Review: Horrificata Book 1: School's Dead Boring, by D.I. Russell

 

Title: Horrificata Book 1: School's Dead Boring

Author: D.I. Russell

Format: e-book

Source: NetGalley

My Opinion: "Desmond Kingsley loves football and HATES school – especially science.

So when he’s trapped in detention with outcasts Dee, Craven, Todd and complete lunatic Blob, while someone unleashes chemicals at the school, turning almost everyone into mindless shambling corpses…or worse, he’ll have more than his grades to worry about!"

I love horror stories so when I had the chance to read one with my teenager, I was excited to see if he would love it as much as I did - and I wasn't disappointed! He loved it! He's not a huge reader, so the fact that he read the entire book quickly told me everything I needed to know about it. Of course, I read it myself so we could discuss it (gotta throw some educational conversation in there!), and we actually liked all the same parts. I thought the characters were great and the story was a lot of fun. There was just enough "gross" in there to keep it interesting, and there were some great twists regarding how the zombies came to be and who was behind it. 

This book is recommended for the 12 to 18 age group and I agree with that recommendation. It has enough humor thrown in with the gore to keep that age group interested. Anything that gets kids reading is a good thing, and I think this book fits that bill.

In summary, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free of charge through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Mortality (The Hitchhiker Strain #1), by Kellie Sheridan

Title: Mortality (The Hitchhiker Strain #1)
Author: Kellie Sheridan
Format: ebook
Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: After surviving a deadly plague outbreak, sixteen-year-old Savannah thought she had lived through the very worst of human history. There was no way to know that the miracle vaccine would put everyone at risk for a fate worse than un-death. 

Now, two very different kinds of infected walk the Earth, intent on nothing but feeding and destroying what little remains of civilization. When the inoculated are bitten, infection means watching on in silent horror as self-control disappears and the idea of feasting on loved ones becomes increasingly hard to ignore. 

Starving and forced to live inside of the abandoned high school, all Savannah wants is the chance to fight back. When a strange boy arrives with a plan to set everything right, she gets her chance. Meeting Cole changes everything. Mere survival will never be enough.

My Opinion: I love a good zombie book, and this story didn't let me down. There was lots of action, lots of zombie ass kicking, and some sweet YA romance thrown in for good measure. The characters were well developed, the plot moved along at a pretty good clip, and the world building was phenomenal, in that it portrayed a very bleak and deserted world full of violence and general mayhem, with just enough hope sprinkled in to keep you going.

There are two main stories told here - Savannah's, along with her friends, and Zarah and Liam's. They all inhabit the same world, but their experiences are completely different, and it is these differences that shape the characters and drive the separate storylines. I would love to say that I have a favorite, but I kept switching back and forth and finally gave up trying to choose and just enjoyed them both!

In summary, I really, really enjoyed this story, and give it 5/5 stars :)

End Dayz (The Hitchhiker Strain 0.5), by Kellie Sheridan

Title: End Dayz (The Hitchhiker Strain 0.5)
Author: Kellie Sheridan
Format: ebook
Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: "It's month after the dead first began to walk. The miracle vaccine that was supposed to save us all has failed.

Now, four teens fight to stay alive as a stronger, smarter breed of zombie begins to appear, threatening to end humanity for good.

Four short stories, 11,000 words total.

Prequel to Mortality (March, 2013)."

My Opinion: This prequel novella introduces us to four characters that are going to be in the first book of The Hitchhiker Strain series, called Mortality, which I also got approved for through NetGalley. I thought this introduction was a really great way to meet the characters and get a little bit of a feel for them before starting the series. 

The novella was separated into four chapters, one for each of the teens Pierre, Belle, Alex and Zack. It was a very quick read, but I definitely recommend reading it before starting Mortality. It gives you just a taste of what you're going to be getting with the series and in my case, gets you all excited to start it! I give it 5 stars :D

Review: Dearly, Beloved (Gone With the Respiration #2), by Lia Habel

Title: Dearly, Beloved (Gone With the Respiration #2)
Author: Lia Habel
Format: ebook
Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: "Can the living coexist with the living dead? 

That’s the question that has New Victorian society fiercely divided ever since the mysterious plague known as “The Laz” hit the city of New London and turned thousands into walking corpses. But while some of these zombies are mindless monsters, hungry for human flesh, others can still think, speak, reason, and control their ravenous new appetites.

Just ask Nora Dearly, the young lady of means who was nearly kidnapped by a band of sinister zombies but valiantly rescued by a dashing young man . . . of the dead variety.

Nora and her savior, the young zombie soldier Bram Griswold, fell hopelessly in love. But others feel only fear and loathing for the reanimated dead. Now, as tensions grow between pro- and anti-zombie factions, battle lines are being drawn in the streets. And though Bram is no longer in the New Victorian army, he and his ex-commando zombie comrades are determined to help keep the peace. That means taking a dangerous stand between The Changed, a radical group of sentient zombies fighting for survival, and The Murder, a masked squad of urban guerrillas hellbent on destroying the living dead. But zombies aren’t the only ones in danger: Their living allies are also in The Murder’s crosshairs, and for one vengeful zealot, Nora Dearly is the number one target.

As paranoia, prejudice, and terrorist attacks threaten to plunge the city into full-scale war, Nora’s scientist father and his team continue their desperate race to unlock the secrets of “The Laz” and find a cure. But their efforts may be doomed when a mysterious zombie appears bearing an entirely new strain of the virus—and the nation of New Victoria braces for a new wave of the apocalypse.

Lia Habel’s spellbinding, suspenseful sequel to Dearly, Departed takes her imaginative mash-up of period romance, futuristic thriller, and zombie drama to a whole new level of innovative and irresistible storytelling."

My Opinion: Dearly, Departed was one of my favorite books from last year so I was really psyched to get approved by NetGalley for Dearly, Beloved, and I wasn't disappointed. D,B picks up a few months after where we left off at the end of D,D, with the zombies now out in the open and everyone trying to find a way to live together. Well, not quite everyone - there's still a lot of anti-zombie prejudice going on, even though the zombies who are trying to find a way to live in the real world are for the most part high functioning and have retained most of their intelligence from before they were turned. In other words, they're not the ones who will chase you down and eat your brains for fun! Unfortunately, these same high functioning zombies are being kidnapped off the streets by a mysterious group of bird mask wearing humans for God only knows what reason. There is also a new strain of the Laz that the vaccine doesn't protect against, so all told, there's a lot going on in New Victoria! 

This book, like the last, is told through multiple POVs, with some new ones mixed in with the old. There are six POVs altogether, belonging to Nora, Bram, Pamela, Michael, Vespertine, and Laura - perhaps my favorite new character! Laura is a zombie who tries to deal with the fact that her body is dead and decaying by planting flowers directly into her skin, so that they grow and blossom all over her body! The way that she manages to find something beautiful in the midst of all of the violence and death that surrounds her is very endearing.

Although I enjoyed this installment in the Gone with the Respiration series, I didn't feel that it was as good as Dearly, Departed was, and I think that's because there was just too much going on, which is strange because I also felt that the book started off rather slow and took a while to gain momentum. That being said, I thought the story flowed rather well once it took off. I really enjoyed the continuation of the love story between Nora and Bram, and I thought having Pam deal with PTSD following everything that happened to her in the first book was a great addition to the story. It showed a strength in her that I hope will continue to grow in the next book. 

All told, I'm giving Dearly, Beloved 4 stars and I'm really looking forward to reading book 3 when it comes out to see what fresh hell the amazing Ms. Habel has in store for one of my favorite couples :D

Review: Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1), by Gena Showalter

Title: Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1)
Author: Gena Showalter
Format: hard cover, 404 pages
Source: Won in a giveaway

From Goodreads: "She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish."

My Opinion: OMG! OMG! OMG! This book was as awesome as they get! I just this minute finished it and I had to get on here and say OMG! And just in case I need to spell out how I feel about it, I LOVED it! I figured I would because I love Gena Showalter's books in general, but I literally read it every second I could because it was just THAT good! I started it yesterday at about noon, and I finished it today at about noon, which is pretty good for me!

Alice has led a totally sheltered life due to the fact that her dad sees monsters where no one else does, and to keep his family safe he keeps them pretty much on lock down 24/7. On Alice's 16th birthday she guilts her parents into taking her to her little sister Emma's ballet recital, which means being out after dark, and because of this she loses her entire family at once. She moves in with her Nana and Pops, changes her name to Ali, and vows to fight the evil that killed her family. Add to this the fact that she has to switch schools and ends up with a new best friend and a weird relationship with the hottest, baddest ass at the school, and her new life is off to a roaring start!

I loved the characters in this book. Ali is such an innocent at the beginning of the book, but when she decides to take her head out of her .... umm, I mean out of the sand, she isn't fooling around! And Kat is the best friend that all of us want to have: she's funny, snarky, full of herself in the best way, and totally loyal to a fault. Then there's Cole, the bad boy that we were all attracted to in high school, but who scared the heck out of us! Ali and Cole have a totally unique start, and that's all I'm going to say about that because I don't want to ruin any surprises for you! Suffice it to say, they are meant to be together, if they can just get out of their own way to get there!

Seeing as how this is one of Gena's books, I probably don't have to say that the pacing is perfect and the action is awesome, but I will! The main characters were great, but even better are the secondary characters! Each one has their own unique voice and there's tons of growth from start to finish. I think two of my favorites were Nana and Pops. When they take Ali in, they go out of their way to make her feel comfortable, going so far as learning the slang that all the kids use nowadays, usually with hilarious results! One of my favorite examples is when they're talking to Ali before she goes to a party at her new friend Reeve's house:

"Reeve." Pops pursed his lips. "That sounds like a made-up name to me. What exactly will be crackalackin at this party? Will her parents be there?"

Again with the horrible slang, the adorable man. "We'll swim, talk, probably play video games and Ping-Pong," I said, sidestepping the parents portion of his interrogation. I hadn't heard one way or the other, but I suspected a big fat no.

Pops gave me the evil eye. "You're not going to get chewed, are you?"

I...had no idea how to respond to that. "Chewed?"

"Don't pretend to misunderstand, young lady," Nana said. "Chewed. Cranked. Trashed."

"You mean drunk?" Please, let them mean drunk. This discussion had already taken too many horrendous turns.

They are SO cute!! Overall, I loved everything about this book and can't believe I have to wait until October 2013 to read Book 2 of The White Rabbit Chronicles, Through the Zombie Glass!! Here's to hoping the time flies by :D

How about you? Have you read it yet, and if so, what did you think of it? If not, are you planning to?