asandwich

This novel is just a giant collection of clichés, basically.

For the first two thirds or so we're served up a very typical zombie survival story, with characters and situations borrowed from just about every other zombie-related movie, book and TV show you could probably think of - which isn't a crime in itself, per se, as this particular genre does tend to cannibalise itself (hurr hurr) rather heavily. However, the problem is that, despite the unfolding chaos of a society plunged into the terrifying throes of an undead apocalypse, there's never really much of a sense that the protagonists are under any particular threat at all; they just keep on moving from scene to scene, as they make their way towards the (assumed) safety of Red Hill. What's most frustrating about this is that it really isn't badly written - the parts that do work are actually very good (I really enjoyed a scene near the beginning in a hospital, for example) - just extremely derivative, entirely unoriginal and all just a bit... well, bland, really.

Also, there are far too many convenient 'fortunate coincidences' to be even remotely plausible. Yes, even in a book with zombies.

And then, in the last third of the story, McGuire suddenly turns the tone of the novel completely on its head in an attempt to cater to her established audience, and the apocalypse rather suddenly and jarringly becomes minor background noise to an even more tired set of romantic-fiction clichés, including 'insta-true love' (with extra cheese), and the ubiquitous, inescapable love triangle. By this point, I was just wishing that they'd all hurry up and get eaten.

Oh, and the ending? Awful. Seriously.