Review: A White-Knuckled Read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 26, 2013
This was my first read by David Wellington, and I can certainly call myself a fan now and will indeed purchase more of his stories! This was an exciting, dark thrill that had me on the edge of my seat, white-knuckled just anticipating the worse that could possibly happen. But Tim...man this guy landed a rank in my book-boyfriends list, let's just say.He's nerdy and quite intelligent and his personality in the book is rather believable though he didn't have much to say as he finally made new acquaintances, but he was always thinking and plotting how to worm his way out of difficult occurrences and stay focused on his mission of revenge.Now, remember, while I am a girl, it's only natural that I make a comment like the one following this statement! I love action-packed Zombie novels just as much as any other person, but here's a little slip of the girl talk; he strikes me as a cool, collected man and while he may be calm in nature, he is the fierce protector, a loyal family man that any woman would be lucky enough to have; and he proves that by the measures he takes to accomplish his revenge on his dead family...But before I spoil anything past this little quip...here is my review.After accomplishing a full day at the annual American Library Association conference in Chicago Tim--our hero in this thrilling-ride of a book-- returns to his hotel room and flips on the television and is in disbelief when breaking news reports that a horrendous, flesh-eating plague has broken out in his home town of Seattle.Upon closer examination of the streams of live video feed, a tricky play of fate bestows him a brutal scene of his neighbor tearing out Tim’s wife from the their car as their son fights for his life in the back seat. Tim’s typical calm and reserved demeanor melts away and there’s only one thing left on his mind.Revenge.He went in with the one thought on his mind, that he has absolutely nothing left to lose by doing this. I figured it's because he rather wipe-out the sucker who killed his family with the risk of dying in the process than not live in this new world without them.The military, acting fast, has evacuated and closed off sections all over the nation, dubbing infected areas as Plague-Zones, (which you will see abbreviated throughout the story as PZ’s) and under tight orders to not let a single unaffected person through and nothing must leave.However, Tim’s taste for revenge will not deter him from venturing into the plague-teeming enclosure. At this point, he’s absolutely merciless and begins his venture home by foot as the break-out has ranged suddenly all over the country. It’s a risky task, but, oh, this is just the beginning.Tim stumbles upon a whirl of misfortunes on his adventure back home, from being captured and contained by the military, escaping from the camp and even face to face encounters with the "droolers" themselves.Each of the acquaintances Tim meets on the way, all obtain traits that make for interesting, and attachable characters. I loved them all!  My favorite was the bad-ass chick who took no crap and could handle a gun or two at a time with no hesitance at all LOL.There were several times I had to put my head back to laugh, because our quiet hero, when he did speak it was mostly during the most awkward of times.By the time Tim finally reached Seattle, I had to read standing up, because he was SO close to death, so close to his target and my heart was racing, praying that he was going to find that sucker and put him down.By the time I finally managed to sit back down, I shot right back up once I got to the last couple chapters. NO SPOILERS I proooomissee, but it was a tear jerker.I am so going to be recommending this to all of my zombie-loving friends.