Alice in Deadland

What started out promising and interesting quickly turned stupid and ill thought out. The concept is a fun one, Alice in Wonderland but with zombies. That's how the book was sold, it's what the goodreads synopsis says, what's on the back of the novel and what the positive reviews write. It couldn't be more wrong. 

It does start out that way though. It's post apocalyptical, Alice has never known any world but the zombie infested or "biter" world than this. She was born shortly after the world fell apart and has trained since her birth to stay alive and shoot "biters" in the head, only way to kill them. 

One day while on gaurd duty she sees a biter with crazy bunny ears jump into a hole and out of site from her rifle. Ignoring all her training and instincts, she follows the bunny eared biter into the hole. See the forced similarity to the original story? It's basically forcing it down the readers throat! Once she is down the hole. She finds herself surrounded by biters, but rather than kill her they being her to their Queen. 

The Queen has with her a copy of Alice and Wonderland, and tries to convince Alice it is a book of prophesy. The Queen believes that humans and the biters can live I. Harmony, and that Alice is the key to peace on Earth once more. 

If the novel wasn't horrible enough at this point, it gets worse!  Alice and the biters head back to her camp, but Zeus a military camp headed by a mix of old world commanders wants the biters killed. Alice now believes that this whole new world was orchestrated years before her birth by an old Chinese government to rid the world of undesirables and start a more evolved one. 

This novel explains little, leaving plot holes and unanswered questions. No, I will not be reading the rest of the series even though they were purchased in a set with the first. Please save yourself the trouble, time and money and don't read this book. 

The Fallen: Enemy Novel #5

As it says at the beginning of The Fallen, this book starts at the same time that The Sacrifice takes place, and ends with a few of the characters from the two novels coming together. This is the fifth installment of Charlie Higson’s absolutely amazing The Enemy Series about a zombie apocalypse that takes place in London, England. This isn’t going to be the most details review, because it takes place far into the series, and the novel is over 500 pages.

This novel centers around the characters who are at the museum and those who have been traveling to the museum. It opens with the kids from Holloway arriving at the museum just as the sickos have broken in. If not for the skills of Jackson, Achilles, and the rest of the crew the chances of Justin or anyone else surviving the night was slim to none. Once the two groups merge they decide to embark on an expedition to the medical center nearby. While there, the small group of fighters and scientists learn a few things about the disease that are not good. And while they lose a lot of people on the way, they also pick up some “freaks,” mutated children trapped in the medical center who know more than anyone they have ever come across.

Back at the museum, they are on the lookout for whoever let the sickos in, and that would be Paul. Paul is slowly killing of other kids, he seems to have caught the sickness. That isn’t the worst part though, in the second to last chapter things are revealed about Paul’s evil deeds that shocked me, things I didn’t see coming. And the cliffhanger at the end, about Small Sam and Ella is just to much to handle!! Such an amazing series, cannot wait for the next one.

Zombie Fallout

It all started with the flu, or the flu vaccine to be more precise. H1N1 was tearing the world apart, until the scientists thought they found a cure. The public was so desperate for a remedy that the scientists didn’t go through their usual trials, but rushed the vaccine all over the world. People lined up, but all to soon realized that the vaccine that was suppose to save them all was really going to doom the world. One of the side effects of the vaccine, the only side effect of the untested vaccine pushed onto the pubic was a spiked fever within days of inoculation. A fever that got worse and worse until the person collapsed and died. They didn’t stay dead though, that would make for a boring story. They got up again, this time with a taste for human organs and blood.

These creatures, or Zombies as the public called them, ransacked the land, killing any and all things they met. Within a few days of the H1N1 vaccine being distributed, there was almost no humans left. That is where Mike Talbot’s story starts.

This seems like a good, hard-core action packed zombie book so far right? Well, you would be wrong, so wrong. It reads like the writing of a fifteen year olds journal. The human isn’t just “guy humor” filled with stupid puns and sex jokes, but rather the humor of an adolescent boy who hasn’t had sex, or even kissed a girl yet. The main character is a weak pathetic excuse for a man, trying to act macho when really he is a spineless git. Even during battles he takes time aside from, you know saving people and his family, to think about how the zombie might have looked before the infection, and how they might have looked naked. Mike groans on and on about how he’s a “survivalist,” but really he has no idea what to do.

I had this novel on audio book, and it was so difficult to get through, it was written so badly. It took me months, literally months to get through it because I found it just so painful. Don’t read it, there are better zombie novels out there. Heck, there is better Walking Dead fanfiction.

The Sacrifice (Enemy #4) Review

Trying to review a book in the middle of a series can be difficult. I want to talk about how characters have changed, but trying to give the backstory to all the characters would be a novella in itself. But lets give it a shot. The Sacrifice is the fourth novel in Charlie Higson’s best selling The Enemy series. Set in London in the not so distant future, a sickness wiped out everyone over the age of fourteen. It has been a year since all the adults got sick, most of them died. A few however, lived if you can call it that. They are diseased, crazy animals without thoughts except to eat the flesh of all the children still alive. At least that’s how it was for the past year. Shadowman (Dylan) has been following them, observing them and they are starting to change. They are growing smarter, working together, communication to one another and the kids are not safe. Groups have banded together all over London, in the Tower, the Palace, the Cathedral, and in Parliament. But the sickos, or adults, are smarter now. They are finding ways into the fortified buildings, communicating and working together. Those children who are left, are even more unsafe than they were before.

            This novel brings together all of the different pieces, places, and people that Higson has introduced his readers to over the past few books. Brothers and sisters are trying to cross London to reunite, no matter how many sickos might be between them. Sam and The Kid in trying to find their friends have been captured by more different groups believing them to by spies, or in Mad Matt’s opinion the Lamb and the Goat, the devil and the savior. Those children in power in their “strongholds” are starting to are irrational moves.

            Maybe there is hope. Wormwood, an adult and a sicko might not be as sick as the others. He can still talk, and while he craves the taste of human flesh like the rest, his nonsense talk is starting to make scene. He mumbles about the experiments and the mistakes in-between calling for flesh and turning from the light that burns his skin. Given enough time and darkness he might be able to help those who are left stop the disease and save the children.

            But for every yin there is a yang, and while Wormwood is doing his best to fight the cravings and help, St. George has given in completely to the ravaging and chaos in his mind. He leads the newly ordered and strong group of diseased adults, and they are intent on satisfying their craving for the flesh of children.

            I thought that this book was absolutely amazing and I cannot wait for the series to continue. The first three books focused on just one, maybe two groups of kids, but this novel is bringing them all together, and setting the story up for the final battle where I am assuming all the children will band together under Wormwood’s guidance to fight off the last of the sickness and begin to rebuild humanity.

            I give this novel 4.5/5 stars and wood recommend it for anyone who likes zombie books, post apocalyptic novels, books the feature strong children facing and fighting adversary, and novels like World War Z, Gone, the Killing Floor, and the Quarantine series.

Quarantine: The Saints (Book 2) REVIEW

It seemed that the students, lead by Will and the rest of the Loner pack, were finally going to

escape the school they had been quarantined in for almost two years. A group of teenagers outside of the school were trying to break them out, unfortunately it didn’t work and the outsiders got stuck in the school with them. Nicknamed the “Saints” (since they went to the private school about two hours away), they dynamic of life at McKinley High has shifted again. The Saints had brought news of the outside, and it wasn’t good. The infection had not been quarantined by the closing of McKinley and the area round it, but had started to spread all over the state, and teenagers had been killed onsite for more than a year. McKinley High was one of the only places in the entire state that was “safe” for teenagers.

            With the entrance of the Saints power completely shifts inside the school. The “Loners” have disbanded, each person going a different gangs leaving Will alone and scared, just like he was when the quarantine first happened. That is until Gates, leader of the Saints, befriends Will in order to get a foothold in the happenings of McKinley. The two quickly bond, and take over the school with their wild parties and outrageous demands. Not to mention the taking down of former Varsity leader Sam, eventually causing his death.

            Slowly Will begins to realize that maybe Gates isn’t who he says he is. Wild mood swings, talking to himself, and there is murmur from some of the other Saints that maybe some of the deaths that happened on the outside. Deaths that weren’t caused by the government or scared adults, but by Gates, and now Gates is starting to crack in McKinley. All of McKinley is starting to crack.

            Gangs are breaking apart, attacking each other without provocation. Hoarding food and other goods has started again, people are dying, and rape and pregnancy are starting to become an issue. Drops are becoming infrequent again and the few adults who supervise the drops from afar are starting to give up trying to help.

            I thought that this was an amazing follow-up to Quarantine: The Losers by Lex Thomas. The book doesn’t overly dwell on activities from the first novel, which lets this novel have a life of its own. One of the best parts about this series in that the timeline is linear, but each chapter tells the story from a few different people’s perspective. It helps understand the story better, so its not one-sided, but gives a more accurate portrayal of what is actually going on. The story is fast passed, so I never once felt bored. There are enough different storylines to keep you entertained, but not so many that you ever get confused with who’s-who.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys young adult, dystopian novels. He writes in a style similar to Ray Bradbury and Stephen King if they wrote for young-adults. I would compare it to books like Gone, Lord of the Flies, Charlie Higson’s The Fear Series, and other infection type books.