Sadie Walker is Stranded

Headline Publishing Group 2012

This is the follow-up to Allison Hewitt is Trapped. It takes place after the initial zombie outbreak and it features a different cast of characters.

Nutshell blurb: The city of Seattle has been walled up to protect the inhabitants from the zombies that roam outside. The wall becomes breached, forcing Sadie, her nephew and her friend to flee.

I absolutely loved the first book but this one fell flat for me. I didn’t like Sadie AT ALL and I found that there were far too many references to other books, films, tv shows and various aspects of popular culture. I understood most of them but the generations after me are unlikely to know what the heck she’s talking about. It’s pretty annoying and gets old after a while.

The action is fantastic and it’s an exciting story but characterisation is everything to me. It’s not good to wish for the main character to get eaten by zombies.

The main character continuously makes stupid decisions but tells herself that she’ll never make the same mistakes again. But she does. She makes the stupidest decision at the very end (which I won’t spoil for you) and nobody calls her on it. If I lived in a zombie-filled world and one of my camp-mates made this decision, I would consider killing him/her if I ever saw him/her again. But no one seems to care that she did what she did. It’s incredibly frustrating to read things like this.

She’s also very helpless and relies on others to continually save her.

I would not normally do a blog post about a book when I don’t have many nice things to say about it, but I will in this case. The author has committed a cardinal sin in my eyes and I feel compelled to point it out in the hopes of convincing my writerly friends to not commit this crime.

Please repeat after me: We DO NOT talk trash about another author’s writing in our own work.

Of what do you speak, you might ask?

Well, I’ll tell you. There’s an entire conversation where the characters discuss (and bash) Twilight.

Now, I know that it’s super-cool to not like Twilight or anything by Stephanie Meyer and that there have been flame wars all over the internet as to whether or not it’s “good”. But does that really matter? Are we all not entitled to like or dislike a book according to our own personal tastes?

There’s a pettiness and arrogance to immortalising your hatred of someone else’s work in your own novel. You’re pretty much letting the world know that you think that you’re more talented and that your story is better than that of the person you’re slating. That’s not cool or edgy. It’s just kind of mean.

I was really disappointed when I got to that section. I feel that Ms. Roux’s writing is quirky and fun and that it can stand on its own without needing to bash another author’s work.

Why did you do it, Madeleine? Why????

It completely coloured my perception of this book. From that point on I felt that I was reading the work of a bully; someone who tears others down to make herself look better. Is she really that kind of person? I don’t know, but it really struck a chord with me. I’m not sure if I will read the next one when it comes out.

Therefore I urge you, my friends, don’t do this in your writing. Be supportive of other people, be constructive in your criticism and be nice. Most importantly, if you don’t have anything nice to say…

Allison Hewitt is Trapped

Headline Publishing Group 2011

They are coming and I don’t think we will ever get out.

Yes, I’m posting my thoughts about another zombie book. I refuse to apologise.

I loved this book. It’s a great story and Ms. Roux has a whimsical style of writing that hooked me right away. I also loved the concept.

Nutshell blurb: A zombie outbreak has occurred and Allison Hewitt is trapped in a bookstore with colleagues. She blogs about her experiences of trying to survive.

What? You might ask. How the heck could someone maintain a blog during a zombie apocalypse? And you would be right to ask. I felt that the author did a great job of addressing this issue. Apparently there’s something called SNet that the government and military have implemented in case of an emergency such as the one in this book. The interesting thing about this concept is that the laptop remains at the centre of the action at all times. It is something to be protected otherwise, there’s no story. Ms. Roux does a great job of explaining the continued use of a laptop when there’s no electricity or when the living dead decide to launch an attack on our heroine.

I liked the characters and could sympathise with Allison. My one disappointment (and it’s a little one) is that I felt as though the end was a little too wrapped up for me. It’s not completely tied with a bow, but I felt that the romantic connections were a bit contrived. I don’t want to say anything else as I don’t want to spoil it for you if you decide to read it.

All in all, it was a fun read.