Matt Darst

I'm impressed yet again with another "zombie" book. I have been fortunate enough to select books in this genre that keep the subject interesting. I liked that this book didn't really center around zombies, but more on the people who are surviving the outbreak and the type of civilization they live in. I really enjoyed the role the "church" takes on in this story. I wish the author went a little further in this area because I truly believe that the religious aspect is even scarier than the zombie aspect.
I also enjoyed the bits of humor throughout the book. Just enough to lighten things up a bit.

Please note that I received this book free from the Goodreads Giveaways promotion.… (mais)

I was sent a copy of this book to review by the Author. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in any way for providing it.

Review:
The only thing scarier than a Zombie Apocalypse is a Nation ruled by religion.

Dead Things starts off nearly 20 years after a viral outbreak caused the dead to rise. Cities are closed off from each other and technology exists only in the most basic form. This world is ruled by the church, science is all but extinct and even doctors are limited in the scope to heal patients lest the Church lose it's grip on the masses. This scenario above all was the scariest part of the book and I have to control myself not to go into an epic rant about the stupidity of the population placing their lives in the church's hands. Once the massive book burning took place and those who even hinted at science being branded Heretics you think people would go hmmm this isn't a good thing.

Anyway back to the review, I liked the character Van the best. He realized the world was f*cked in its present state and didn't let the Church influence him. While I'm sure he had Faith in something he was a realist. On the other hand I didn't like the actual main character Ian. Even tough he goes through quite a personality change throughout the book I just never connected with him.

Now for the things I didn't like about the book:

The Zombies- I thought this was a zombie book but you barely see them. Gore, awesome zombie deaths nope not in this book. It was almost like the Author didn't know how to write the scenes so he just time jumped over them.

The Random Rants- Several times throughout the book the characters go off on nonsensical rants about random bullsh*t. This book tried way to hard to be like Clerks and Zombieland. It just didn't work at all.

The Science- While the book makes it clear scientific reasoning has been all but expunged the characters seem to all be very knowledgeable about something they aren't allowed to use. Plus all the scientific talk really slowed down the pacing of this book.

The Church- See Above. Plus I would of liked after all the survivors saw that they didn't end still in a church. I mean seriously?!? If you read this you will get what I mean.

The Time Jumps- While time jumps can work, these just didn't 90% of the time. I felt again that the time jumps were used so that the Author didn't have to come up with ways to explain how Characters made it from Point A to B.

Overall this book was a good effort which is the only reason why I am not rating it 2 Stars. The ending intrigued me enough where if a sequel was made I'd want to read it. I am rating Dead Things 3 Stars.… (mais)