Category: Speculative Fiction
Plague of the Undead by Joe McKinney
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
For thirty years, they have avoided the outbreak of walking death that has consumed America’s heartland. They have secured a small compound near the ruins of Little Rock, Arkansas. Isolated from the world. Immune to the horror. Blissfully unaware of what lies outside in the region known as the Dead Lands. Until now…
Led by a military vet who’s seen better days, the inexperienced offspring of the original survivors form a small expedition to explore the wastelands around them. A biologist, an anthropologist, a cartographer, a salvage expert—all are hoping to build a new future from the rubble. Until all hell breaks loose…
The infected are still out there. Stalking. Feeding. Spreading like a virus. Wild animals roam the countryside, hunting prey. Small pockets of humanity hide in the shadows: some scared, some mad, all dangerous. This is the New World. If the explorers want it, they’ll have to take it. Dead or alive…
From the blurb of this book, I was absolutely fascinated. It’s rare that you get a surviving, almost thriving community 30 years after the apocalypse but it’s even rarer that they’re eager to explore and that zombies are still out there. How did the zombies not rot away? Is Arbella the only community still out there? What happens when the next generation of survivors, the ones that have only known a post-apocalyptic world, encounter the rest of the people that have survived? Answer: nothing good.
In the beginning of Plague of the Undead, our main character Jacob has a huge moral dilemma: he’s the sheriff of the town and a man has committed a crime. Now normally that would not be a big deal but the problem is that crime was theft and that’s against the Code. It means death for the man who stole because trust is the most important thing you can have post-apocalypse. So poor Jacob has to kill his first man in cold blood, looking him right in the face to make sure he doesn’t miss his shot. With a beginning like that, you’d expect the book to keep being pretty awesome. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really the case. The book starts out pretty exciting as Jacob shoots a man, gets promoted, gets approval to take an expedition out into the dead lands and sets out on said expedition. The problem is that once the group is actually out and about, things get boring pretty quickly.
The main problem in this book is the middle: it drags on and on in one place. Long story short, the survivors get ambushed by some bad guys and the survivors of the attack are forced into slavery. Then a huge chunk of the book is devoted to how Jacob and the survivors cope during the slavery and how they try to escape. In a lot of cases I wouldn’t find this boring because it would be interesting from a psychology perspective or even just from a character development perspective. But it really wasn’t. The lack of pacing just dragged the whole plot down to the point where I really wasn’t even interested in the mysterious flying saucers and finding out how much of civilization was really left. I just wanted the book to be over.
In the beginning, Jacob shows a lot of promise as a character. He doesn’t want to kill the man convicted of theft but at the same time he has to in order to maintain the Code and therefore maintain law and order in Arbella. And when he finally gets approval for the wasteland scavenging/information gathering mission, he’s ecstatic and has to plan like mad. From personal experience I completely understand the frustration he faces as every single person criticizes how he’s going about the mission but he sticks to his guns and sets out with a great plan and a good team. Then when things go south, Jacob as a character sort of goes downhill. He becomes more of a walking stereotype. He pines after Kelly (the woman he used to love as a teenager), becomes colder as the slavery takes its toll and tries to ignore just how skeevy his best friend/enemy is. It’s like that fascinating, well-rounded character we meet in the beginning was thrown out the window and replaced with a total wimp that lacks the psychological depth of the first character.
The world-building was decent in comparison to the pacing and the characterization. I liked the explanation Joe McKinney gave for why the zombies weren’t rotting even thirty years later and I liked the way he set up Arbella as a good model of what people can do during the apocalypse. There are some horrible communities like you’d expect, but he shows that not only the bad people survive and thrive during the apocalypse. That’s quite a bit different from your typical zombie apocalypse tropes. I also love how he explained the ammunition problem and how he solved some of the problems with guns during the apocalypse, like the sound issue. I think a lot of research went into Plague of the Undead but the problem is that the actual story itself was rather boring.
In the end, I don’t know whether or not I can recommend this book. It won a Bram Stoker award so clearly some people didn’t think it was rubbish or disappointing but at the same time I just can’t say that I enjoyed it. I guess you just have to do your own research, read a couple of reviews from different sides of the issue and make a decision.
I give this book 2/5 stars.
Captive by Aimeé Carter
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
For the past two months, Kitty Doe’s life has been a lie. Forced to impersonate the Prime Minister’s niece, her frustration grows as her trust in her fake fiancé cracks, her real boyfriend is forbidden and the Blackcoats keep her in the dark more than ever.
But in the midst of discovering that her role in the Hart family may not be as coincidental as she thought, she’s accused of treason and is forced to face her greatest fear: Elsewhere. A prison where no one can escape.
As one shocking revelation leads to the next, Kitty learns the hard way that she can trust no one, not even the people she thought were on her side. With her back against the wall, Kitty wants to believe she’ll do whatever it takes to support the rebellion she believes in—but is she prepared to pay the ultimate price?
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I just have one question after reading this entire book: Did Kitty lose her brain in between books one and two?!
I just have no words. I actually liked Kitty in the first book because although she was naive and kind of innocent, at least she generally knew when to keep her mouth shut and keep up the charade of being Lila Hart. In all honesty I can’t say I was her biggest fan ever in the first book, but she really grew on me and at least most of her actions were justified by logic.
But in Captive, that all goes out the window. Kitty seems to have lost her brain, particularly in the first half of the novel. She spouts off her mouth at the people who have power over her, she doesn’t know when to shut up and let Knox do his rebellion thing and even though there’s no reason for it other than to advance the plot, she reveals one of the secrets she could have used as leverage later on. So where does she wind up? Elsewhere, of course! No one, not even Lila Hart’s replacement is irreplaceable. And when she’s in Elsewhere, she promptly makes an enemy of every single person around her because she just won’t shut up. Ever. I spent most of the book wanting to slap her for being so incredibly stupid.
As for the plot, unlike in the first book it didn’t really feel like there was anything really all that new. Aimeé Carter has always used some tried and true clichés but in Captive she just lets it all hang out. There were no surprises because the whole plot of this book was like a soap opera, with mysterious lost family members and lovers betrayed—the whole nine yards. Captive suffers from a severe case of Book Two Syndrome in that practically nothing happens until a little bit at the end of the book to make you go buy the third book. After the plot twists and turns of Pawn, it was just supremely disappointing.
The world-building was really the only thing I didn’t actively dislike. I like that we saw the other side of Elsewhere, not just the ‘shoot people for sport’ side. It’s run like a prisoner of war camp (which it sort of is) and life within is pretty much just as brutal as you’d expect from a dictatorial regime. Nothing really surprising, but nothing so stereotypical that I wanted to throw my Kindle at the wall. The only thing that I was happy about was that we got to see another side of the rebels as well as see how ordinary people can end up in Elsewhere. Sure, you have your criminals and political dissidents, but you also have some pretty harmless teenagers and kids whose only crime was being born—or more accurately, not being born rich.
As someone who enjoyed Pawn, Captive really was a huge disappointment. I liked that we got to see more of Kitty’s world but I just hated that it was in such a forced way. It seemed like Carter wanted to showcase the rest of the world so she dumbed down Kitty in an attempt to force that showcase. Will I still read the last book, Queen? Yes, I think I will because despite this huge disappointment, I did enjoy the first book and I’m enjoying the overall plot arc. But really Aimeé Carter, you can do better than this.
I give this book 1.5/5 stars.
The Rebel Trap by Lance Erlick
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Voices in sixteen-year-old Annabelle Scott’s head aren’t God or signs she’s going mad—yet. Despite being a Mech Warrior recruit, she rebels against her female-dominated régime by not only refusing to kill Morgan, a handsome boy she’s attracted to, but also helping him escape.
Annabelle’s commander gives her auditory implants and contact cameras for an undercover assignment to investigate her corrupt police captain. Morgan hacks the implants to plead for her help in freeing his brother. As a pawn in a bigger game, she wants to help Morgan yet needs to discover the link between an attempted assassination of her adoptive mom, her police captain, and the geek institute that holds Morgan’s brother. Can she do so without falling into a trap that could destroy her family and get her killed?
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
The Rebel Trap is the sequel to The Rebel Within but is actually the third in chronological order in Lance Erlick’s rebel series. (Although within the book universe it’s actually book #2.) Thankfully for me, you don’t have to read the first installment about Annabelle to understand this book. It seems that the whole series is quite self-contained so that you can start at the end like I did or start at the beginning.
What I really liked about the book was the characters. Of course your impressions of many of them are biased because you’re seeing them largely through Annabelle, but I like how Lance Erlick gave us insights into people around the main character, including her sister Janine and her adoptive mother. But of course Annabelle was my favourite character. She’s tough and determined to succeed in life but there’s a slight hitch when she gets auditory implants and contacts that allow her commander to see and hear everything she does for a mission. There’s a lack of privacy and then there’s having your boss see and hear everything you do.
Still, she finds a rather interesting way around it as Morgan constantly hounds her to help him rescue his little brother. And that really showcases the complexity of Annabelle: she wants to help Morgan’s little brother because she knows imprisoning young boys and men for their gender is wrong but at the same time she needs to root out the corruption taking hold in her society. Did I mention that she’s also caught in a little power war between the commander of the Mech Corps and the commander of the police? Like all teenagers, Annabelle does angst a fair bit, but unlike some her angst is completely deserved at this point so it’s not actually annoying for the reader.
The only thing I didn’t really like about this book was the repetitiveness of the plot. It seemed to follow a pattern: Sam would tell Annabelle not to do something, she’d do it, Sam would be happy because she discovered new evidence against Commander Voss and Scarlatti. This was sort of understandable the first few times because Annabelle was figuring things out and really blundering through the whole ‘subtle’ part of the missions, but it got kind of annoying after the fourth or fifth time. Unfortunately, this constant repetition made the plot kind of predictable. I knew how it was going to end and I saw pretty much all of the twists and turns because of course everything Annabelle tries to do as an intern cop is made to trip her up.
Still, despite my dislike of the whole repetitiveness of the thing, the plot was at least reasonably fast-paced. It was slow enough for Lance Erlick to develop his characters properly but not so slow as to bog the reader down. Not all of the characters’ motivations are clear in the beginning (although you can probably guess if you try hard enough) so it does keep Annabelle and the readers on their toes until about the middle of the novel where the motives become clearer.
The characters really are the strength of The Rebel Trap, though, so even if the plot was totally awful (which it really isn’t) I would definitely recommend this book. They’re ambiguous enough to be real but not so ambiguous that you feel like their actions come from nowhere. It’s a delicate balance and Lance Erlick does it well. So if you’re into dystopias with flipped societies (women are superior in this one as opposed to men), then I would recommend The Rebel Trap to you.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
Under My Skin by Shawntelle Madison
(Cover picture courtesy of NetGalley.)
Everyone wants to either be a member of the Guild or work for them. Little does the populace know that the Guild hides sinister secrets…
For Tate Sullivan, life in her small, coastal town is far from glamorous. The affluent lives of the Guild members and their servants isn’t something she has ever wanted. But all sixteen year-olds must take a simple test, and Tate’s result thrusts her into the Guild’s world, one where they hide horrible plans for those they select. Tate must fight the relentless General Dagon for control of her mind, body, and soul to keep the one precious thing she has always taken for granted: herself.
Her only ally is the same handsome boy she is pitted against in General Dagon’s deadly game. Quinn desires nothing more than to end the life of General Dagon who has taken over Tate’s mind. While romance blooms between Tate and Quinn, General Dagon plots to eventually take over Tate’s body, and love might end before it even begins.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
Okay, so the blurb gives away the fact that Tate has to fight off General Dagon, who is trying to stay immortal by taking over the minds (and thus the bodies) of young people. But don’t let the blurb fool you: this book is so much more complex.
I absolutely loved the world-building in Under My Skin. It combines all of the good elements of YA (a very emotional/personal journey, mature but not overly dry themes) and leaves out all of the trendy terrible elements (a love triangle, a useless best friend, an inability to lie on the part of the main character). While the science of the mind-transfer is left out in the beginning for obvious reasons, I was very happy that as Tate kept fighting for her life, more of it was revealed. I like the idea of their whole dystopian world, that the mysterious Guild pays off families to unknowingly sell their children into slavery. The Guild is pretty exclusive and although some of the rich merchant families are aware of what’s happening, they want in on it too for the chance at immortality. It’s kind of a sick cycle when you think about it.
I love Tate almost as much as I hate her name. She’s not a very strong character in the beginning, however. She’s very self-conscious of the scar she has from the doctor fixing her cleft palate as a baby and that makes her have very low self-esteem. It’s one of the vulnerabilities General Dagon exploits as he fights to control her body and I love the whole self-esteem journey she goes through. And my favourite part is that it’s at an organic pace. She doesn’t just suddenly gain the willpower to fight him; she fights a little bit in the beginning and her determination grows as her self-esteem does. Whether or not it’s enough to actually beat the ruthless Dagon is another question, however.
The plot is actually quite fast-paced considering that this is largely a character-driven novel. There’s of course the conflict with a society that steals the bodies of teenagers but the conflict is largely between Dagon and Tate. Yes, there is some romance, but it’s not the forefront of the novel all of the time. I’ve read so many books with contrived romance lately, that I really couldn’t stand it if Shawntelle Madison did the same thing. Thank goodness she didn’t! Instead, the focus is actually the main character and her struggle for her life. As it should be.
Although the plot ends on a pretty big cliffhanger, I was still quite satisfied with where Shawntelle Madison chose to leave off. It fulfilled the main conflict of the story but also introduced the secondary conflict as the centerpiece for the next book in the Immortality Strain series. I can’t wait for the second book!
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel
(Cover picture courtesy of NetGalley.)
After a brutal nuclear war, the United States was left decimated. A small group of survivors eventually banded together, but only after more conflict over which family would govern the new nation. The Westfalls lost. Fifty years later, peace and control are maintained by marrying the daughters of the losing side to the sons of the winning group in a yearly ritual.
This year, it is my turn.
My name is Ivy Westfall, and my mission is simple: to kill the president’s son—my soon-to-be husband—and restore the Westfall family to power.
But Bishop Lattimer is either a very skilled actor or he’s not the cruel, heartless boy my family warned me to expect. He might even be the one person in this world who truly understands me. But there is no escape from my fate. I am the only one who can restore the Westfall legacy.
Because Bishop must die. And I must be the one to kill him…
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
At first, I thought The Book of Ivy would be a guilty pleasure read. I’m a sucker for the failed-assassin trope, I’ll admit. What I didn’t really expect was that it would have as much depth as it did.
In her debut novel, Amy Engel has created some truly amazing characters. Ivy is one of the more memorable characters I’ve read in a long, long time. She’s brave and not afraid to stand up for herself, but at the same time she can be weak and vulnerable when it comes to her family. Not only that, she also knows how to act: she can hide her feelings from those around her reasonably well. But when Bishop starts to worm his way into her paranoid heart, she starts to question all that her family has told her about the current regime. It’s not perfect, but maybe the Westfalls don’t have Ivy’s best interests at heart.
Bishop was more than your typical love interest as well. He’s kind and patient, waiting for Ivy to come around rather than trying to force his affection on her once he falls in love with her. He knows that she doesn’t trust him and instead of saying “I am trustworthy”, he demonstrates it. Some of his actions are rather shocking to our sensibilities, but in the fairly brutal future they make sense. To his credit, he did the right thing but he is also disgusted about what he did in that case. That makes him a memorable character as well instead of just Generic Male Love Interest.
The world-building is excellent. There’s not much I haven’t seen in post-apocalyptic/speculative fiction but The Book of Ivy manages to combine old tropes with Amy Engel’s new take on them. She paints a realistic picture of a horrible world where the survival of the fittest is very, very true. Even within their community, there is always danger lurking around the corner and dissent is punished severely. I would like to know a little more about the founding of the community, but Amy Engel manages to explain all of the essential things in the course of the book. So I’m looking forward to learning more, but I’m not desperately seeking information in order to actually understand the book.
The only place that I felt The Book of Ivy was shaky was the plot. Not the pacing, which was excellent for a largely character-driven novel, but the plot itself. It was fairly fast-paced and the way Ivy changes is very believable, but I was a little annoyed at the end. Ivy did some counter-intuitive things in order to advance the plot at the end and set up the next book The Revolution of Ivy. I get that she needed to finally meet the rebels on the other side of the fence, but it could have been done in a more believable fashion. Still, it’s a first book and it didn’t make me mad or even anything more than slightly annoyed.
All considered, The Book of Ivy is an amazing debut that’s better than the books of more established authors. It’s one of the better post-apocalyptic books that I’ve ever read in the YA genre and considering how many I’ve read, that’s saying something. I can highly recommend picking it up when it releases on November 11. I can almost guarantee that once you finish it, you’ll be like me and become extremely anxious for November 2015 when the next book releases.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.