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A review by marydrover
The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume Two: Empire Decayed by Daniel Kraus
5.0
IT IS FINALLY TIME TO RETURN TO MY FAVORITE LIVING DEAD BOY. My review for the first truly amazing book in this duology can be found here. And oh, this lived up to every single one of my hopes and dreams. This picks up where the first volume left off in the 50s, and follows Zebulon through to the late 90s with a little epilogue in the 21st century.
This was darker and, if possible, weirder than the first one. There were actually times were I felt like it’d gone just a smidge too far, and if I was wary about recommending the first one to the general public, this one I definitely wouldn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it was still fantastically written, and this was everything I was hoping for out of the sequel, but wow was it disturbing.
As before, a list of things that you can find in this Very Bizarre, Very Uncomfortable, Very Gory epic: Woodstock in all its muddy, fiery, inspiring glory, a long, rambling description of the 60s and what it was like to be a martyr for the hippies, cannibalism and cults all in the same chapter, a quiet interlude of something sweet and sad with America’s widowed housewives post WWII, the inevitable discovery of Zebulon during 9/11, Mercury 7 astronauts with an alternate conspiracy theory history, and plot twists that will leave you going NOW JUST YOU WAIT A MINUTE. Seriously, it was one heck of a wild ride.
Again, I didn’t like this book–I was wholly consumed by it. I loved every second of it, even the moments where I was a little bit revolted by it. They will have a place of honor on my bookshelves, and I’ll be thinking about them for a long time.
This was darker and, if possible, weirder than the first one. There were actually times were I felt like it’d gone just a smidge too far, and if I was wary about recommending the first one to the general public, this one I definitely wouldn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it was still fantastically written, and this was everything I was hoping for out of the sequel, but wow was it disturbing.
As before, a list of things that you can find in this Very Bizarre, Very Uncomfortable, Very Gory epic: Woodstock in all its muddy, fiery, inspiring glory, a long, rambling description of the 60s and what it was like to be a martyr for the hippies, cannibalism and cults all in the same chapter, a quiet interlude of something sweet and sad with America’s widowed housewives post WWII, the inevitable discovery of Zebulon during 9/11, Mercury 7 astronauts with an alternate conspiracy theory history, and plot twists that will leave you going NOW JUST YOU WAIT A MINUTE. Seriously, it was one heck of a wild ride.
Again, I didn’t like this book–I was wholly consumed by it. I loved every second of it, even the moments where I was a little bit revolted by it. They will have a place of honor on my bookshelves, and I’ll be thinking about them for a long time.