Customer Reviews

Moonlight

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The electricity goes out. Battery-powered devices freeze up. Cars stop dead on the streets. Oh, and most everybody in town is now a member of the living dead, shuffling around the streets and muttering "no more room."

It's kinda like a combo between Stephen King's "Cell" and S. M. Stirling's "Dies the Fire". But different, in that Keith Knapp's "Moonlight" gives us a peek inside the zombies' minds, and he even lets us know why the world is in such a horrible state.

Set in Chicago suburb of Westmont, "Moonlight" is an apocalyptic horror story that shows us what happens when hell runs out of space. Knapp narrates his tale from the perspectives of the zombies, those about to become zombies, and the four "innocents" who must work together to fight the evil monster, the Man in the Dark Coat.

Knapp does a nice job building and portraying his main characters: Jennifer the mayor, John the writer, Heather the cop, Richard the psychiatrist, his wife Lindsay the painter, and Gloria the pregnant receptionist (and surprise: not all of them are innocents). Knapp builds the suspense and the gruesomeness, and ends up with an old fashioned good-vs-evil showdown.

A solid debut by Knapp!

First off I'm a completely biased reviewer because I actually edited this book. That being said, I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that reading and editing this book was no hardship at all even though it is definitely not within the genre I typically read.

The book description is self explanatory, no need for me to elaborate on that so instead I'm going to focus on the high and lows of this book. If the subject matter intrigues you and if the highs outweigh the minor lows for you then I would definitely recommend you pick up a copy of this book.

The first few chapters contain quite a bit of character introduction but it is definitely worth it in the end because the characters are one of this novel's greatest strengths. Knapp amasses a large cast of characters that are multi-dimensional and fleshed out (sometimes literally!).

I was drawn in by the fact that the supernatural element was genuinely intriguing, well thought out, and had fascinating good versus evil elements that didn't fall into tired cliches.

Knapp is a new author, this being his first published book, and so expect him to occasionally fall into the new writers' trap of trying to build suspense with words instead of situations. Nevertheless those few instances only happen after a chunk of excellent writing so you barely notice it. I'm looking forward to his future books that will undoubtedly rise above that.

This novel is a supernatural horror story which means that there is quite a bit of violence which is why I couldn't bring myself to give it five stars. The majority of the violence and language in Moonlight are obviously not there for shock value, but instead an integral part of the tale. Still, I'm not a fan of graphic violence and language.

My opinion? His intriguing story and characters far outweigh the handful of minor slip-ups by a new author.

For only 99 cents, you can't go wrong with this zombie tale. Knapp presents a world where the people start to become zombies before they are even dead, which certainly breaks some zombie traditions, and there is a pretty distinct difference between good and evil, where the "mostly-innocent" have to fight a little harder to stay on the good side. He presents us with some interesting ideas, although, it is mostly your typical zombie story.

The interesting question that is proposed: what would we do if all things electronic/electrical stopped working? I do wish Knapp would have gone into the implications of that a bit more, but the focus of this story seems to be more action-oriented, with the philosophical questions left for the reader to ponder on their own time. There is a lot of bad language if that sort of thing bothers you, but hell, who wouldn't be cussing if nothing worked anymore and dead people were after you?

Overall, it's an interesting take on your typical zombie story, complete with lots of gore, surprising character twists, and an ending that may seem a little trite, but is adequate. The build-up to the zombie action is probably the best part.

For those who don't mind unanswered questions at the end of the book...this is the story for you. If you like to have the story wrapped up in a neat package with almost all the questions raised in the story answered this is not for you.

It is a tale of an apocalyptic event. The power goes off all electronics quit.. cars don't run, phones are dead. A lone man wanders into town and begins messing with peoples minds, turning them in to mindless killing machines that die and revive then die and revive and die and revive...and so on. Out of a small town only a few survive not becoming "zombies" to the "strange man in a black trench coat". This is because of their "innocents" an implied sense of god's will in their survival.

Okay.. to be honest.. I really hated the book. I was going to write a review that would highlight the positive qualities of the story, but I can't, the inconsistencies and incompleteness of the story annoys me so much. I really thought the story was rushed, the story line was platitudinous, it left too many questions un-answered. The whole story felt to me to be just a mash up of Stephen King and Koontz story lines. There were too many main players introduced and not much time spent on building them out as independent entities. The characters were not developed as fully as they should have for a story of this magnitude. I never got a sense of who they were as a person. I defiantly didn't empathize with them, in fact I kept thinking hurry up and die. I really feel this story would have been better if spread out over several books that took time to explain why things were happening and why the good guys were the good guys instead of just implying possibilities and jamming it all into one fast paced gore filled novel.

So.. Yes the book has redeeming qualities if you like jammed pack action, blood, gore, no answer books.

Unfortunately for me.. I don't.

Really enjoyed this book, mostly because it didn't follow any traditional story formulas. He's not afraid to break the rules. Good characters, intriguing plot, a fast read.

First we have a power outage...and I was interested. Then there was a Man in a Dark Coat...and I was intrigued. Add some dead bodies, lots of blood, some gore and some scary situations...and I'm totally hooked. I could not put this book down.

I thought the author did a great job. He introduced the characters and kept them at the front of the story in such a way that the reader became a part of the group rather than an observer. His situations were realistic and the characters were believable. I was impressed the way the author maintained a level of mystery from the first page until the final chapter. The story flowed and every action had a purpose, whether it was done by a living character or a dead one.

The conclusion of this book left me feeling satisfied and every loose end was neatly tied up. When I closed the book, I wished the remaining characters well in their future endeavors, and deep down, I knew they would continue to survive.

There is alot to like here. The writing is sharp and concise, the action fast-paced, the characters intersting and likeable. The problem is that the plot doesn't make sense and the ending does little to answer the questions that are in the reader's mind. You can get readers to suspend rationality and accept the possible existence of zombies, vampires, ghosts, or demons, but there still has to be a logical structure and consistency in your story. SPOILER ALERT! First, the whole book is based on the idea that hell has run our of room. But if there is a hell, there must be a God who created it and sends (or allows) people to go there If so, why can't He find more room for the condemned souls in an infinite universe? Second, how does turning thousands of people on earth into crazed-killer-zombies solve the problem of lack of space in hell? A moratorium on death might be an answer; killing more people isn't. What is the purpose of that? One character mentions God wiping out evil in the Great Flood of Noah's time, but there is no other indication that the killings are divinely inspired. In fact, a handful of people are largely immune to the demonic character, Thomas Manning. The reader is only told it is because of their "innocence," but aside for the unborn baby, it is not at all clear how these 4 are more "innocent" than the rest of the population. In fact, I believe one is described as an agnostic and another as an athesist. Did God chose to protect this group for some reason, or was He involved at all? What exactly was he doing while the world was being almost destroyed by this character? Why did all power stop, from electricity, to cell phones, cars, and watches? It added to the spookiness and prevented the characters from fleeing or calling for help, but what did that have to do with the lack of vacancy in hell? How widespread was all this? Too many unanswered questions. The author says this book is about "hope," but hope in what? God? It was not clear what His role was in all this, if any. Technology? Definitely not; it all failed. The government? Non-existent. Mankind? If this was a test, the vast majority of mankind failed.

This book starts out slow in the first chapter, but after the first chapter is read, you realize why it started out so slow. The author is just preparing you for the events that lie ahead.

Upon reading the first chapter, I was wondering what was going on. What truly was happening to the townspeople of Westmont, IL. The lights go out, cars stop and won't start, phones will not work. The mayor frets, calls a town meeting and asks everyone to go to their homes and stay there until they can find out what is going on.

Soon, they all realize that this black out has happened all over the world. They are not alone and the town goes to total chaos. People change and start acting "different." They look like zombies.

A writer named John Whitley, a cop named Heather, a pregnant lady named Gloria, and the mayor named Jennifer are left all alone to encounter their new world. One of evil.

The people's eyes turn black and some even attack them. They encounter the man responsible for the blackout and the people changing. His name is Thomas Manning. Left alone in the town High School, the four of them hide in seclusion inside the High School, trying to figure out what to do. They hear a knock at the door, they argue whether to open it or not. Then, they all meet Richard and Lindsay, a couple from Chicago.

We get to look inside the evil people's minds and watch Jennifer and Lindsay turn into the evil one's themselves. Things get ugly and this book will keep you on your toes.

Do they survive? Can they destroy the evil one in charge, Thomas Manning, the one who seems to hold the evil inside of him?

I love post apocolyptic fiction, whether it be The Stand by Stephen King, or even playing Fallout 3 on my X-Box. I had searched for a good novel within the genre, and came up with several choices. Moonlight was at the end of my list, and I almost didn't order it. When it arrived I was skeptical at first, perhaps just because the plot reviews I read mainly only touched on the power outage that happens in the beginning. As time went on I found myself hooked.
Even though Knapp is a newly published author he has produced a winner. His use of character development helped me to understand each person in the story, and either revel or regret their outcome. His descriptive ability kept me interested in the story line, which in itself is fairly original, and in some aspects frighteningly possible (at least the power outage).
Over all, I was pleasantly surprised with Knapp and his book Moonlight. I will look forward to his work in the future.

I loved this book! It was very easy to get emotionally involved with the characters. They were well written and had depth. I'm a big fan of horror and this book didn't disappoint me. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five was because I know Keith's next book will be even better. Loved the ending but I'm wondering what will happen to Gloria and her baby????

Pam