Zombies are always scary
920218
Zombies are always scary when done properly, and Mr. McKinney does them properly. I've been reading various novels in the horror genre for roughly four to five years, and McKinney is one of three authors whom I  continually go back to when I'm in need of a horror fix. One of the great things that he (McKinney) does, is he incorporates each of his books into one world, with each being from the viewpoint of different characters. I would love for him to eventually have his different characters meet up in one book, whether they team up or have a passing encounter. As long as he's able to continue writing smart horror fiction, and never writes cliches in the genre, I will continue to be a fan.
507936
I am an avid fan of zombie shenanigans.  I really appreciated the new twist on the reason for the infection.  SPOILER ALERT !!  Having the Navy Seals, and the army team up with Al Qaida makes the story quirky and interesting.  Well, I guess living in a post apocalyptic zombie filled world teaches us how to get along bettler with our fellow man.  Maybe what the world needs is zombies, just sayin'
209174
"I thought nothing could be more terrifying than the undead rising to kill without remorse or reason. But I was wrong."
  Mitch, Die Trying by Nicholas Ryan, pg. 129.

Nicholas Ryan's Die Trying is an adrenalin pumping ride that has you in it's grip from the first page and well beyond the last. It is extremely well written with intriguing characters and a relentless storyline.

When Mitch, his brother Jed, and Harrigan hear the sound of a helicopter overhead after several weeks of nothing during the zombie apocalypse, they know that it may be their only way to find a safe haven for survivors. But as it turns out, Zombies aren't the only things they need to worry about.

The story is told from Mitch's perspective, who seems to be the groups unofficial spearhead. To say he and Jed aren't close, is an understatement and the dynamics between the two add to the stress of the situation they find themselves in. Jed is a menacing presence throughout the story. He is the antagonist in the group and is just waiting for the moment he can come out on top.  Harrigan fluctuates between being a calm, deep thinking, steady presence, with a strong belief in his bible, to a skittish, nervous fellow, which is totally understandable considering the horror around him.

Nicholas Ryan has done a tremendous job in making the reader feel part of the group. We learn the background events as Mitch, Jed and Harrigan do, so there is no loss of pace or slowing of heartbeats as you read along. This gives the book as a whole, a more tangible feel that matches in with the timeline of the story.  It is a well developed story with descriptive prose that allows you to smell the fear, and the decaying flesh as well as hear the spray of bullets, and the shuffling stride of the dead woman coming closer.

Die Trying by Nicholas Ryan has a true fear factor that doesn't come from the blood and flesh seeking zombies, but from a humans ability to hate, to plot revenge, to be ultimately selfish during a catastrophic event. Nicholas Ryan has done a truly terrific job of writing a horror story where the monsters are not the real monsters at all.

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1497039
The zombie subgenre has really taken off in the last ten years. Personally, I thought it would have died five years ago, but today it's still running strong. The zombie is like the vampire. Both creatures are undead, and yet we love them. We love them so much that it might take another ten years before we finally get bored of them, if ever.

Fifteen years ago, zombie literature was scarce. Today it's everywhere. This brings me to Gerald Rice and his short gem of a novella, Fleshbags. The title of this book itself reeks of the undead, and what Gerald has managed to do with this story is not revolutionize the zombie market so much as help it evolve. His undead creatures are a different beast from your typical zombie, and it is really welcoming.

What I liked most about Fleshbags, however, were the interesting characters that populate the story. Loman is on a mission to get to his daughter from school and save her from the sudden outbreak that makes people strip naked and their stomachs to look like translucent sacks filled rotting organ tissue. Along the way he teams up with a person who wears all leather and a motorcycle helmet, the latter of which he/she never takes off. Ms. Mila is a teacher at Loman's daughter's school who hates the children she teaches. Bill and his wife, Sarah, notice that Mr. Anders is home early from work, which he never is, and that there seems to be something wrong with him. When Bill goes over to investigate, he finds much more than a sick man.

I once had a conversation with a friend about how zombies can be used for any metaphor the writer chooses, and Gerald Rice does a marvelous job of doing so in Fleshbags. The story, I thought at least, is about the dark things we store and lock away. Beneath the skin of every individual, there is something darker, perhaps even dangerous, lurking. There's a secret behind every locked door you pass ignorantly by every day. Not only has Gerald created his own zombie, but he put them in a setting that was easy to believe, amongst humans, everyday people we all know, love and hate.

My biggest criticism is that this is a novella with a large cast. It was difficult at first to remember who was who and what they were doing, but once I caught on, it was one hell of a ride. I also would have liked it if some of the subplots were smoothed out more. But don't let these things deter you from what is very much a fun read. If you like zombies and the zombie subgenre, then I invite you to give Fleshbags a try. Do so, and you just might meet some interesting people.
2806563
I have read all of the books in the Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Series. None have disappointed, all have been a thrill ride. District is no exception. If anything with each addition to the series I am more captured by the every changing world the characters live in. I simply can't predict the direction the stories will go in, which I love.
4117497
Game of the year edition never seems to let you put it down and get some rest. The excitement and challenge builds on each play. No one game is the same as the attack strategy is very random. Spooky feel as with the Resident Evil and F.E.A.R. games. Weapon selections are as if what would be available to the average person during an apocalypse. Elements from various zombie culture characteristics makes it fun.
2648704
I was surprised to see an actual zombie thriller out in the landscape of zombie fiction. There are lots of good zombie action stories and zombie survival stories about coping with the fall of civilization, but I haven't seen a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat story like this one. You can cut the tension with a knife, and the urge to keep flipping pages is ever-present.
Only complaint? Could have seen more zombie action, but on that note, when we do get some zombie action, Suzanne Robb delivers with gusto. The zombies are malicious and quite frightening.
One of the best Z books on Amazon.
4938526
Excellent Zombie series here. All the characters are people you would route for and loath in everyday life. If this is your genre you know typically you have your groups of survivors scavenging what ever resources they can find to help them survive as comfortable and safe as possible in this type of setting. There are several clusters of survivors some are good and some are degenerates. This Dangerous Days is a series that will keep your eyes glued to the pages.
2379591
As yet another stellar Sammy Keyes adventure begins (is it my imagination, or do these already excellent mysteries just keep getting better and better?), it's October 31st. Sammy is determined that this Halloween will be all about fun and have nothing to do with villainous deeds. And that possibly might have come to be...except she and her friends make the mistake of cutting through the graveyard on Halloween night, all disguised as zombies. They're meandering through the old portion of the cemetery, where it's very dark and the paths are not straight. Since it's taking them a while to make their way through, they begin to talk about death, but Casey and Billy lighten the mood with puns and funny stories.

Sammy and the gang stop short when they spot a beast-like creature dashing through the gravestones. The creepy figure turns and starts racing right at them, so they hide behind tombstones. When it sees the "zombies" behind the gravestones, the intruder tries to run away. Instead, he trips over Billy. Now Sammy can see that, instead of a beast with wings, it's a man wearing a poncho, and there's another man with a shovel chasing him. The man in the poncho (Sammy dubs him El Zarape in honor of his serape) drops his trick-or-treat sack and runs away. Billy, claiming he's not too proud to keep El Zarape's candy if he doesn't want it, carries the stranger's bag as they head for the nearest gate.

However, their cemetery adventures are not at an end. They see an old car driving through the graveyard. Sammy voices her fears that it's the ominous "Shovel Man," unleashing many bad (yet hilarious) jokes and puns from Casey and Billy. In order to get out of the cemetery, the group must climb over the vehicle while it's rolling through the gate. Sammy happens to see the driver's face, and he doesn't just look angry at the kids climbing over his car, he looks literally murderous.

As frightening as their encounters in the graveyard have been, it's nothing compared to Sammy's next encounter with her nemesis, Heather (aka Casey's sister)...but then, that's nothing new. Sammy is distracted from Hurricane Heather when she spies police cars parked across the street and realizes someone attacked the guy who had been loudly preaching on the corner. Sammy's friend, Officer Borsch, is on the scene; he tells Sammy that Preacher Man claims a cop beat him up. This arouses Sammy's suspicions since she knows someone who dressed up like a policeman for Halloween.

It's been quite the exciting Halloween so far, but what happens next rattles the entire group. Back at Hudson's, they are sorting through their trick-or-treat loot when Billy empties the sack the poncho-wearing stranger dropped. Out roll two skulls. At first they decide that the skulls are --- obviously! of course! --- fake. But it isn't long before Sammy discovers that they're actually real. Coincidentally, three people have gone missing from their town within a month. Hmm.

While Sammy wrestles with secrets she must keep from people she cares about, she discovers that strangers are following her. In the meantime, she follows clues to the skull mystery through the strangest places, including a funeral parlor. Her relationship with Casey adds the perfect mellow complement to the plot --- just a tracery of romance that is quite realistic and never distracting.

Mystery lovers of all ages will devour SAMMY KEYES AND THE NIGHT OF SKULLS, as well as the previous books in the series. Sammy is likely to remind readers of Sue Grafton's sassy, plain-spoken sleuth Kinsey Millhone (who really should be Sammy's long-lost aunt; how perfect would that be?). Author Wendelin Van Draanen gives us an intriguing mystery, well-paced plot, and likable three-dimensional characters. She also doesn't flinch from provocative sub-plots with plenty of substance. Among other issues, Sammy comes face to face with her own heebie-jeebies about death, adding thought-provoking layers to a thoroughly enjoyable page-turner filled with both tricks and treats.

Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon
468489
Well, the zombie really creeped me out with his ugly expression and lifeless eyes, so I'm guessing little kids will love it. In particular, they will like that the child is controlling the zombie and it is his pet. Children have so many people telling them what to do in real life, that it's quite a role reversal and inspiration to them to be in charge for a change..

A very short story for reading aloud to any child who's asking about all the zombie shows on TV or who has heard about them from friends. Zombies could be very frightening to children, but a book like this reassures them. Beginning readers will like it too (1st and 2nd grade).
2924331
These days, with zombie media invading, attacking, and overriding the TV, big screen, and printed page like the very armies of living dead they are talking about; to make a zombie story stand out and seem original and interesting is not an easy thing to do.  Maybe it takes setting your zombie stage somewhere different and foreign, and perhaps changing the entire dynamic of how zombies are created.  Enter Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of the internationally bestselling Let the Right One In, who turns to the living dead in a totally new way in Handling the Undead.

Lindqvist doesn't waste any time setting the scene, throwing the reader straight into the story.  We're in Stockholm and something very weird is going on: a power surge, making it impossible to turn off electronic devices, while the lights keep getting brighter.  As the minutes tick by on this hot summer night in Sweden, everyone has a splitting headache which isn't being helped by the heat or the bright lights; nerves are frayed and anger is rising.  When it seems like one's head might just explode, there is a final surge and then it goes black and everything returns to normal.

Then the dead come back to life.

No one knows what to do, including the zombies.  They have risen from the cold slabs in the morgue; dug themselves out of their graves; and pulled themselves up from their final resting place, looking for their home, a place of familiarity, unable to communicate and appear to be just walking corpses that shouldn't be alive.  The families and friends of these zombies are just as confused, not knowing whether to help or run away.  The Swedish government steps in, rounding up the living dead and quarantining them until more can be found out; fears of a virus or contagion run rampant.  But this is a socialist state and the government is going to do its job and protect its people.  Rosters are created of all the dead to ensure every last one is collected.

One young boy remains unaccounted for, as his mother - who never recovered from his death - and his grandfather secret him away to a Swedish countryside cottage in the archipelago and attempt to halt the state of his decomposition and make him look more . . . human, with the use of saline and glucose solutions and lots of moisturizing cream.  Meanwhile it seems that the very recently deceased zombies do possess some faculties of communication.  It also appears that when the zombies are grouped together, people are somehow able to read each others' thoughts, as well as the zombies presumably reading theirs.  When bad thoughts are created, the zombies turn violent.

While the ending of Handling the Undead leaves a lot to be satisfied - failing in ways that many horror books do - Lindqvist has created an interesting and different zombie story that doesn't just seek to scare the reader, but to make them think and question what it means to be alive.  Fans of Lindqvist will enjoy this book and look for what's to come next.

Originally written on October 29, 2010 Alex C. Telander.

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3855803
This novel is short and sweet and spooky.  Different point of views ties  these soon to be zombies together showing a glimpse of who they use to be.
1964693
Eli Constant has done it again, and this time she teamed up with author B.V. Barr to co-write this instant hit.

This awesome woman never fails to surprise me, taking one of my favourite horror genres and twisting it into something even more brutal and chilling than I thought possible.

Children. Z-Children to be more precise. What could be more horrifying than watching your own children turn into flesh eating monsters? Not much, and neither author held back on the gore and guts in this gut-wrenching horror story. (see what I did there? wink!)

The story takes on an interesting layout, of several stories that cross paths at the beginning of the outbreak? Apocalypse? End of mankind? So many ways to describe these scenes... The stories show different angles, and different versions of events from several characters that I very quickly grew to like and dislike, but regardless, the end was always inevitable for them.

The Z-children came.

The Z-children fed.

And the only way to stop these once beautiful little darlings is to kill them.

It's both equal parts disturbing as it is awesome!

I simply CAN NOT FREAKING wait for book 2!!
4864948
I always enjoy reading anything by Rhiannon Frater.  With her work you totally feel like you are there. Love Zombies? Buy it.
3108842
Review:
I bought this book Free on Amazon a few weeks back, it was about Zombies and had a pretty good rating, so really why not give it a shot. Well let me tell you, I am so glad that I did. What Zombies Fear is a really unique take on your run of the mill Zombie Apocalypse. These Zombies are more parasitic then plague driven and that is pretty cool to see.

The Story starts out following a pencil pusher named Viktor, he says goodbye to his wife and son and heads out to start the day just like dozens before. Once at work the action picks up and we very quickly learn that something has caused Zombies to rise. After saving his son and wife they embark on a journey to meet up with the rest of his family at this mother's farm and along the way learn that not all the zombies are slow and stupid but some are smart and have heightened abilities. The Zombies also have there sights set on Max, Viktor's 3 Year old son. He's special and the Zombies know it, so it is up to Viktor and the rest to keep him safe.

What Zombies Fear does a great job blending the zombie element and that of the otherworldly paranormal that cause the survivors and Zombies to have extraordinary abilities. I'm not sure why only some people are affected but the Survivors guess it might be a genetic mutation. At least in this book no hard proof of why is mentioned. I found the smart zombies highly creepy, especially because some look almost normal and only when they try and rip your throat out do you realize they aren't. Also having Zombies organize, able to communicate and plot strategy is scary. Those are the Zombies of my nightmares.

Overall this was a great book with well developed characters,strong character driven plot and fantastic world building. If your a fan of the genre and looking for something new and unique, I highly suggest picking this book up. I will be giving What Zombies Fear ''''.
4442984
This thoroughly scary zombie book will keep you on edge till the very end. I loved the characters in Alex South's Swarm and the relationships that develop as the story progresses. The group that bands together to survive a zombie apocalypse is put thru the gamut as they do what it takes to outsmart and survive the undead which greatly outnumber them. (spoiler alert) I will never look at a grocery store the same after reading Swarm!  The book was well edited and the story fast paced, and I look forward to starting the sequel right away.
4810515
Excellent series. Keep them coming! I am always looking for a new spin on zombie books and this definitely fits the bill.