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Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Trip by Tim Morgan

Synopsis
Meghan, Dave and Chris have planned the trip of a lifetime: they’re going to spend the summer after their senior year of high school on a bicycle trip across America. As they plan their trip, a previously unidentified flu virus is detected in Mumbai, India and begins a relentless march across the globe. 

As the three teens set out on their journey, details begin to emerge about the virus, which is not a simple flu virus… this virus turns its victims into flesh-eating zombies. And it’s arrived on our doorstep. 

The three make a desperate bid to get home by riding through infected territory. Can they survive THE TRIP?


Publisher: Self Published
Print Length: 232 pages

Review
This review can also be found on The Bookie Monster. For more great book reviews, visit their site!
I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars on TBM and Amazon.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinion of this book or the content of this review. 
I don't think of this as a zombie story. I think of this as a story about growing up set against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse. --Tim Morgan, Author of  The Trip
As the author states above, this wasn't written to be a zombie story. If it were meant to be just a zombie story, I would have given it three stars instead of four. In terms of zombie action, The Trip was decent. I won't spend time discussing the zombie aspect of the story, however, since-- once again-- it's not really about the zombies.

So, now that I've clarified that this is not a zombie story, I will explain why this book gets four stars. Mainly, I enjoyed the background story of the three main characters in The Trip. The story hops back and forth from the present (during the zombie apocalypse) to a few months prior. These flashbacks are what really make the story good. I found myself looking forward to the flashback chapters because I became very interested in what had been going on prior to the onset of the apocalypse.

Even though I've been out of high school for more years than I care to mention, I could relate to the typical high school issues the three main characters have to deal with.  Tim Morgan presents the process of  becoming independent adults, the consequences of choices, and of looking forward to the future and weaves it all into a great story of friendship, courage, and survival. The author handles the coming-of-age issues in The Trip realistically and with thoughtfulness. Meghan, Dave, and Chris could be anyone's friends, sister, brothers, or children.

I recommend this book to anyone who doesn't normally read zombie fiction since it has a lot to offer outside of the zombie experience. For fans of zombie fiction, I recommend reading this if you are looking for something just a little different from most books in the genre.

I hope to see more from this author!

Purchase The Trip

About the Author
A self-professed geek with an artistic streak, Tim Morgan lives in southern New Hampshire with his wife and two daughters. By day he's a mild-mannered web developer. By night (and on weekends) he's a writer/filmmaker.

Tim Morgan's Website
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Blog: Musings of a Lonely Mind