Review: A Compelling and Evocative Book: but in a Half-Serving
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 5, 2014
This is the third zombpoc book I've read by Tracey Ward and I was not disappointed.  This is one of those very rare books that I know I shall re-read; it's achingly evocative and draws your empathy strings so tight there are times your chest tightens and eyes mist over.Plus Factors:1. My mature policy is to award 5 stars only to top-shelf books.  So there you have it.2. Fantastically good characters.  Joss is a stand-out in every respect.  Okay, in her earlier works Tracy Ward is less adroit doing "guy characters" but with Ryan she's put up proof she's honed her craft and lifted her game.  The way Joss and Ryan interact is written with delicacy and insight as Joss discovers and unpacks devotion for the first time in her life. It's simply so beautifully done.3. Smooth and fast-flowing story with neat descriptions and dialog.  An easy read that draws you in and keeps you engaged, in one session I kept reading until I was physically too tired to continue.4. Clever and creative story angles.  Qualities in which Tracey Ward excels.Hmmm Factors:  (Yes they do exist)1. Joss speaks and reasons and rationalizes and plans and organizes as if she possesses a post-graduate degree and is a Bear Gryllis mentor.  17 year olds living solo on the streets whose formal schooling stopped at circa age 10, simply don't/can't/won't come close.  Readers have to ignore this trumpeting elephant in the room.  No plausible explanation is given for any of Joss' super-powers.2. The book sort of ends in a cliff-hanger with no resolution.  This is going to be a problem for early buyers because by the time Volume 2 comes out they'll most likely forgotten what went down in Volume 1.  I fully understand why authors do this, but it doesn't make this irksome and irritating practice any easier to swallow.Do yourself a favor and buy this sequence of books.  If you don't, you'll be missing out on something truly special.  (Volume 2 kicks it up a further notch, so get them both at the same time..okay?  Review date: April 2014)