Review: Revamp is remarkable!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 30, 2012
I read Beck Sherman's "Revamp" in one shot. Yup, the whole damn thing. That's how I roll when a book's worth it.And this book was worth it.The first fifty or sixty pages of the novel were some of the best I've ever read. Period. The airport scene is amazing. It kicks a$$ in so many ways I'm tempted to plagiarize it. Seriously. I'm not going to spoil it, but it ends with this masterpiece:"I was drugged, I was hungry, I was angry, I had just committed my first murder, and I was covered in other people's bodily fluids. California was not at all what I expected."Pure literary genius. Two of my favorite lines of all time.Overall, Sherman takes a somewhat tired subject--vampires (and, yes, I do see the irony in that statement)--and breathes life into the undead. Yet, she doesn't forget all that came before her. I imagined shadows of Stephen King's "The Night Flier" and del Toro's "The Strain" in the airport scene. The whole thing resonates with a post-apocalyptic, zombie-esque, vibe and the group Emma joined reminded me of John Connor's Resistance.But there's much more there than just a hodgepodge of influences. Sherman's characters are realistic, her world is vivid, and her story is infectious--and not in any way that causes you to seek treatment afterwards.Beck Sherman is a force to reckon with. "Revamp" is a must-read for fans of horror, vampires, zombies, and post-apocalyptic fiction. Genre writers should also check it out to get a refresher course in how it's done. Just sayin' ...