Lia Habel
Del-Ray October 18, 2011
496 pages
Summary: (from Amazon)
Can a proper young victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?
The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the mores of an antique era. Sixteen-year-old Nora Dearly is far more interested in her country’s political unrest than in silly debutante balls. But the death of her beloved parents leaves Nora at the mercy of a social-climbing aunt who plans to marry off her niece for money. To Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses. Now she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting a fatal virus that raises the dead. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and thoroughly deceased. But like the rest of his special undead unit, Bram has been enabled by luck and modern science to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.
Review:
I didn't actually read this book, but actually listened to the audio book. You're introduced to Nora Dearly, who is in mourning of her deceased father in Neo-Victoria (high techology civilization with customs of the Victorian era). I grew to love Nora, mainly because she was a girl put in her culture that thought against the norms. She cared nothing about being in a profitable marriage, and she was the type of female protagonist that I enjoy reading: Strong and unwilling to bend to other's opinions. She's an easily likeable character.
When she officially meets Bram Griswold, a member of a secret zombie army troop, Nora keeps her head. I grew to love Bram's character and all of the secondary character zombies, although it seemed that there was quite a few of them and could be hard to keep up with at times (I loved Chas!).
What I think brought this novel down is the changing of POVs between 5 characters. While the switching between Nora and Bram was almost expected, the 3 other characters, Nora's best friend Pamela, Nora's father Victor, and Wolfe, were a little much. While I did enjoy Pamela's chapters (for the most part they were normally action filled), the author could have maybe inserted more action with Nora and Bram instead of the constant switching. It made it hard for me to keep up with the events, making the book feel like it was dragging its legs behind it.
All in all, it's a good debut novel, filled with more zombies than you can shake a stick at. I might give the second book a read, just to see what happens to Nora and Bram.
3/5 stars
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