Unfed by Kirsty McKay

Review by Gerti

This is the second book in the series of zombie novels that Kirsty McKay has penned. This one is called “Unfed”, and the original book is “Undead”, or in my case, unread, but I have definitely put it on my reading list due to the quality of this book.

While the review blurb on the frontcover reads that “Unfed” is “fast, furious, freaky, (and) funny…” I would have to go with funny, although not LOL hilarious. The protagonist of the book is a teen-aged girl named Roberta, aka Bobby, and her mother is one of the scientists who set the zombie virus upon the UK. Right now, Scotland has been quarantined, and Bobby has been saved from a school bus crash caused by the undead. What she doesn’t realize at first is that although she is at a hospital, it is underground, and run by Xanthro, the company that “built” the virus. Oh yeah, and now they’ve improved on it, so that the zomb’s one runs across are now able to learn, which is pretty terrifying!

Bobby meets some other survivors of the crash at the hospital, including golden girl Alice, and white-mohawked intellectual Pete. Another kid who claims to have survived the bus crash is Russ, but Bobby has her questions about him, since she doesn’t remember him from before the accident. Still, he’s pulling his weight during the group’s attempt to get out of Dodge, and out of danger. The Xanthro pharmaceutical goons attempt to recapture them, and they try to outrun them, despite the ever-present danger of zombie adults, kids and even barnyard animals!

Bobby is trying to find her mom and her best friend, Smitty. Apparently he has the antidote inside of him, and she thinks she is a carrier of the disease, and wants to be cured. Her cell phone holds the answer to the location of both people, and some clever thinking enables the group to go to the Elvenmouth Lighthouse to signal for rescue. The Xanthro baddies make it there, too, and eventually they discover the boat where Bobby’s mom has been hiding. I won’t tell you who is saved (and who is the mole for Xanthro within the group), but suffice it to say that once you start reading, you will want to finish this book. It is fun, and all the British sayings just add to its charm.

“Unfed” made me want to read McKay’s first book in the series, and to eagerly await her third book, since the ending of “Unfed” is a cliffhanger which sets the reader up for more adventures with Bobby and her zombie-killing cohorts. Bravo to McKay for infusing a youthful spirit into a genre that is often deathly serious. 

The Walking Dead Invasion by Jay Bonansinga

I have already read several of the Walking Dead series of books, written by Jay Bonansinga, which have little in common with the television series seen on AMC network. This book, “The Walking Dead Invasion” deals, for example, with a villain not seen on the show (yet?) – a crazed preacher named Jeremiah. His nemesis here is Lilly Caul, the woman who takes over Woodbury after “The Governor” – another villain who was used on TV – is dead and gone.

I really like Lilly, and I like the storyline where the survivors of Woodbury have had to go underground, using the old “underground railroad” tunnels between towns, to avoid the hoard of zombies on the streets above them. I also like Jeremiah as a villain, since he has that nasty, “Governor” edge. He is able to charm people with his slick and handsome preacher persona, but deep down, he is one troubled pup. He often sees his father, who didn’t treat him very well, in visions, and in one of those, he decides that the answer to the plague is to turn the undead into a controllable army. Like the insatiable hatred the Governor felt for Rick Grimes, the hero of the television series, Jeremiah has it in for Lilly, and will do anything, even destroy his flock of survivors, in order to destroy her first.

The story begins when Jeremiah and some of his flunkies come upon an almost abandoned church. Some zombies are chained into the pews, and a lone human woman is holding down the fort there. She tells them a friend of hers had run away to join a mobile group of survivors, and Jeremiah decides that’s just the place he wants to be. Fortuitously they find the group, which consists of a caravan of various vehicles and a number of families. The group is being led by a Catholic priest, but using a trick the Governor would have used, Jeremiah leaves the Reverend’s RV door open and lets the zombies do their magic. Unfortunately, the priest is hardier than that, and Jeremiah has to shot him himself, taking charge of the caravan in the power vacuum that results.

Next he overpowers some nasty bikers, using them as bait to draw his zombie army. He finds out which tunnels Lilly and her friends are using, and makes his plans to kill them all. It culminates in a showdown, but if you’ve seen either the TV version of the Governor’s showdown with Rick’s group, or have read the books or comics, you’ll find this all very familiar territory. Another crazy baddie gets what’s coming to him.

Along the way, Bonansinga writes great characters, undead and living, although I did get tired of working my way through another yet description of a “squishy” demise of a zombie. I don’t know how many of these books Bonansinga and Kirkman plan to put together, but I do enjoy them as a whole, some more than others. This one – “Invasion” – falls in the middle. I love reading about Lilly, but Jeremiah just seems like a more religious Governor character. Still, I think it would be worth reading for true fans of the AMC series, or Kirkman’s comics.   

Descent by Jay Bonansinga

reviewed by Gerti

I love the television series “The Walking Dead” on AMC, but I don’t like reading graphic novels, so Jay Bonansinga’s book “Descent” is a wonderful way to check in on my favorite characters and settings, as well as see some great “what happens next” action about a place the television show left behind.

In “The Walking Dead” series, the town of Woodbury has been destroyed after a character named “The Governor” messed with and captured several members of Rick Grimes group. Rick is the protagonist of the TV series, and has gathered around him a group of like-minded individuals since the zombie apocalypse. But he is very protective of “his people,” and has to rescue them when they are captured, no matter the consequences. Lucky for Rick, his group is very skilled at extraction and weapon use, so the citizens of this small Georgia town are no match for him. The town’s defenses are breached, which is bad news as it allows zombies, an ever-present enemy in the story, to enter the town at will.

This book begins after the Governor has left Woodbury, and the town and its citizens left to their fates. A woman named Lilly Caul has become the de facto new leader. She is trying to run things differently than the Governor, but fate is against her. Zombies are no longer wandering around one by one, which makes them easy to destroy, but in something called a superherd, and one of those is headed straight for her town. Fortunately, a new family has arrived in the haven that is Woodbury, and one of its members will do any to save her children, even if it means sacrificing herself to do it. First crisis averted!

An even greater threat, however, comes from a young boy whom the Woodbury survivors saved from starvation outside its walls. He convinces the group that his church group is surrounded in a nearby town, and that they must save them. Thanks to the discovery of an underground network of tunnels, remnants from the Underground Railroad days in the South, the group is able to free the other humans, led by a charismatic preacher named Jeremiah. Over time, Lilly willingly hands the reins of power over to him so she can concentrate on her romantic needs, totally unaware that the religious group in fact has made a suicide pact and they are just waiting for the right time to take the townsfolk with them.

The book is a terrific read. I loved meeting the new characters, and Lilly is a great, if flawed, protagonist. I often wondered with the TV series why Rick’s band didn’t come back to Woodbury once their prison shelter was destroyed, but I am glad that some author realized the town was still viable as a haven from “the biters.” Bonansinga writes in a clear, yet exciting way, and I felt swept along with the action. His characters are also clearly drawn and different enough that I felt they were real people. Bravo to Bonansinga for creating a believable group of human survivors and putting them in dramatic new situations! Can’t wait to read more by this author.