Review: Living with the Dead, Year One - Joshua Guess

Rating: 4
Husband: Loved it
Got it: Kindle
Price: $5.99
Finished it: last month

Synopsys:
(Comprised of Book I and Book II already available on Kindle) Living With the Dead - Year One is a serialized story of everyday life at the beginning of and during the zombie apocalypse. Its original format was and is an almost daily blog.

Told in the author's own voice, LWtD is the story of a group of survivors in central Kentucky, working to stay alive amid the violence and chaos of a crumbling civilization. Faced with threats and challenges that tax their endurance and force them to make terrible choices, the story follows the survivors day to day.

From the viewpoint of one man and his friends, the answer to the question of what people will become when the rules no longer apply begins to emerge. For some, it is violent conflict.

For others who only want to live in peace, this is a journey toward understanding that in a world of the dead, the only choice is to truly live.

Review:
This was awesome.  The "book" is done blog style, including typos and all - as the author Joshua Guess explains - to make it seem more real. 

This is also a real time blog, (http://www.livingwiththedead.net/) that you can follow daily as well, so, should you be a dedicated blog reader, you really don't have to buy anything. You can just got and start at post 1 on the blog and go on through. However, I liked the story, I want to support self pub'ed as much as possible, and I LOVE zombie stuff, so we bought it.

I really enjoyed the time lapse, the urgency, and the how the characters adapted and changed through the different circumstances they were challenged with.  I do enjoy reading blogs, and this fit in well with that.  It was snapshots, sometimes cliff-hangers, sometimes long and rambling, but all in all, well thought out for what could possibly happen should there be a zombie outbreak and the world as we know it go bye-bye, and there is still the interwebs to write about it.

I really enjoyed the description of the zombie mutation, I liked the twists that it held later on. It kept it more fresh in terms of out-thinking "mindless" zombies.   There were the occational times where I was brought out of the story by some continuity stuff, and a few times I didn't think that the activity matched the time stamp (farming times, etc), but all in all a wonderful entertaining and great peek into the lives of surivors.

If you like blogs and zombies (and who doesn't.... do you hate bacon too?), the give this book a shot.

Review: Hollowland - Amanda Hocking

Rating: 3
Husband: didn't read
Got it: Kindle
Price: Free download
Finished: recently

Synopsys:

Hollowland - the first book in the young adult dystopian series The Hollows..

"This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door."

Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.

This is a young adult title with some language, violence, and mild sexual situations recommended for ages sixteen and up.

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Review:
I will admit I'm slightly obsessed with Amanda Hockings success and wish that I had the prolific writing speed that she does.  I have been meaning to read the Tyrlle series, but now that they are no longer self-pub'ed, I'm not sure that I want to pay the $8.99 for the download. For $2.99 I know I would....there's that magic number that J.A.Konrath keeps going on about.  I'll be looking for these in the second hand bookstore for sure.

Back to Hollowland.  For a free book, I can't complain too hard. I felt that some of the situations were a little "out there", but the pace was high, and it kept me turning the pages even if there were times when I was a little drawn out of the story by the unbelievable-ness of a few situations.  However, I did like the lead, her cohorts were great and Amanda didn't scrimp on the death of regular people. Which pleases me.  Also, I like the hook to the next series.

The romance wasn't great, but thats not why I read these books anyway. The climax (so to speak) was rushed and I didn't particularly like it.  I will agree that its for older teens, 16+ for sure since there is full sexual intercourse.

I'm debating part two, Hollowmen.  For $0.99 its hard to go wrong, and I'm leaning to a yes, mostly because of the hook and as I write this I can feel that I'm getting more interested to know what happens, and that is the hallmark of good.  You got me. I want to know.  All in all, if you like a cheap read, and it does keep the pace going, then this is a yes.  It was good.  I'm likely going to DL part two next week, if not tonight while I'm laying in bed deciding what I'm going to pick up off the bedside table.

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