Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Took a chance on a new zombie author, June 20, 2008
Giangregorio seems to have a whole slew of zombie novels here on Amazon, none of which had any reviews before the first reviewer took a chance on this one. I was a little leery with numerous titles and no reviews, worried that somehow I was not privy to some sort of self publishing joke. There are plenty of bad zombie novels out there and I have read quite a few. I am not one to avoid anything with a zombie in it, so I was bound to try this author out. I am just glad to have had someone else take the leap before I did.
This is definitely a self published work (I have not heard of the company Xlibris before, but I am guessing that they are much like I Universe and others giving an author a chance to print their own stuff). There are definitely typos in this story, a lot of too for to and vice versa, some misplaced " marks, etc. but really one of the better self published efforts. A good editor could have really sharpened this story up and tightened the errors and a few awkward phrases here and there but the author has done a good job of creating a vivid story with characters you can appreciate as real and grow attached to through the story.
Our main character is Adam, who is coping with the death of his parents at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. He is taken in by his neighbors, Paul and Josey, who are hiding out in their cellar as the world around them crumbles. After a few weeks stuck underground they begin to run out of food and start to search for other survivors.
Don't expect any major twists on the Romero zombie formula. For me that is not a problem, as I enjoy the traditional stuff as well as the variations that are out there. For me, zombie stories are about the scares and the character development. Give me the gore and the emotions that go along with a worldwide apocalypse where the dead have come back to eat the living. We get a healthy dose of slimy humans reminding us of how much worse we are than the undead who cannot help being what they are. The depravity of mankind is fully on display in this tale.
Again, nothing shocking here but a solid story by an author I am certain I will be checking out again. If you like your zombie stories traditional, with a side order of wretched humanity thrown in, this is a good book to pick up.
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sam, June 10, 2008
I have to agree with the guy that wrote the first review. I love a good zombie book and this one is right up there with the best of them. I will most definitely read the rest of these books!
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Took a chance and got lucky, May 12, 2008
I love the zombie genre and have read about every book under the sun... from David Moody, Z.A. Recht, Travis Adkins, J. L. Bourne, Brian Keene, Max Brooks... to self published writers. A lot of good ones out there but some are really bad... like The Phoenix Gene... of which I couldn't get past the horrible writing after page 5.
Having exhausted the list of popular zombie books, I dicovered Dead End and decided to give it a shot though there are no reviews. This seems to be a self published book so I went in with an open mind.
I'm about two thirds of the way through and so far I really like the book.
This is not a masterpiece... no zombie book is. But this book is among the better ones that I have read so far. Just a good old-fashioned story set in the Romero universe. The writer doesn't try to get cute and tweak the rules in an effort to be original... he's just telling a good story.
Plusses: Good old-school Romero zombies; good characterization where you care about the characters; really good discriptive scenes that are vivid and just gory enough without being over the top. My favorite aspect of the zombie genre is the post apocalyptic world with survivors hiding out in shelters or surviving out in the open... having to deal with the dead or sometimes a more sinister living. This book has that and does it well.
The only slight deviation to the romero zombie in this book is how the zombies tend to hide out from the sun during the day and really come out in strength at night (the explanation is interesting and makes sense.) So while in the book, the characters can travel during the day with fewer zombie encounters, they face other dangers such as other living pwople who are into raping and killing. So, I don't mind the deviation.
I'm giving this book four stars because I haven't finished it yet and there are some minor spelling errors (i.e. use of "then" instead of "than") But this book is very well written and the spelling errors are minor and don't detract from the story. I've never written a review before and I'm doing so now because I was surprised that there were no reviews for this book eventhough it came out a year ago. It was a good find to take a chance on. Also, this writer has several zombie books published around the same time last year... apparently he had written several and published them all at the same time.
I really like this book so I just ordered all his other books. If they're as good as this one, I've got my zombie fix taken care of for quite a while.
****** UPDATE 7/25/08
I've become a fan of this author after discovering his numerous self published books. They have all been picked up by Permuted Press which is THE best and largest post apocalyptic/zombie publishing house. This author is good and I had wondered why they hadn't already picked him up. Now they have and describe his as a prolific writer. The author had noted that DeadWater will be released as a greatly expanded story. All of these books I have reviewed are good enough for me to pick up the re-releases just to see what's been added to each. I have a feeling the books out now will be collector's items. Thanks to this author for the hours of good reading.
****** END UPDATE
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