by Madeleine Roux
Paperback, 340 pages
Published January 18th 2011 by St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN 0312658907 (ISBN13: 9780312658908)
"One woman's story as she blogs - and fights back - the zombie apocalypse"
Allison Hewitt and her five colleagues at the Brooks and Peabody Bookstore are trapped together when the zombie outbreak hits. Allison reaches out for help through her blog, writing on her laptop and utilizing the military's emergency wireless network (SNET). It may also be her only chance to reach her mother. But as the reality of their situation sinks in, Allison's blog becomes a harrowing account of her edge-of-the-seat adventures (with some witty sarcasm thrown in) as she and her companions fight their way through ravenous zombies and sometimes even more dangerous humans.
I wanted to start 2013 off on the right foot, so for book club, I chose a literary classic that's been on my shelf for a long time. I read about 50 pages, wondered internally (and on Facebook) about the use of the word trifle vs the dessert trifle, read a few more slow pages, and then the Semi-BFF came over with my Christmas present. She knows me well, so of course part of the present was a zombie book I pointed out to her MONTHS previously.
After that, the classic didn't stand a chance, trifle or no trifle. I've been craving trifle ever since, but whatevs. Trifle the British dessert, clearly. Not just trifles in my life.
See how it can get confusing?
Anyway.
I love zombie books written from female POVs. Especially when that female works in a book store, is sarcastic, loves books, and oh yeah, has no idea what the fuck she's doing. Other than the zombie part, it's practically me - sober.
I found the action in the beginning a little on the slow side, and definitely not as realistic as I'd like. The group spent a lot of time holed up in the break room of the book store, which was a good idea at first. However, they stayed put much longer than I would have. I would have thought they would try to utilize the rest of the store more than they did - two main entrances would be somewhat easy to fortify. But maybe it had a lot of windows, which could make it trickier ...
Where was I? Trifle? Oh, zombies. right.
After the group moved on from the back room, I got more involved and attached. I found most characters a little hard to get attached to, but luckily most of the focus is on Allison and a select few others. And, not to give anything away, but I fell head over heels in love with Allison's love interest. HEAD OVER FUCKING HEELS. As far as book crushes go, he's probably in my top 3. Ding dong. Good job, Madeleine.
My only real complaint? I'm a bit confused to a few loose ends. This book comes across as the first book in a series, but after looking online, I believe the next book isn't an actual sequel to this story, as much as it is to the story of the outbreak. All fine and dandy, but what happened to some characters in Allison? The difference between cliff hanger and loose ends is slight, and I'm not sure which side this book falls on.
But who fucking cares about one or two loose ends? This book kicks ass. And it definitely kicked the ass of my poor little classic, sitting all alone on the shelf, neglected and very much still unread.
