version is full of punctuation and spelling errors or typos. I would say this needed an extra round of editing, but to be honest I don't really know if it ever got one at all.
I also understand that the cover is AI generated. I only became aware of this midway through the book, which was a book club pick. Had I known it I would have advised against the choice. I docked a full star from the rating for this alone. I understand indie publishing is hard and costly, but this feels like cutting corner to get an unpolished, half baked book out. I don't think I'll be supporting this author going forward.
If I had to sum up Hearing Red in just one word that would be... Derivative. No one is reinventing the wheel here, that's for sure. Not that I think it's strictly necessary, in zombie fiction, but still...
Its meta awareness of its place in the zombie apocalypse genre was kind of a let down. There is no time whatsoever dedicated to worldbuilding, nothing is established, the book just assumes you've seen The Walking Dead and know the drill. How long ago did the outbreak happen? How did it happen? When or where exactly did it start? Anything special about this particular brand of zombies? No? Alright then.
Speaking of which, I don't strictly love that zombies are called "zombies", immediately drawing from that pocket of pop culture in quite a genre-savvy way - I feel like it evokes a certain level of camp and self-awareness that I'm not sure was the vibe here. And yet... the characters manage to be be the absolute LEAST genre-savvy you could imagine. The second the book described Tyler scratching at his ankle I knew he was infected. Yet for Saff it takes him falling over and throwing up blood to even begin to suspect something might be off. Really? Not even a question? "Are you infected"? I thought the zombie apocalypse had been going on for a while, shouldn't this be standard practice? How long have you lived in the apocalypse again??? Right, we don't know.
I suppose that the characters are supposed to be the real stars of the show, and to some degree they are. I have to admit that after a weird start, the developing relationship really started to grow on me. The problem is that there is so much time dedicated to their domesticity and the ins and outs of daily life in the apocalypse that I found myself bored out of my mind half the time. Where are the zombies in this zombie book??? After a while it all really started to feel like an excuse to write forced proximity. Which, sure, go off, but I wish the book had be marketed as such. This is more of a romance than it is anything else, and I don't really vibe with the genre.
The writing goes from plain to...bad? I noticed repetitions and lacking syntax even in audio form. I'm told the written version is full of punctuation and spelling errors or typos. I would say this needed an extra round of editing, but to be honest I don't really know if it ever got one at all.
I also understand that the cover is AI generated. I only became aware of this midway through the book, which was a book club pick. Had I known it I would have advised against the choice. I docked a full star from the rating for this alone. I understand indie publishing is hard and costly, but this feels like cutting corner to get an unpolished, half baked book out. I don't think I'll be supporting this author going forward.