Review: Left me cold, alright.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 12 13, 2013
This tale about an eclectic group wandering about the Midwest in the midst of a zombie apocalypse seems to want to be more that the rather pedestrian novel that it is, but in the end it cannot transcend it's own inherent faults.Frankly, I was amazed that these folks lasted as long as they did. Incautious, injudicious, without any sort of plan beyond-- let's survive another day, but oh, hey there's a new store to loot or car to steal or house to rack out in while we aimlessly wander south to the Gulf for absolutely no reason-- the real wonder is that these folks weren't all dead (or undead) by the time the book began. Ambling into stores and homes and gas stations without bothering to check for lurking zombies, when they can be bothered to check at all, they witlessly succumb, one after another. This might be a problem, if we cared at all about the characters. But the ones we might feel the slightest bit of sympathy for, or identify with, are killed off before we really are given the chance to give much of a hoot about them.The main character, Paul, is one of the least appealing characters I've ever run across in the genre, and I've read a ton of ZA fiction. Supposedly a lapsed believer, due to his Holy Roller mom, when he's not judging others for their lack of appropriate (in his mind) religious affiliation, he's mindlessly rushing into danger-- to the detriment of his party-- or else incapacitated by fear, grief or rage at the deaths of the very folks he led to their deaths.The author tries desperately to work God and religion into the mix, but with little success. Is God responsible, does He care, will He deign to aid his children after all? In the end, we don't care because whether these folks live or die means so little to us.There are a lot of worthwhile reads in the ZA genre. There are a lot of so-so reads, too. Then there's stuff that leaves you wanting to remember the author's name, so you can avoid anything further from him/her in the future. Sadly, this book falls into the latter category. Completely mundane and completely disappointing.