2 out of 5 stars
Despite descriptions, this is not a zombie novel.
Zombies don’t poop, feel pain or plan attacks for fuck’s sake.
These were diseased, insane, cannibals.
I dislike false advertising, especially when in the mood for zombie shenanigans.
Here is the entire plot line for you:
Kids are trying to survive this cannibal apocalypse in which all adults turned into rabid lunatics who think children are tasty treats.
A group of kids tries to survive going from one end of London to the other to reach the palace where supposedly it is safe.
One kid, Small Sam, is separated from the group in the very beginning and presumed dead. This is the only interesting character in my opinion. Every other character who may have been remotely endearing is killed off. You’re left with only one dimensional characters to follow other than Small Sam.
Small Sam is surviving the streets of London on his own in search of his friends. He is tiny, quick and smart. He gets into much more precarious situations than his friends, who are basically marching down one street for over half of the book.
Anytime it switched from Small Sam’s point of view to that of the larger group, I had to inwardly groan. Other than Sam there just wasn’t much depth to this novel. I know, I know, survival novels are not necessarily deep in general. True. But, if you get a survival novel with a good character that you can get behind and care about, it becomes much, much more. I’ve read such books. I adore such books.
I cannot resist pointing out that the dialogue also bothered me. It didn’t read very British. It came off as lingo from the deep south of the U.S.
Set in London, sounds like the deep south, ruffled my feathers the entire read.
I just could not get behind this book.
cupcakesandmachetes 