Paris: The Remix

October 7th, 2011

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Misty.  She lived in a normal house, with normal parents and a brother who (for dramatic purposes) was also normal.  Misty on the other hand was NOT normal.  See, Misty looked like a girl, was forced to dress like a girl, and from time to time was even forced to do girly things (to appease her mother.) But this was not the REAL Misty.  See…Misty was obscure.  She like to do boy things, read boy books, stay up until 3 am watching contraband horror flicks on her parents ridiculously tiny TV. Then, one day Misty was introduced to her savior.  A man that made her feel normal, socially excepted and ironically…alive.  That man’s name was George Romero. The zombie King. Misty instantly fell in love and then…. Oh, forget it… you know where this is going. I love zombies and this is a zombie book…yada yada.

“The City of Lights is crawling with the undead who care nothing for love or wine and are hell-bent on getting the one thing they want – your brains. The living have only one hope – Bethany Nitshimi who carries with her an encrypted file containing the key to the cure. Unfortunately Bethany is battling the undead, the apocalypse, and a group who will stop at nothing to keep her from curing the plague.”

NOTE:  My Zombie My picks up where I Zombie I left off and heads into Paris. Bethany’s gang of heroes has picked up a few more strays and mankind is getting dangerously close to the end. As Bethany battles the zombie horde she must crack the file, get the cure, and save the human race, before we are just meat for the beasts.

Well, we all know that I could talk about zombies for days. So instead of boring all of you (<–do you see that…I didn’t say y’all) into your own personal zombie like stooper, how about I just tell you the ups and the downs of “My Zombie My.”

Bad first.

There were no definitive chapters in this book. (Say what??) That’s right…this heeping helping of zombie loving goodness was just that. 1 big fat heaping helping.  There were no pauses for the potty. No intermissions for emergency gummy bear breaks and…in case you are a person whose diet consist of 85% coffee (*cough*) there was no damn time for that either.  For me (if I’m honest) this wasn’t really that big of an issue, but I am also not your average reader, (as in causal) I don’t read a chapter or 2 before turning out the lights and hitting the hay.  I sit, and read. The whole book. For everyone else though…Wallen might have considered using some of Bethany’s blog entries as stopping/starting points.

Also, unlike in the first novel (I Zombie I) Bethany’s internal dialogue got a little flouncy (hmm…not so sure that’s a word.) For instance: In the first novel, Jacob keeps a journal of what is happening (both to himself and the world around him.) While his entries were just as lengthy as Bethany’s blog entries, her’s seemed to take on a more self-deprecating tone. Now…this would have been 100% a-0-k with me IF Wallen (ok, that just sounds weird…I’m gonna call him Jack) had kept the internal diatribe to just that…her blog entries, instead…a few short paragraphs AFTER the blog entry her minor moments of instability (though completely understandable) would start up again, and cause Jack to repeat himself, (Hello deja’ vu.)

So, what about the good?

Well let me first re-assure you that despite my harsh ramblings in the two previous paragraphs, this book is an absolute winner for anyone whole loves a good cult/zombie/I-am-woman-hear-me-roar book.  There is enough comedic relief to keep you from taking the book TOO seriously, but at the same time…there is just as much emotional torture to keep you invested in the characters and their fate, (and boy…were there a lot of characters.)

The most impressive part for me however was not Jack stellar job at describing zombies that eat their own brains, or the way he can twist a story so much you aren’t even sure you can trust yourself, or even how he has the genius to create an “outside” perspective through radio show called (straight-forward enough) “Zombie Radio.” Nope…Jack’s most impressive feat in this entire book was his ability to keep the technology talk from sounding like a “Hacking For Dummies” learners manual.  With Bethany’s main duty being “hacking” this whole angle could have very easily come back to bite Jack in the ass. Instead, he chose to give just enough info to sound convincing (and knowledgable) without making me drool on my kindle.

Do I think this installment of the “I Zombie” club was a good as the last? No…but it definitely wasn’t a slacker, and if the ending bares any weight to the future of this series; the next book is going to be one hell of a wild ride.

Zombie lovers unite, and for God’s sake…grab this book!

Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: I love all of you, but if Moaners start roaming the Earth…ya’ll better hope you can run faster than me.

Click image for complete details

(4/5)

 

Comments ( 4 )

, , ,

High Heels…More Than Just a Fashion Statement

September 30th, 2011

Ahhh…Fall. My favorite season. Not, for the reasons you might expect however.  Yes, I am quite happy to be rid of the daunting 118 degrees Texas heat, but cooler weather, and only 1 deodorant pit-stop a day pales in comparison to Fall’s true, most glorious of perks…Zombies.

Oh yes. Fall is the season for “Chiller” TV, “Zombie Girls from Mars” marathons and more importantly, post apocalyptic literature.  With Halloween in the not-so-distant-future, I get to lose myself in the slightly demented minds of people like King, Nicholson or Wallen, and not get judge harshly when I chuckle at a particularly gruesome passage.

Fall…the time of year when the freaks get freakier, and the books come along for the ride.

Today’s helping…”After The Virus” by Meghan Ciana Doidge.

“After the virus decimates 99.9% of the world’s population, and all traces of humanity along with it, Rhiannon and Will are forced to move beyond their past fame, fortune, and personal demons to rescue a mute girl from the clutches of two warring cults.”

I know what you are thinking…there is nothing in that synopsis that indicates Zombies, but trust me…they are there. To prove it, I’ll share a particularly brilliant passage with you.

“It cat-batted the jutting knife and got it loose along with a chunk of its brain. The mushed brain matter squelched under the knife as it hit ground.  They all, including it, just stared, dumbfounded at the goopy pile.”

Awesome right? I thought so.

Anyways, like all good its-the-end-of-the-world-and-we-know-it novels, the “Infected” as they are appropriately deemed in “After the Virus” are not the story.  Yes, they are ooey and gooey and like to pop up at the most inconvenient of times, but it’s the people trying to survive that drive the story, (think…The Walking Dead.)

Now, if I’m to be honest, I was a little concerned at the start of this story. The original blocking (story set up) was all over the place and the editing was a train-wreck (there were “he’s” where there should have been “she’s” and “it’s” where their should have been…well, I don’t know really.) The details felt rushed, the characters’ felt void, and despite my assumption as to what the hell was going on, it wasn’t really confirmed. Thankfully however, about 6 chapters in Doidge found her line and she rode it smoothly to the finish.  As a matter of fact, after I got past Doidge’s confusing 1st/2nd person mayhem I had difficulty putting the book down, (despite the 100 or so typos that followed *cough*)

The action was nonstop, the evil was surprising and by the end of the book I wanted to grab a gun and take part, (which says a lot considering I hate guns.)

Even better…Doidge’s choice to alternate chapters between Rhiannon’s point of view and Will’s slightly more frantic one was a stroke of genius, (so was the last damn sentence if you don’t mind me saying.)

Overall, a fantastic post apocalyptic/zombie/angsty/romance that delivers in all of the right areas, even if one of those areas does not include editing.

Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember:  when in doubt, a high heel makes an excellent javelin.

Click image for complete details.

(4/5)

Comment ( 1 )

, , ,

Warm Bodies – A Guest Review by TNBBC

June 3rd, 2011

Good morning all! Today’s guest review is brought to by a VERY talented reviewer/super mod. Though I don’t actually know her name (anonymity is a blessing sometimes) I can tell you that she is making gigantisaurus sized waves all over the book world!

She first started TNBBC (The Next Best Book Club) on Goodreads back in the fall of ’07, and watched it grow from a few members to the largest, most active book group on the site. Her search for The Next Best Book has pushed her out into the world of blogging, tweeting, and facebooking. TNBBC’s focus is on supporting and promoting independent publishers and authors through reviews, interviews, features, giveaways, and author/reader discussions.

Without further ado… Here is TNBBC’s review of “Warm Bodies” Enjoy!

(Click image for complete novel details.)


Warm Bodies – A Guest Review by TNBBC

4.5 Stars: Highly Recommended
Pgs:239

I cannot tell you how I excited I was when I tore open a package from Regal Literary and discovered they had sent me a copy of Isaac Marion’s zombie novel Warm Bodies!

Anything but your typical run-of-the-mill zombie story, Isaac does something that no author (that I’m aware of, at least) has done before… He puts you inside the head of one of the Undead.

Meet R. He does not know how long he has been dead, or what killed him for that matter. He assumes from his body’s slight state of decomposition that he is recently Undead. He has vague, incomplete memories of who he used to be yet he clearly understands what he is now.

Breathing new life into a somewhat tired genre of monsters and mindless villains, Isaac takes a huge risk by spinning R as an entirely likable, and even potentially lovable, character. By giving R the ability to rationalize, while perhaps unable to completely vocalize, his reasons for being who he is and doing what he does, Isaac encourages his readers to take everything they thought they knew about zombies and forget it all…

The zombies in this novel lives surprisingly human-like lives. They have best friends, they get married, they are given kids to look after. Our leading Zombie R and his hive-mates have built a church of sorts, bring their children to school (where they are locked in a ring with a kidnapped human for training purposes) and pair up on hunting expeditions for food. Oh yes, let’s not forget – they eat brains! They are zombies, after all!

On one particular hunting trip, R falls in love with a Living girl named Julie, the girlfriend of the man whose brain he’s just ingested, and makes the decision to wisk her away and keep her safe.

What we are witnessing is the transformation from Zombie to something else entirely. As R spends more time with Julie, he notices changes in his thought processes, he can control his hunger for flesh, and begins to register emotions. He begins to feel… more human.

Isaac introduces “What If”…. What if the plague that caused the dead to rise could be reversed? What if humans and zombies could come together and fight alongside one another to battle an ever greater enemy? What if the Living and the Undead could fall in love?

Part horror story, part love story, Warm Bodies is certain to catch you off guard and have you questioning everything you thought you knew about the zombie apocalypse. It’s sure to stick with you long after you’ve read the last line.

Take a peek at Isaac Marion’s homemade trailer for the novel. His book hits shelves on May 17th, under Atria Books. Go buy it!

Book Trailer

Comments ( 0 )

, , ,

Cue Evil Chuckle

May 10th, 2011

20110510-031848.jpgI don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I LOVE zombies. There is just something about their ability to “project their issues” that I can get behind, (anger management anyone?) So, when Jack Wallen shot me an email asking if I’d take a peek at his new book “I Zombie I” there was absolutely no way I was going to turn him down.

One of the many things (and believe me there is a list) I love about zombies is the ability to form them into anything you want. Want a zombie that requires you to be a cardio phenom? No problem…coming right up. Want a zombie that enjoys a good “brain slushy” versus “gummy guts”, again…no problem. The best part however, the thing that really has me clamoring to get my hands on anything “living dead” related, is their “iconasism” (yep, totally made that word up.)Zombies, Moaners, Screamers, Freaks, whatever you prefer to call them, the fact remains that they are just down right easy to poke fun at, which (and here comes the part where I explain my made up word) makes them entertainment icons, and hard to pass up.

Now…as for “I Zombie I,” it’s completely ridiculous, BUT (and that is a really big but so pay attention) in a completely wonderful way. Incorporating the sarcastic humor of say… “Sean of the Dead” and the desperation of “28 Days Later” Wallen managed to blaze a path that felt both original, and undeniably refreshing.

Jacob Plummer is no “greenhorn” to action. Having spent the majority of his life as a field reporter, being ass deep in life threatening situations is second nature to him, but when the Earth’s population suddenly turns from living to…well…pale and really hungry for brain matter, Jacob finds himself with the prime opportunity to see what he’s REALLY made of. Unfortunately, before he gets that chance, (you know, save the girl, save the day, capture the super hero crown) he gets chomped on by one of Munich’s recently reanimated. Damn the luck. “I Zombie I” is the journal of Jacob’s trails and tribulations in a world full of very hungry dead people, and eventually his road to ZOMBIFICATION.

Like I said before, zombies make fantastic targets for slightly off kilter humor, and no one (that I have ever read anyways) captured that essence quite like Jack Wallen. Opting for sarcasm over pure terror made this one of the funniest books I have read in a while, and in doing so, captured a (very highly coveted) place in my zombie hall of fame. No worries though… this book was NOT all about blood slushys and sound bombs, there WAS a deeper story intertwined, one of hope, love, and the recognization of loneliness, making this a well rounded and spectacularly written piece of literature.

My advice? If you, (like me) love the “anger management-ly challenged” this is a MUST READ! If however you are a tad squeamish and prefer happier books, make a left and keep on looking.

Happy reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: Don’t be stingy with your bullets. Double Tap!

Click image for complete details

(5/5)

Comment ( 1 )

, ,

When Zombies Attack!

September 23rd, 2010

It’s not all that uncommon for books or even video games for that matter (i.e. Resident Evil) to become Blockbuster hits these days, but who would have ever thought the next big thing would be comic books?  Now, I’m no newbie to the graphic world (as a matter of fact I have been stalking the Comic Con website since July waiting for the 2011 tickets to go on sale) so “comics to big-screen” doesn’t really shock me, (hello… been there done that, do you need a list?) but what got my attention however is the newly announced “comic to TV” concept. Yep… you heard me. TELEVISION.

In October (Halloween Day to be more exact) AMC has decided to air a new show called “The Walking Dead.” To this I say WAHOOO! Why? Because this is one of my babies.  The piece de resistance, the e to my ching, the holy moly buckets of brain matter.

This is a comic series that is fairly new to the game by comparison (2003) but Image Comics knew what they were doing.  They created a world (think 28 Days later if you need a visual reference) added a very lovable/hateable character named Rick, and then added a dash (ok maybe a couple of gallons) of brain hungry, anti-humans with severe anger management issues (that’s code for Zombies… just in-case you didn’t catch that)  So what does this mean for you?  Well it means that once a week you get to enjoy what comic book junkies have been enjoying for years now….some good ‘ole brain eating.

Here is a look at both the Comic Series and the Trailer for the TV series… just so you can get as hyped as me.

Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: you don’t have to be the fastest person around to escape a Zombie attack, you just have to be skilled enough to trip the people around you without busting it yourself.

AMC Trailer

Comment ( 1 )

, , ,

Mmm….Brains!

April 2nd, 2010

I’ll have a review for you tomorrow… until then enjoy a little Zombie humor.


Comments ( 0 )

,

Caution: Zombies Ahead!

February 26th, 2010

world war zHappy Friday People! Hopefully you are out and about and doing something so fantastic that you could care less about this book review, but for those of you who are home-bound and tied down, as promised…here is my take on “World War Z”

I found this book a few months ago and plopped it into my “to read” list without much hope of it ever being released to Kindle, but a few days ago, when I finished the shortest book on the planet, I decided…hey…why not let someone else pick my book?  So I did.  I called my husband and said “Hey…pick a book!” (sounds pretty simple right?)

Apparently not so much, the man immediately picked 2 books that weren’t even out yet (HELLO!!!) and then finally landed on this…the book I had given up hope on.

“World War Z” was great! It was also unlike any other book I have ever read in my entire life.  It was…in short form, a biography written about a war that never existed.”

Now shush it! I know that you are thinking….Geez… really?? A biography… you are kidding right?  If I wanted to spend time with reality I’d turn on the Discovery Channel. (which I love by the way) but have no fear…this is the most interesting mock-bio you will ever have the pleasure of digesting.

In 1996 the world as we know it was overrun by Zombies, and for the few thousand that survived, the struggle was not without consequence.  Entire families were lost in the battles, your neighbor was suddenly hungry for your eyeballs, and your son’s little league coach suddenly became more of an arrogant ass than he already was.  The years were long and the winters were bitter.  New countries were formed from the rubble of desperation and alliances were formed that were otherwise unimaginable.

Now, while I make the premise sound a lot “funnier” than it actually is, the book was still undeniably intriguing and courageously written.  “Max Brooks” wrote in the form of interviewer/interviewee, trying to get a human perspective and timeline of the war that changed the world.  Each section is a detailed account of a singular persons experiences starting from the original outbreak and taking you to the rebuild of a torn planet.  The plot was clearly defined through each person’s story and while there was an enormous amount of detail in each “sitting” it in no way drug down the flow of the book.

There were stories from a disabled artist/neighborhood watch member, the former US Joint Chief of Staff, a human trafficker, a money hungry pharmaceutical developer, a movie director, a doctor/smuggler, a mother who ripped of a zombies head with her bare hands to save her daughter, a soldier from the epic battle of Yonkers, an asylum patient, a female soldier who was taught not to desert her post the hard way, a girl who followed her daddy north, and a former spy who knew the truth before anyone else did. (just to name a few)

My conclusion? I’m glad that my husband didn’t write it off as quickly as I did… because to miss this read would have been a shame.

Read it if you like zombies, read it if you find the human psyche fascinating…read it if you want a well written book with a whole new twist on an old topic.

Get it, live it, love it…pass it on!

Happy reading my fellow Zombies and remember: you don’t have to be the fastest person alive…just faster than the people around you!

For a complete description click image.

(4/5)

Comments ( 0 )

, , ,

Run Forest RUUUNNNN!!!

December 2nd, 2009

I assure you, I will indeed have a review up before the end of the day…but until then I thought I would share my birthday splendors with you.  I woke this morning to find these little beauties smiling back at me.  Yes, they are like my Bibles (Don’t judge me!) Hope you will find them as interesting as I do.  Vampire and Zombie lovers of the world unite!  Happy reading, and remember…if the world is suddenly overrun with the seething undead…I don’t have to be the fastest person on the planet, just faster than you!!! :-)


Click Images for Complete Book Details

vampire-archive-4The Vampire Archives

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Penzler’s second massive anthology for Black Lizard (following 2007′s The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps) collects an astoundingly thorough and enjoyable set of 86 vampire tales, poems and true stories. Classics such as Le Fanu’s Carmilla, Poe’s Ligeia and Stoker’s Dracula’s Guest are nicely interspersed with lesser-known older and newer works. Fredric Brown’s Blood, an old-school sci-fi short-short, is a hoot, and D.H. Lawrence’s The Lovely Lady is a witty satire that in many ways harks back to Polidori’s The Vampyre. Other standouts include Lisa Tuttle’s The Replacements, a gothic feminist tale, and Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann’s Down Among the Dead Men, a chilling story set in a Nazi concentration camp. Neil Gaiman’s introduction and Daniel Seitler’s superb 100-plus-page bibliography of vampire fiction round out the anthology. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description
The Vampire Archives is the biggest, hungriest, undeadliest collection of vampire stories, as well as the most comprehensive bibliography of vampire fiction ever assembled. Dark, stormy, and delicious, once it sinks its teeth into you there’s no escape.

Vampires! Whether imagined by Bram Stoker or Anne Rice, they are part of the human lexicon and as old as blood itself. They are your neighbors, your friends, and they are always lurking. Now Otto Penzler—editor of the bestselling Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps—has compiled the darkest, the scariest, and by far the most evil collection of vampire stories ever. With over eighty stories, including the works of Stephen King and D. H. Lawrence, alongside Lord Byron and Tanith Lee, not to mention Edgar Allan Poe and Harlan Ellison, The Vampire Archives will drive a stake through the heart of any other collection out there.

Other contributors include:
Arthur Conan Doyle • Ray Bradbury • Ambrose Bierce • H. P. Lovecraft • Harlan Ellison • Roger Zelazny • Robert Bloch • Clive Barker


zombies ZOMBIES – Encounters With The Hungry Dead


Product Description

From a master of zombie fiction and a founding father of “splatterpunk” comes a mind-bending anthology of 32 new and classic stories from both renowned writers and rising stars

In the tradition of Black Dog & Leventhal’s bestselling

Vampires and Ghosts, this anthology of 32 stories is set in a world where the dead have risen from the grave to consume the living. This rich collection showcases the best of the genre—from short-story masters such as Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and Poppy Z. Brite; zombie stalwarts such as David J. Schow and Jack Ketchum; “bizarro” founders such as Carlton Mellick III; and popular up-and-comers such as Max Brooks and S.G. Browne—and will satisfy the insatiable hunger of zombie fans everywhere.

A series of captivating essays about zombies in folklore and in popular culture by John Skipp, award-winning zombie anthologist and author, enrich an already extraordinary collection by discussing the past, present, and future of the living dead. And a resources section encompassing the best of long-form fiction, movies, websites, games is included for any reader interested in learning more about the wider world of the undead.

Sure to sate the hungriest zombie fans with classic as well as contemporary servings of tangled entrails and other unspeakable meals, Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry

About the Author

John Skipp is a New York Times bestselling author and editor, whose 18 books have sold millions of copies in a dozen languages worldwide.  His first anthology, Book of the Dead, laid the foundation in 1989 for modern zombie literature, bringing George Romero’s vision of the dead next door to new levels of scope and intensity.  He later edited three more zombie anthologies, including Mondo Zombie, which won the Bram Stoker Award for best anthology.  From splatterpunk founding father to hilarious elder statesman, Skipp’s legendary horror works include The Light At The End, The Screa,, Jake’s Wake, and The Long Last Call.



Comment ( 1 )

, , ,

And People Wonder Why I Can’t Sleep

September 20th, 2009

the-forest-of-hands-and-teethNot often am I at a loss for words, almost clueless as how to judge my feelings about a book, but “The Forest of Hands and Teeth” had me… admittedly… a tad bit stumped.

I finished this book last night, and normally the second I’m done I rush to my computer to spill my guts and slings some words, but last night? No… I just put my kindle down and walked off.

This book is a zombie book.  There is absolutely no other way to describe it, and I LOVE zombies.  I flock to the walking dead like most girls flock to Harlequin romances, but this particular book left me…well…emotionally drained.

In the opening of this book you are introduced to Mary.  Mary lives in a world not many of us would be able to deal with. She is shut off from “society”, she lives in a village stuck in the middle of the woods surrounded by the Unconsecrated and an entire cathedral of overbearing nuns.

She is faced with abandonment early on, then betrayal, then hatred and in the end has to choose between a life of easy happieness or constant struggle.

Emotionally, as I already mentioned,  this book is overwhelming, it tears at strings you didn’t know you had and makes you appreciate the ability of free will.

There are weird marital ceremonies, a David Koresh like mother nun, a damaged boy named Travis and a bitter best friend, but in the end…the exact things that make this book odd also hold it together.

Should you read it? Yes…even if all you get out of it is a life lesson in “appreciation”, cause one thing is certain…that is the exact thing I got out of it, and it made my morning a little bit brighter… even if it was raining outside.

For a Full Book Description Click Image

(4/5)

Comments ( 0 )

, , , , , ,

Note To Self: Buy A Flashlight

September 17th, 2009

What do you get when you combine a massive power outage, an alcoholic author, a pregnant teenager, a mayor with authority problems, and a deep fried husband? ZOMBIES!

I wanted to hate this book, honestly…I have been so disappointed by my free Kindle finds lately that my hope for this book was completely shot before I even started the 1st chapter. Thank God, I am stubborn and decided to read it anyways.

The writing was average, but the story was compelling in that “I swear… this is one of the weirdest things I’ve read since Black House” kinda way. I was not expecting the walking dead, I was not expecting creepy descriptions of missing brain matter but alas that is what I got, and as messed up as this is about to make me sound… I Freaking Loved It!

The book was separated into 3 sub-books (which normally I hate) but with “Moonlight” it worked. “Keith Knapp” set up an average/everyday cast of character and followed each in their journey to the “epicenter of disaster.”; the different books merely helped in separating the parts of their eventual convergence.

I do not, however, think this book is for everyone. If you don’t like bloody descriptives, stay away cause this book is full of them, but if you are like me and love a good knock down, drag out, mind control, innocent people stuck inside a high school while the rest of the world goes mad sort of book, then by all means… get going, you have a lot of catching up to do.

For a full book description click image

(4/5)

Comments ( 0 )

, , , ,

RSS Feed

  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • Furl
  • Stumble
  • Technorati
  • Yahoo