A review by shalini_gunnasan
Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey

3.0

Quite a nice, action-filled romp like the original, only instead of crazy not-angels we have zombies. I didn't give this book as many stars as the original because of the sexual scenes and improbable female characters (unlike the previous book, where the girls weren't so one-dimensional). I was also not happy that none of the characters grew. This being a testosterony author writing a testosterony book, I'll just shut up about the women being one-dimensional and lacking in real character interest (two cardboard cutouts especially, one who wanted to boink Stark and the other who did). The worldbuilding could have been fleshed out more. The idea about the place where the dead go was very interesting, as is the ancient curio dealer who gets more interesting by the page. Fleshing out the world would have been good. People becoming different, rather than dead, would have been better; more energy on existing characters' growth (art students suddenly becoming super smart witch doctors don't count). Unfortunately, even Stark himself doesn't change at all. He experiences something new, and becomes something new, but only for a while. Then there's an Episode Reset and he's back to mean old secretly sentimental Stark.

You know what? That's why I'm reading the next book. Sometimes no change is good, especially when you can look forward to more Hellion keister-kicking (and one particular angel whom I hope will be very living-challenged).