{review} Allison Hewitt Is Trapped by Madeleine Roux

Allison Hewitt Is Trapped 

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.

{review{ Zombie Apocalypse!

Created by Stephen Jones

Published in the UK by Robinson, an imprint of Constable & Robinson

Published in the US by Running Press

Buy it here from Amazon.ca

I just explained to my dad that I like to intersperse my romance/chick books with really good zombie books (or anything apocalypse-genre, really).

Me:  ... so, basically, it's like I read romance, then zombie, then romance, then zombie, etc etc etc.
Him:  What's the difference?
Me:  Thaaaaaaaat's nice, Dad.
Him:  You can quote me on that.


I don't like every zombie book.  I like the well written, interesting, more than just gore, realistic ones.  Yeah, I said realistic.  I don't like to read about sparkly fucking vampires because I think it's too out there (and too whiney, annoying, etc etc etc), but I love me some realistically written zombies.   Take that to the bank.

I have two favourite zombie books - World War Z, and Rhiannon Frater's As The World Dies trilogy.  Now, I have three.

Other than the really annoying exclamation point in the title (!), I love this book.  From the back cover:

"Told through a series of interconnected eyewitness narratives - text messages, emails, blogs, letters, diaries, and transcripts - this is an epic story of a world plunged into chaos as the dead battle the living for total domination.  "

I expected a somewhat light and easy read, and my slightly ADD mind (or is that too much alcohol?  Whatevs) was looking forward to rather brief chapters of different narratives that could be easily read in spurts.

I did not expect such a intricate story line.  I did not expect to have to force myself to not flip ahead to continuing point of views, and I really did not expect to not want to put the book down.  I didn't expect to feel such attachment to characters I had only been introduced to for a few pages, and I really really didn't expect to be hanging on the edge of my seat.  The slight twist of an ending was least expected of all - and the most enjoyable writing in the entire book.

I expected to enjoy this book.  I did not expect to fucking love it.  Welcome to the top shelf, Zombie Apocalypse!

{review} Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater

 

 Usually, I like to give small updates on what I'm reading next.  Some books get me so excited that it's hard to wait, hard to put it in order of what I want to read.  Never have I been so excited to read a book that it bypassed not only an update here, but the usual to-be-read pile completely.  When the Semi-BFF finally finished reading Fighting to Survive: As the World Dies, Book Two by Rhiannon Frater and dropped it off on one of her visits, I couldn't wait any longer.  I'm pretty sure she was still at the end of the street, waiting on the light to turn when I cracked this baby open to begin reading.

Fighting to Survive is the second book in Rhiannon Frater's As The World Dies trilogy, and I'm going to break it down for you nice and easy here - it's one of the best books I've ever read.  The first book in the series was great (see my review here), but this second one?  Is fucking fantastic.

Trilogies can be hard to write, and even harder to read.  The middle book is a tricky thing - it needs to bridge the catchy beginning and the dramatic end together, while being interesting enough on it's own.  Few second books accomplish this properly (s'up, Catching Fire?), but this one?  This one not only accomplished it's purpose, but surpassed the quality of the first book.

The characters have become deeper.  We start to see Jenni leave her shell-shocked Zombie Ninja coping mechanism, and start to come to terms with not only a different world, but the things she saw - both as the world we know ended, and even earlier, when she lost her identity and morals in a bad marriage.  We see her tough but shallow armour crack, and real emotion come through.

With Katie, what seemed a convienent disclosure of being bi instead of gay when confronted with feelings for a man now make sense.  In the first book, it seemed like a rushed confession.  Now, it ties into the story so much more.

I'm still team Juan, and I still love Travis, but it's Nerit that makes this story complete.  She's strong, she kicks ass (literally), and her decisions are realistic - not just for the story.  The surprise addition of Jack's chapter was some of the best writing I've come across.  Period the end.

The addition of a few new characters provided some fresh entertainment, and I'm more than excited to see what develops in the third book, Siege.

If you haven't already, take a look at Rhiannon Frater's website here, or follow her on Facebook here.  At the very least, start reading this series right fucking now.  RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

{review} Outpost by Adam Baker

Outpost

Adam Baker

Published 2011 by Hodder & Stoughton

Because I'm such a cynical bitch that would prefer the solitude of a cabin in the woods to having to deal with most people in the general population of the world, an aspect of this book really appealed to me.  Namely, the setting.  A remote oil rig in the middle of the Arctic?  My therapist will have a field day with this, but that sounds like freakin' heaven to me.  Throw in an apocalypse factor, and there's no place I'd rather spend my final days.

Or my life in general.

I had one problem with this book .. well, two, actually.  One - it was less "zombie apocalypse" and more "ET is causing shit, and for reasons we'll never know" apocalypse.  Call me weird (I've been called much, much worse), but I find zombies much more believable, and enjoyable, than ET.

The second issue - I couldn't put in to words what I was feeling about this book, other than wishing I lived on aforementioned remote oil rig and not next to the neighbours that hate me.

So I did what every spoiled brat would do -  I had my dad do the review for me.  Enjoy!

I finally finished Outpost, and what a sad little book it is.

Not sad because it's the end of civilization, that's sad too, of
course, but sad because as an apocolyptic sci-fi adventure, it had
SUCH potential.

It's sort of like Michael Crichton meets Stephen King, unfortunately,
they were both having an off day.

The tale involves a group of people marooned on an enormous isolated
arctic drilling rig when reports come in that the world is being
overrun by a bizarre plague, one where metal elements of unknown
origin take over their bodies and stick out of their skin like
porcupine quills.

These don't do anything for the thought processes either, of course,
so they turn into defacto flesh eating metal infused zombies. (How
come the monsters are never vegetarians? Just wondering.)

There was so much potential to turn this story into an end of
civilaztion morality play, or an alien revenge adventure,
unfortunately the author missed every opportunity.

And after wading through 400 pages to find out what happened here, I
never did.  It's like the author said "Oh, I have to go cut the grass
now, I guess the book's done."

The basic rules of journalism, or any form of storytelling, are "who -
what - when - where - why"

Well we have the who, when, and where.  Now we need the author to come
back and give us the what and why.

I won't hold my breath waiting.

What a waste of a good story.  If Michael Crichton or Stephen King had
written this it'd be a major motion picture this summer.

What's Next? Outpost by Adam Baker

I've been reading so many Chick Lit titles lately, and I'm not sure why.  Don't get me wrong, I love romances, happy endings (both in books and in ... life.  Thought I was gonna go there, didn't you?), sexy heroes and realistic, ballsy, sarcastic heroines.

But sometimes a girl just needs a good World Is Ending is book, and sometimes the urge for a good Zombie book is so strong that it eclipses everything else around it.  Outpost by Adam Baker has been staring at me for weeks, begging me to devour it.

That's where I am in my life right now - a stranger in a new city, overwhelmed and under prepared, and in dire need of zombies to take my mind off of everything.  No wonder my therapist charges so much.

The last zombie book I read was Rihannon Frater's The First Days, and it blew my mind (Seriously.  Mind still blown), and may have ruined any chance of other books in the genre coming even close to leaving a lasting impression.

My fingers are crossed for you, Outpost.  My fingers are crossed.

They took the job to escape the world

                                          They didn't expect the world to end.

Kasker Rampart: a derelict refinery platform moored in the Arctic Ocean. A skeleton crew of fifteen fight boredom and despair as they wait for a relief ship to take them home. But the world beyond their frozen wasteland has gone to hell. Cities lie ravaged by a global pandemic. One by one TV channels die, replaced by silent wavebands. The Rampart crew are marooned. They must survive the long Arctic winter, then make their way home alone. They battle starvation and hypothermia, unaware that the deadly contagion that has devastated the world is heading their way..

Review - The First Days by Rhiannon Frater

The First Days (As The World Dies #1)
Rhiannon Frater
331 pages
First published online 2008, re-published 2011 by TOR (www.tor-forge.com)
Buy it here from Amazon.ca!

I know I have eclectic taste (eclectic is the new black, I say - now how do I trademark that?).  I’m not sure how many other divorced thirty-somethings salivate over books that describe the world ending at the hands of viruses or zombies (or both), as well well written, feel good Chick Lit.  Add in a spattering of regular horror, most books on the Best Seller lists, YA, etc ... and I like pretty much everything.

However, I never in a million years thought I would find a book that encompasses my true loves - zombies, The World As We Know It Going To Hell, and Chick Lit - but I have.  Oh my, have I ever. 

As I mentioned in my pre-review, the Semi-BFF scouted this particular book out, read it, and immediately passed it on to me, knowing I would love it as much as she did. 

Here’s what I loved - The First Days is written from the point of view of not just one, but two females.  While I love my The World As We Know It Going To Hell books immensely, I get very tired of hearing about what the men would do.  Let’s be real here - men are easy to figure out, we already know what they would do.  But what would women do?  What would Adele do if she was faced with a throng of zombies?  What would Chelsea Handler do?  I bet those stories would be a lot more entertaining than what Spencer Pratt or Justin Bieber would do.

I kind of wish zombies did attack, because I know my Ex Husband wouldn’t survive, but that’s probably really selfish of me to say.

Back to the story at hand (although I am sitting here with a satisfied smirk on my face, picturing ... well, never mind).  Katie & Jenni meet by complete and utter luck at the beginning of the zombie onslaught, and manage to just barely get out of the city unbitten and undead.  Katie, the high powered, confidant lover of women, and Jenni, the abused wife and mother are trying to survive in a world where the zombies aren’t exactly like the ones in the movies, and trying to make their way to save Jenni’s stepson. 

There’s only a few things that I found issue with, and I know a few other reviewers did as well.  Katie is first described as a lesbian, but when she’s introduced to one of the smouldering hot male characters, she soon after reveals she’s bi.  I found this a little convenient, timing wise.  Jenni, on the other hand, is a long-time abused wife who not only thrives in The New World As We Know It, but starts to really enjoy killing the reanimated dead.  Given what she had gone through all her life, and the recent images of her own kids coming back from the dead to attack her, her quick segue from Typical Abused Wife to Thriving Zombie Killing Jedi is hard to swallow.  However, given the lack of research on how abused wives would handle zombies, it’s hard to actually find this unbelievable, but it does give me pause. 

Also, for some reason, when I picture Jenni in my head, she’s played by Ginnifer Goodwin. 

Rhiannon Frater wrote this book in bits and pieces, never really intending it as more than a story on her blog.  You can really see her writing, and the story itself, evolve as you read further and further into the book, which really impressed me.  I found the beginning to be such an easy read, but by the time I got to the end, I had to go back and read the last few pages over and over because I just couldn’t believe how intense the plot had become. 

This book is wrought with tough women, close calls, adrenaline, zombies, and sexiness.  I wish the sex scenes were a little smuttier, but that’s probably because I haven’t gotten laid in entirely too long, and considering this book has everything else going for it, I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth (I’m not entirely sure what that means, but in my world it means shut the fuck up and enjoy your Zombie Chick Lit).  I fell in love with the characters (Team Juan!) surprisingly easily, and found myself skipping ahead to make sure my favourites were still intact. 

Zombies.  Action.  Emotions.  Sex.  Tequila.  Guns.  Trucks.  Tenderness.  All from the female POV.  Jesus Eff, I may have found the perfect book. 

P.S - Like the same kind of books I do?  Leave me a comment so I know I’m not alone in my strangeness.

What's Next? The First Days by Rhiannon Frater

The First Days

by Rhiannon Frater

Buy it here on Amazon.ca

The Semi-BFF (Semi because I share joint custody of her BFF status with someone across the pond) and I are kind of an odd pair - we talk about the world ending a lot.  Not in the emo, depressing way, but what we would do if the zombies attacked (um, which when you read it out loud, does sound a little emo & depressing).  We're open to the idea of the world ending in ways that don't involve zombies, but that's the one we always come back to.

A lot of women meet for lunch and cocktails with their nails done and hair did, looking good with the blush of friendship and alcohol, and talk about .. well, I'm not sure what they talk about, to be honest, but it's probably not zombies.  And if it is, I need to start introducing myself to more of these women.  Because that's what Semi-BFF and I spend our lunches doing - talking about Zombies and What We Would Do If The World As We Know Went To Hell.

Please note - we are not as hardcore as this chick on Anderson Cooper:




Seriously.  I'm just going to let you digest that video for a moment, and then reiterate that we?  Are not that hardcore (She probably shouldn't have used her real name, because if the zombies DO attack, I bet she's going to have a lot of people knocking on her door, amiright?).

So when Semi-BFF told me that she found a zombie series written from the female perspective and that it was AMAZINGAWESOMEREADITRIGHTNOW, she piqued my interest.  As soon as I saw her next, she passed the book into my hands and demanded I read it ASAP.

Will it be as good as promised?

Review - The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Passage

Justin Cronin

Buy it here from Amazon

766 Mother-freaking pages

Here’s the thing about this monstrosity of an apocalyptic book - I can’t get it out of my head.  Like the heartbreaking wail of Adele’s haunting lyrics, this book has taken up shop in my head, kicked off it’s shoes, and made me a believer in the ruins of the world to come.

It didn’t start out that way.  No sir, it did not.  I mentioned in the pre-review that I bought this book last Summer right after I left my husband, and then it promptly sat on my shelf and waited until I was ready to take it on.  I would pick it up once in awhile, read the back cover for the umpteenth time, and then pick something else to read and obsess over (Hunger Games, I’m looking at you).  I finally started reading it just before the holidays, and almost wrote it off.  The beginning of this book, up until just after 250 pages, reminded me so much of Dean Koontz and Stephen King, as if they had met in a dark and dingy dive bar one night and passed a notebook back and forth, writing a story one line at a time.  That’s not a bad analogy, since I quite enjoy most books of each of them and especially enjoy their imaginations, but I just wasn’t in the mood for 766 mother-freaking pages of that (I have Stephen King’s latest to look forward to for when that urge hits).  I trudged through, not wanting to quit so soon, and if I’m honest, slightly curious about what was taking place on the pages.

And then the vampires showed up.  At this point, I actually rolled my eyes and sighed loudly.  How did I miss that this was a story about freakin’ VAMPIRES?  I must have been drunk when I bought this book, and clearly blind when I looked at recent reviews.  VAMPIRES.  Not only was I blindsided by an element that I’m beyond sick of, but it was made worse by the scene of a nun listening to an almighty voice (hers?  God’s?  PTSD?  Evil Vampires?  Good Vampires?  We’re left to decide for ourselves here) telling her to run off and distract said freakin’ Vampires so Little Girl can be saved.

Annnnnnnnnd I’m done.  Except I hate quitting books, especially so soon (percentage wise).  So I sighed loudly again, turned the page, and 500 pages later, my mind was OFFICIALLY BLOWN.  Suddenly, we’re introduced to characters that I slowly fell in love with (Galen Strauss turned out to be my favourite), a setting that was described so realistically that I felt like I was there, and a plot line that had me emotionally intrigued.  Oh, and the vamps that I hated so much?  Turned into almost zombie type creatures, as compared to Human Beings with Feelings That Sparkle and Fight the Urge to Drink Blood, so it almost felt okay to like them.

It took me three weeks to finish this book, which I at first chalked up to it being the Holidays, and a lot of distractions around (spiked egg nog, how you doin’ baby?) and of course, the rage and tears included with my first Holiday season without my husband (did I mention that whiskey helps heartbreak?).  Then I realized something - I was reading it slowly because I was savouring it.  Yes, I was distracted, but I wasn’t in a rush because the characters and the story were staying with me until well after I’d marked my page and put the book down for the night.  I didn’t have to rush through it to see what happens, because I was enveloped in the story itself. 

I’ve never had so many mixed emotions from one book - the highs and lows I went through in reading this book were equal to that of the highly over-used comparison to that guy you can’t decide if you love or hate.

It’s not a perfect story.  Some things I still have questions about, or don't understand.  Like why the group always runs into more survivors that help them continue to survive, yet never survive themselves.  Or what Auntie’s purpose in the story really was, other than someone to tell the readers some of the things that happened in the past.  Also, the amount of secondary characters can really get confusing - I almost wished for a character tree to refer to.

Long story short (ha ha!) - get your bottle of Jack and sit down, because this book is going to fuck with your head.   I can’t wait to continue this crazy ride this summer when the sequel comes out.

What's Next? The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Passage by Justin Cronin

I picked this book up last summer, right after my marriage ended.  I wonder if it's a coincidence that my interest in Post Apocalyptic books became almost an obsession around the same time I had to move to a cabin in the woods because I caught my husband cheating?  

This book sat on my lovely little book shelf, waiting patiently while I wailed and sobbed and spilled drinks on the floor for 7 months while I "healed" (if that's not the loosest term I'll ever use, I don't know what is) my broken heart and deflated pride, never judging, just waiting for the time when I would be ready to take on this 766 page monstrosity.  

The time has come.  I'll post a full review next week, but I'll leave you with these two words to sum up my experience of this book:

Mind. Fuck.