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After enjoying reading about flesh-eating zombies in The Fear by Charlie Higson (see Book Review: The Fear by Charlie Higson), while in my local supermarket I saw Zombie Apocalypse! by Stephen Jones. With the stereotypical title “Zombie Apocalypse!” and front cover (depicting London is ruins in the background and zombies with bloody mouths in the forefront) I nearly put it back on the shelf. But then I read the back and it revealed the story would be told through the medium of eyewitness narratives through text messages, official reports, blogs, letters, diaries, etc. It looked interesting so I picked it up.
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The opening chapter was long and dull but I read on hoping it would get better. The general storyline is that the New Festival of Britain is taking place in South London. In order to create a festival site they choose to dig up the graves at All Hallows Church. In one of the crypts fleas from the bubonic plague are released causing the reanimation virus. The storyline feels a bit disjointed and that’s because various authors wrote different chapters. It appears Steve Jones was just the person that put the chapters together.
As the story continues we are introduced to groups of characters, some of which are killed off or become zombies. The problem with this book was that the characters constantly change meaning you can’t make a connection with any of them. The characters changing is part of the story as the reanimation virus spreads from London to Mexico and various other places around the world. Apart from the odd good chapter I found this book boring in all honesty. Indeed at times I had to force myself to read on.
Towards the end of the book they find a treatment for the reanimation virus however the future of humanity remains unsure with a letter from the Zombiefied Queen of Great Britain.
I was utterly disappointed with the book. Remembering to my gut feeling in response to the cover I shouldn’t have picked it up. Next time I will make sure that I follow my gut feeling.
Write soon,
Antony
A great introductory article on candle magic :)
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