Gone Feral by Ted Nulty

Synopsis
A world wide chemical attack has left society in ruins. The chemicals used not only affect humans, but all mammals. The cannibalistic rage brought on by the toxin soon destroys almost everything man has built. 

In San Diego a group of survivors struggle to survive and rebuild. 

In Bemidji, Minnesota another group fights their way through ground zero, and then begins to fight back...with the help of a 12 year old boy. 

In Atlanta the CDC has been virtually destroyed, but a female Doctor is determined to find the answers everyone is looking for.

As these groups come together to deal with the catastrophe, they have to find a way to prevent the next attack, which will mean the end of them all.

Publisher: Self Published (July 25, 2014)
Print Length: 310 pages

Review
I obtained a copy of this book via Kindle Unlimited
I give Gone Feral 4 stars (I really like it)

Ted Nulty's Gone Feral is a unique take on zombies. First of all, I've never read a book in this genre where animals are infected and respond the same way people do to whatever agent turns them into cannibalistic beasts. I use the word "zombies" for lack of a better word, but his zombies aren't zombies in the traditional sense. They are scarier in many ways. I am not going to say why. I don't like spoilers.  

The characters in Gone Feral are a lot of fun. They're the kind of people I'd like to be friends with... especially since they are so well-prepared for any sort of catastrophe. There are a lot of characters, so it's important to keep up with them, but it's worth it. 

Ted Nulty seems to have a sense of humor, based on the dialogue and descriptions in the story. This makes the book even more fun to read. The humor comes across especially well with his main character, Mark.

My favorite character comes a little later in the story. He is a preteen feral killing machine (rhyme not intended there). Barry loses his whole family and ends up on his own for a while but becomes an unlikely hero. Mr. Nulty has just published his second book in the Gone Feral series called Barry's Walk. I'm looking forward to reading more about this character. 

There is a very strong militaristic theme in Gone Feral, which I like. For me, the drawback in this case is the amount of military-style dialogue found in the book. It was difficult for me to follow certain scenes because I had no idea what the characters were talking about. For readers with a military background, I'm sure this won't be an issue at all. I do hope the dialogue is more mainstream in Barry's Walk.

I am also going to point out that there are quite a few punctuation errors and capitalization issues in the book. This doesn't affect the rating I gave the book. I point it out with the hope Mr. Nulty will fix these issues because it is a great book and it deserves to look as professionally "polished" as the story is.

Buy Gone Feral from Amazon.


About the Author

Ted Nulty graduated from Coronado high school before attending Northern Arizona University on a "Seven year, drink beer" graduation program. Having never received a grade above a 'C' in English in high school, his life was changed when his first year English professor got him into creative writing and actually gave him an 'A'. After serving in the United States Marine Corps, he began a second career in Law Enforcement and then Private security. Having an entrepreneurial streak, Ted has invented several items and started several moderately successful businesses. A lifelong horror and zombie fan, he began writing Gone Feral in 2013. Discovering that the best cure for writers block is to have another book in the works to distract him. He began and completed his second book The Locker shortly thereafter. 

Follow Ted Nulty on Facebook.

Girl Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie by C.A. Verstraete

Synopsis Life can suck when you're sixteen. It can suck even worse when you're not- quite- dead.  Sixteen-year-old Rebecca Herrera Hayes faces every teenager's biggest nightmares: bad skin, bad hair, and worse . . . turning into one of the living dead.

Becca's life changes forever when her cousin Spence comes back to their small Wisconsin town carrying a deadly secret—he's becoming a zombie, a fate he shares with her through an accidental scratch.

The Z infection, however, has mutated, affecting younger persons like her, or those treated early enough, differently. Now she must cope with weird physical changes and habits no girl wants to be noticed for. Then she meets Gabe, a good-looking part-Z like her, and fears falling for him. After all, how can he, who shows hardly any Z symptoms, be interested in someone like her?

But time is running out... Becca needs his help as she and her cousin Carm search for their missing mothers and fight off hungry Zs.

Most of all, she needs to find something, anything, to stop this deadly transformation before it is forever too late...

Publisher: Intrigue Publishing (July 29, 2013)
Print Length: 206 pages
Young Adult Fiction 

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. 

C. A. Verstraete's novel, Girl Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie, is the first zombie book I've read that fits into the "Young Adult" category. Prior to this, I often wondered how an author would handle the zombie fiction genre when written for a younger audience. Although I have nothing to compare it to, I appreciate the approach taken by Verstraete.

In Girl Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie, Verstraete tells a scary tale without being overly gory or using language that is inappropriate for the audience. The issues that Becca, the main character,  faces are realistic for someone who is sixteen-- realistic except for the whole zombie thing, that is. Her biggest concerns include school, being accepted by her peers, clothes, friendship, and boys. These become somewhat minimized, however, when she finds herself infected with a virus that turns people into zombies.

For the most part, the values represented by the main characters are admirable. Becca and her cousin, Carm, are not only family, they are best friends whose relationship gets tested beyond the ordinary. Through it all, they remain fiercely loyal to each other. Family is also very important to these girls. They treat their aunt and moms respectfully, which is a refreshing change compared to much of what is portrayed on television and in other stories.  The consequences of hooking up with the wrong friends and teenage pregnancy are addressed briefly and with sensitivity. As I read Girl Z, I asked myself if I would be okay with my teenager reading it. My conclusion: if I had a high school age child, this book would be appropriate for him/her.

There are humorous parts of the book when the main character tries not to take herself or her situation too seriously. The characters are endearing and fun. For a zombie story, it is quite positive and light-hearted. The book did not end the way I expected it to, making the story even more enjoyable.

The last quarter of the book is where the action picks up. Prior to that, a lot of the story is spent discussing clothes, starting school, and makeup. I wouldn't have minded some of that since those are important parts of most girls' lives.  There was just a bit too much of it for me, especially considering the world was supposed to be going downhill quickly.

The story seemed to have a few inconsistencies in the first three quarters of the book, as well. For example, the television news footage showed hordes of zombies wandering the streets and being eliminated by the military, yet the main characters were able to take cabs, start school, and pretty much be out in public without seeing any of the undead in person.   In addition, the girls' moms were unable to get home due to the zombie population. I found myself wondering why they didn't just call a cab. I'm not exactly a zombie purist, but these inconsistencies bothered me, which is why I give the book four stars instead of five.

I recommend this fun book to readers who are in their early to late teenage years.

If you found my review of this book helpful and decide to purchase it, I'd appreciate it if you would use the link above. Amazon throws a few pennies my way when purchased through my blog. Thank you! 

                          

About the Author (in her own words)

As the family "bookworm," I think my writing desire was a natural progression. I always read and still do, enjoying books by Barbara Taylor Bradford, Debbie Macomber, Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, and many others. 

My career has mostly been in newspapers and magazines, although fiction writing always called to me. Discovering online writing groups inspired me to get more involved in short fiction. 

 A favorite pastime, building dollhouses and miniature rooms, has served as inspiration for nonfiction stories, my nonfiction book, In Miniature Style II, a Christmas eBook and influenced my kid's mystery, Searching For a Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery. Visit my Miniatures gallery to see photos of some of my miniature projects. Follow C.A. Verstraete on Facebook and Twitter Website: Site of Christine A. Verstraete

Kronos Duet by A.H. Richards

Synopsis

Psychic Gareth Pugh and daughter Adrianna leap back in time through the minds of others; dead others. Gareth's mission, to reach the beginning of earth time, and confront Earth's God. He's just not too good at getting there. Dead people can be unpredictable. Even dangerous. Adrianna flies with him down the ages, determined to fix their dysfunctional relationship, and to cure herself of her deepest fears. 

Brutal Dr. Buckleigh picks up the scent, missioned by the elitist Foundation to eliminate Pugh and Adrianna, and any evidence of God and time travel. His flunky Cabot Greenaway gladly takes up the hunt, sadistically lustful to own Adrianna, in a space/time of his choosing... 

... But nobody factored in Rasputin, ancient Welsh magic, Stonehenge or Black Holes. 

Publisher: Self Published
Print Length: 275 pages

Review
I purchases this book via Amazon Unlimited
I gave Kronos Duet 4 Stars on Amazon

I'm going to say right up front that it was difficult for me to come up with a rating for this one. There were large chunks of the story that completely lost me, but the parts where I wasn't lost were terrific. 

Kronos Duet's beginning was very well done and kept me intrigued.  I really liked where A.H. Richards was taking the story. Then somewhere around the middle, the story started going in a few different directions, and I found it a little difficult to follow. It became unclear what the main character's purpose was in traveling through time.  First, I thought Gareth Pugh was trying to find a way to connect with his true love who died many years before.  Then, it seemed he was looking to meet up with God. 

About three-quarters of the way through, the story got even more convoluted. I felt like I was reading a different book than the one I started.  Up until that point, I was enjoying Richards' style of writing.  He is gifted in how he weaves words and ideas together to create descriptive scenes and interesting characters.  With that said, I think the reason I got so lost during this part of the book is because of paragraphs like this one:

They stood on a high hill at night.  A camel's hump, at the foot of which flowed the dark tan, moon-glowing fields of grain.  Or were they people?  They heard a sound of rushing, as of a million tongues, or of wind through grain.  There was no time to distinguish if one, or both, existed below; for above them, out of a black that glittered like jet, there came masses of flying stars, surf-waves of stars of different colors advancing silently and at light speed, like fireworks exploding, spitting fiery trails.  They kept on, rising out of infinite distance; something profound, something eternally desirable dwelled in the stars.  Not in the dancers, but in the dance; making all bliss. - Location 4050 in Kindle format

Beautiful?  Undeniably.  Confusing?  To me, yes.  

Now, I do not want anyone to think I do not like Kronos Duet.  As a whole, I do like the book.  It started out great, got a little confusing in the middle, lost me about three-quarters of the way through, and captured me again towards the end. 

Here are the positives about the book and why I definitely think it's worth a read for those who enjoy science fiction, fantasy, and stories of time travel:

1. The characters are well-developed; the good guys are good and the bad guys are really, really bad.
2. There are many interesting concepts presented in the story, making it an intellectual read.
3. As mentioned above, the style of writing is quite beautiful... almost poetic.
4. The references to history and historical events are well-done; if you like history, you will enjoy that aspect of the book.
5. There are many philosophical ideas placed in the story, so if you enjoy that sort of thing, you will most likely enjoy Kronos Duet.

If you found my review of this book helpful and decide to purchase it, I'd appreciate it if you would use the link above. Amazon throws a few pennies my way when purchased through my blog. Thank you! 

About the Author

Born in Wales, Aldous Richards has traveled much of the world, living in the U.S., Europe, England, Wales and Japan. Among jobs too numerous to list, he has taught classical guitar, dug huge ditches, gone comatose in factories, taught undergraduate English, busked in Tokyo subways, and harvested fruit in British Columbia. He now lives in a sane enclave called Wortley Village, where he writes full-time.

Says Richards, "I am in love with a hybrid historical/fantasy Joan of Arc: It has never done me any good. I continue, obstinately, to write and publish fiction, essays, short stories, and literary criticism, with no immediately evident signs of mental injury."
Blog: lit 57- Junk DNA Loves You
Follow A.H. Richards on Facebook and Twitter 
A.H. Richards' About Me page

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

Follow Tim Morgan on Facebook and Twitter

Blog: Musings of a Lonely Mind