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The Blurb On The Back:

Thomas is thirty-two.

He comes from the small town of Barkley.

He has a wife there, Sarah, and a child, Mary; good solid names from the Good Book. And he is on his way home from the war, where he has been serving as a conscripted soldier.

Thomas is also dead – he is one of the Walkin’.

And Barklay does not suffer the wicked to live.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

David Towsey’s first novel (the first in a horror trilogy) adds a slow burning character study to the crowded zombie genre. I liked the idea of the zombies retaining their memories and personalities and Towsey does well at showing Sarah’s and Mary’s conflicted emotions at seeing Thomas again when their religion tells them that they shouldn’t and also how Nathaniel, the grave keeper, struggles to deal with having allowed his first wife to leave as a Walkin’ and how that impacts on his second marriage. I also enjoyed the hints at a society of Walkin’ that they’ve built for themselves in the Black Mountain with Towsey touching on the impact that their elongated lives have on how they view the world. However Thomas didn’t particularly grip me as a character and I found the religious elements two dimensional – particularly Pastor Grey who is a ho-hum fire and brimstone type who uses his control of the congregation to try and gain political power over the town while his acolyte, Luke Morris is similarly thinly characterised and his extreme devotion and fondness for violence in the Lord’s name didn’t hold my interest. There also wasn’t enough plot here for my taste (which is purely a personal thing) as it basically amounts to a chase with a predictable finish. Although I’m usually a fan of zombie novels, this one didn’t have enough to grip me and as such I won’t be reading on with this trilogy but I will read Towsey’s other work.

Thanks to Quercus for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Dru Andersen is not afraid of the dark. But she should be.

Dru knows that The Real World – peopled with ghosts, suckers and zombies – is a frightening place. She’s ready to kill first and ask questions later, so it is going to take her a while to work out just who she can trust.

Segej, the deadly nosferat, has kidnapped Dru’s best friend Graves and she must go on a dangerous mission to get him back. But the Order – the vampire-fighting training school – says it will take years to train her. And her mentor, the seductive but dangerous Christophe, doesn’t seem very interested in rescuing Graves.

Time is running out, and Dru is finished with listening to the Order and finished with listening to Christophe. From here on she’s going to face the kind of vampires on her own terms.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

I didn’t enjoy the 4th in Lili St Crow’s STRANGE ANGELS series mainly because I hadn’t read books 2 and 3 but also because there isn’t a huge amount happening here and what does happen takes a long time to get going. I did like the fact that Dru doesn’t fall into the normal clichés for girls in the middle of a love triangle, but the lack of action and the fact that once Dru Blooms she has the potential to be a giant Mary Sue prevented me from connecting with it.

Thanks to Quercus for the free copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

If Dru can’t survive until sunrise, the game’s over …

Dru knows that The Real World – peopled with ghosts, suckers and zombies – is a frightening place. She’s ready to kill first and ask questions later, so it’s going to take her a while to work out just who she can trust.

Dru Anderson has been ‘strange’ for as long as she can remember, traveling from town to town with her father to hunt down things that go bump in the night. It’s a weird life, but a good one – until in an icy, broken-down town, a hungry zombie bursts through her kitchen door. Dru is going to have to use every inch of her wit and training. Can she stay alive long enough to fall for one – or both – of the guys hungry for her affections?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Lili St Crow’s YA urban fantasy is an okay read, but Dru never gripped me as a character and key revelations about her take her too close to Mary-Sue territory for my taste, while the inevitable love triangle between her and two male characters has been done elsewhere too many times before. There’s a lot of set-up to the book, which I don’t doubt will pay off in later books, but I’m not interested enough to read on.

Thanks to Quercus for the free copy of this book.