Review: Zombies Don’t Forgive by Rusty Fischer

Zombies Don’t Forgive
Rusty Fischer
Series: A Living Dead Love Story (Book 2)
Paperback: 321 pages
Publisher: Medallion Press
Released: April 1, 2013
Source: Publisher
Goodreads – Amazon

Following Barracuda Bay’s homecoming cum zombie Armageddon, fellow zombies Maddy, Dane, and Stamp have fled to Orlando where they work at a theme park, hiding in plain sight at their jobs in the Great Movie Monster Makeover show. The three spend most of their time together in their apartment trying to avoid curious Normals and Sentinels—humans and zombie cops. While Dane and Maddy draw closer, Stamp drifts away, falling for a mysterious blonde. But when the mysterious girl puts their existence in danger, all Maddy cares about is hunting the blonde down to separate her from her head.

Review

Y’all…I love everything I have ever read by Rusty Fischer.  And this is no exception.  I devoured this book like a zombie eating brains—once I charged my Nook.  It’s been awhile since I have read an actual non-audio book.  Zombies Don’t Forgive was a nice reintroduction to print. 

ZDF is everything we love about, nay, expect from Rusty Fischer—humor, gore, sappiness, and a little tongue-in-cheek.  And it’s perfection!

I absolutely love Maddy and Dane!  They have the been-married-for-sixty-years relationship down pat.  And it’s endearing—making them all the more lovable.  A few times I face-palmed…but they are teenagers after all, so it’s not unrealistic.  For the most part, I forgot they were zombies and just enjoyed them being who they were, living life.  But I do love all the zombie-ness, too!  It makes a quirky, interesting plot all that much more fun!

I like that Fischer writes his characters so real and honest.  Even the supporting cast is believable—there’s no caricatures of people, no exaggerations.  They behave, react, love as real people would.  And I think that’s part of what makes the Living Dead Love Story series so wonderful—I can relate to Maddy, Dane, Stamp, and the others.

If you haven’t yet started this series (or just haven’t read this installment)…You. Need. To.  Like yesterday!  We don’t get to live forever like Maddy, so don’t waste any more precious time and read Zombies Don’t Forgive soon!

Other Books in This Series

{Click the covers to go to Goodreads.  Click HERE to read my review of Zombies Don’t Cry}

What We’ve Watched: Hemlock Grove--Season 1

Season 1 Summary (2013) :A teen girl is brutally murdered, sparking a hunt for her killer. But in a town where everyone hides a secret, will they find the monster among them?

I don’t do the horror thing, but every now and then, I try something that pushes me.  Hemlock Grove is one of those things.  I don’t remember why I decided to watch it.  But I’m glad I did.  I really enjoyed Season 1.  It took me F O R E V E R to get through it—I had to watch like one episode per month.  Did you catch that…per month!  It freaked me out that bad.  And I couldn’t watch it alone in the dark; other people had to be in the house (if the kids were home I would watch on my iPad with headphones in).

There is so much awesomeness in this…and it’s based on a book.  I was intrigued and horrified at the same time.  It was like a car accident—I couldn’t not watch.  So, if you need something to add a little creep-factor to your October viewing schedule, add Season 1. 

If I can handle Season 2, I’ll let y’all know.

Review: The Undertaking of Tess by Lesley Kagen

The Undertaking of Tess
Lesley Kagen
Print Length: 118 pages
Publisher: SparkPress
Release Date: July 24, 2014
Source: Publisher
Amazon – Goodreads

During the summer of 1959, ten-year-old Theresa “Tessie” Finley has her work cut out for her. Not only is she attempting to come to grips with the devastating loss and guilt she feels after she witnessed her father’s drowning, but her kid sister, Birdie, refuses to believe that their beloved Daddy is really gone. Tessie needs to make sure that she does before their Mom gets wind of how much “weirder” her sister’s getting. Stronger, and more down to Earth than ethereal Birdie, she’s always watched over her sister, so it’s only natural for her to come up with a plan that she jots down on one of her never-ending TO-DO LISTS. If Tessie can’t achieve her goals, she’s desperately worried that the beautiful, but self-occupied Louise, might send emotionally fragile Birdie to the county insane asylum.

Her daddy always told her, “A Finley never throws in the towel,” so more than anything Tess wants to make him proud, but despite her resourcefulness and grit, she’s smart enough to know that the odds are stacked against her and her time is running out.

Heartbreaking, funny, nostalgic, and spiritually uplifting, you’ll cheer the Finley sisters on from the first page to the last of this charming novella that sets the stage for the upcoming novel, The Resurrection of Tess Blessing.

 

Review

 

I know there are a lot of people out there that get annoyed by novellas, I just happen to not be one of them. I love that there are authors out there that can completely enrapture me in a little over 100 pages and leave me feeling satisfied. Now, after reading The Undertaking of Tess, I know that Lesley Kagen is one of those authors.

 

When I was twelve I ended up taking care of my little sister for hours at a time, so when I started TUOT I was pulled into the story completely as it is told through Tess’ ten year old voice. Tess goes through a very traumatic experience when she witnesses her father drown. Now she has to figure out a way to keep her family together as her mother has never been able to deal with her “different” sister, Birdie.

 

Kegan wrote this story and its characters in such a way that I honestly felt every emotion as if it was being pushed to me through the pages. I laughed out loud, and yes, even shed some tears throughout this story.

 

If you enjoy being pulled into a story to the point that you come out feeling that you have an understanding of the characters lives, read The Undertaking of Tess. I don’t think you will be disappointed, and as I said at the beginning of my review, this is a novella, so an afternoon is all you need.  

 

   

Other books in this series

Cover will take you to Goodreads page.

Release Date: December 9, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday: The Fall by Bethany Griffin

{Releases 10.07.2014}

Madeline Usher has been buried alive. The doomed heroine comes to the fore in this eerie reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story "The Fall of the House of Usher." Gothic, moody, and suspenseful from beginning to end, The Fall is literary horror for fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Asylum.

Madeline awakes in a coffin. She was put there by her own twin brother. How did it come to this? In short non-chronological chapters, Bethany Griffin masterfully spins a haunting and powerful tale of a tragic heroine and the curse on the Usher family. The house itself is alive around Madeline, and it will never let her escape, driving her to the madness just as it has all of her ancestors. But she won't let it have her brother Roderick. She'll do everything in her power to save him—and try to save herself—even if it means bringing the house down around them.

With a sinister gothic atmosphere and relentless tension to rival Poe himself, Bethany Griffin creates a house of horrors and introduces a whole new point-of-view on the timeless classic.

Why I’m waiting:

I don’t know if it’s the feeling and smell of fall in the air, or the Halloween decorations everywhere, but I’m in the mood to read something gothic and creepy…and when I saw this, it seemed perfect!

What are you waiting on?

Review: The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Evolution of Mara Dyer
Michelle Hodkin
Series: The Mara Dyer Trilogy (Book 2)
Paperback: 544 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Source: My shelf
Goodreads – Amazon

Mara Dyer knows she isn't crazy. She knows that she can kill with her mind, and that Noah can heal with his. Mara also knows that somehow, Jude is not a hallucination. He is alive. Unfortunately, convincing her family and doctors that she's not unstable and doesn't need to be hospitalised isn't easy. The only person who actually believes her is Noah. But being with Noah is dangerous and Mara is in constant fear that she might hurt him. She needs to learn how to control her power, and fast! Together, Mara and Noah must try and figure out exactly how Jude survived when the asylum collapsed, and how he knows so much about her strange ability...before anyone else ends up dead!

My reaction after finishing The Evolution of Mara Dyer:

{Source: Giphy}

Y’all, this book is a hot mess. There is so much going on, not a single part of it makes sense and fits neatly in the plot.  Rebecca looked at me and said this needed to be my last YA “girl” book.  But that’s not it—it’s not because this is a “girl” book.  It’s not that there aren’t interesting parts, because there are, it’s because none of it works together.  It feels like Hodkin decided to write a book and fit it into as many genres as humanly possible—and it just isn’t cohesive.  At all.  I wanted to like this book, and with it read the rest of the series because I think that there is an amazing concept buried somewhere in all the garbage that makes up these books.

I reread my reivew of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer before writing this one—I wanted to remind myself what I didn’t like about it and what I did.  It seems TUoMD was more likeable that TEoMD.  By about a quarter of the way through TEoMD, I wasn’t sure I would be able to finish.  I was so fed up with the juvenile, amateurish writing and the strikingly apparent lack of chemistry between Noah and Mara.  The constant description of how perfect and arrogant (seriously, this is like the only word she used to describe him) Noah is, every time he entered the scene.  How Hodkin decided we weren’t smart enough to read between the lines and spelled out every. Single.  Thing.  Mara was thinking.  That no one grew or developed or changed for better/worse ever.  That there was nothing moving the story forward.

I actually jumped ahead and read the last chapter.  Or I wouldn’t have finished.  I liked pages 491-527 (on which the Second Volume ended).  I feel like Hodkin finally found her voice and story after going in circles for nearly 800 pages (the entirety of TUoMD & the first 490 pages of TEoMD).  There was action, excitement, and paranormal.  There was mystery, and a cliffhanger.  There were some amazing revelations.  And I want to know why.

Yet, I don’t know what so many people see in these books.  I checked out Goodreads, and there are several people that feel the same as I do about this book/series.  I do know that I won’t continue this series.

So, my advice, if you haven’t already bought this, don’t.  If you haven’t started reading this, don’t.  I’m still shaking my head, confused and disappointed.