My Attempt to Read Zombie Novels

The nice folks at Titan Books were kind enough to offer me a couple zombie novels to add to my to-read pile. I've never tried the genre, but decided I'd give it a go to see what all the fuss is about.

Plague Town and Plague Nation are about Ashley Parker, a "wild card" who is immune to the zombie virus. Because of this, she is recruited by the government to fight the rapidly expanding plague of zombies.

Ashley is sassy, witty, and bad-ass. She also uses an awesome sword, which gives her even more points in my books.

One of my favourite scenes is in Plague Nation when one of the "regular" soldiers makes some inappropriate comments about her, and she (giving him every chance to apologize and walk away) ends up breaking his nose without breaking a sweat.

I also appreciate many of the geek references that I didn't expect to find in a zombie novel. The author often mentions movies and shows like Star Wars and Big Bang Theory, and makes many other pop culture references.

Ashley's wit and quick tongue make for entertaining reading, but I wish she'd show some weakness at some point. She seems to deal with pain and stress by being angry, and I did find this tiresome after a while. That's partly what held these "okay" books from being "good" for me. I love characters that show me they are truly human.

I am also the first to admit that zombies aren't really my thing, and these books have confirmed that for me. There was lots of violence, lots of blood and gore, lots of swearing--all things to be expected in zombie novels, of course. I do like action, but violence for the sake of violence seems to be what zombie stories are all about.

My final thoughts: entertaining, but not my cup of tea.

My next foray into the zombie universe will be the Walking Dead, and if I don't like that, I give up on zombies!