By: Sean Beaudoin
Genre: YA Zombie-A-pocolypse
Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2012
Rating: PG-13 for all sorts of awesome-I-won’t-be-able-to-eat-for-a-week gore
Coffee Beans: A solid 3.5
Spoilers: No
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of
this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for this honest review
(Oh, and don’t read this while eating. Trust me.)
First Line: “The neighborhood was
trashed, funeral pyres in the distance burning against a raw pink sky.”
Favorite Line: “Duff was an ancient
janitor who had been at Rebozzo’s since before the Romans invented aqueducts.
He’d probably ridden out the Flood in his mop bucket.” (ebook, pf 32)
Cover Appeal: I like it
Instalove Factor: None present
Personal Recommendation: Worth the
read. If you’re into zombies and gore
Publisher’s Summary:
A feast for the brain, this gory and
genuinely hilarious take on zombie culture simultaneously skewers, pays tribute
to, and elevates the horror genre.
Seventeen-year-old Nero is stuck in the wilderness with a bunch of other juvenile delinquents on an "Inward Trek." As if that weren’t bad enough, his counselors have turned into flesh-eating maniacs overnight and are now chowing down on his fellow miscreants. As in any classic monster flick worth its salted popcorn, plentiful carnage sends survivors rabbiting into the woods while the mindless horde of "infects" shambles, moans, and drools behind. Of course, these kids have seen zombie movies. They generate "Zombie Rules" almost as quickly as cheeky remarks, but attitude alone can’t keep the biters back. Serving up a cast of irreverent, slightly twisted characters, an unexpected villain, and an ending you won’t see coming, here is a savvy tale that that’s a delight to read — whether you’re a rabid zombie fan or freshly bitten — and an incisive commentary on the evil that lurks within each of us.
Seventeen-year-old Nero is stuck in the wilderness with a bunch of other juvenile delinquents on an "Inward Trek." As if that weren’t bad enough, his counselors have turned into flesh-eating maniacs overnight and are now chowing down on his fellow miscreants. As in any classic monster flick worth its salted popcorn, plentiful carnage sends survivors rabbiting into the woods while the mindless horde of "infects" shambles, moans, and drools behind. Of course, these kids have seen zombie movies. They generate "Zombie Rules" almost as quickly as cheeky remarks, but attitude alone can’t keep the biters back. Serving up a cast of irreverent, slightly twisted characters, an unexpected villain, and an ending you won’t see coming, here is a savvy tale that that’s a delight to read — whether you’re a rabid zombie fan or freshly bitten — and an incisive commentary on the evil that lurks within each of us.
My Review:
So, I just finished reading this book, and while it was
good, I can’t help but be a little disappointed. From the description from the
publisher, I was expecting something more like the movie Zombieland (--> "You almost knocked over your alcohol with your knife." bahahaha!). And while
there were some chuckle-worthy parts, it was, in the end, just okay.
I enjoyed the voice of the MC, Nero/Nick, and I know that it
will appeal to a lot of the male readers out there—especially with the addition
of the flesh-eating zombies. I enjoyed the two punch-in-the-face twists at the
beginning of the book (totally didn't see those coming), and the interesting
turn of events during the middle. I enjoyed the grisly DISGUSTING details Sean
goes into when the kids are being attacked by the undead. Seriously. I was
eating dinner. And then I wasn't It happened just like that. I think I lost my
appetite for about 3 days after reading those scenes. But that’s something that
Sean rocks at: painting an “I’m so there” scene in a surprising limited amount
of words.
There was a lot about this book that was jarring for me. The
introduction of left-field elements half-way through the book, that for me,
didn’t need to be there. The writing style at times, etc. And I have to say, that
towards the end, I got a little muddled with what was going on and confused
about how everything was going to be pulled together. There seemed like there
were a lot of loose ends that didn’t need to be there in the first place
because they didn’t add anything to the story (ie – The Dude and his
involvement with Fresh Bucket. It played no part what-so-ever in the
progression of the plot. Yeah, his initial involvement with the company, that
happened way off stage, years ago, did, but the rest of his role in the book
was obsolete). I’m thinking they’re
going to try to push this into a series…
There were only a few other things that I felt meh about: I got the epub from the
publisher, and the formatting was all weird. Half the letters were missing,
there was some weird code in place of a certain sequence of letters (06 = ff,
__ = fl, etc) I felt like a spy with a secret decoder ring. And to go along
with that, the “rules” were all messed up, too. For me, to make that kind of
thing work, there needed to be more of them and they needed to be more
entertaining. Also, a the story moves
on, you find out that (little spoiler here) Nero hears the voice of The Rock in
his head. Which doesn’t pop up as much as it should in order for it to have
worked for me. I also got confused as to the tense of the story. It’s written
in 3rd person, but when the voice popped up, I always got the
impression it was in 1st. Then I was ripped out of the story as it
jogged back to 3rd. I would’ve liked to have seen the entire story
written in 1st.
Okay, so it may sound like I didn’t like this book, but I
did! It’s definitely for a certain crowd (mainly boys who like zombies), but
for anyone else out there who just likes a good book, it’s for them, too. So
pick it up, it’s worth your time.
Happy reading, my friends!
--Me
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