Chuckles Mini Review Catchup

I review everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! So lets catch up with some reviews from July.

1) Griffin Smith-Annihilation
This is not for the squeamish or for those who may have weak stomachs. If you're offended by vulgar and crude language or if the thought of a desperate ragtag group of cataclysmic survivors doing what's necessary to stay alive in an apocalyptic world brings any semblance of bile to the back of your throat. After the release of "Annihilation", a synthetic designer drug that was marketed as a perfectly legal high, turned its unsuspecting users into "feeders." ( It causes imminent death and then re-animation into a zombie like state.) This is the first in a series of episodes that follows the adventures of Mason Briggs, and a group of survivors that he meets and loses along the way.

Annihilation was a legal high and by the time it was banned, the drug chemistry was being constantly changed by illegal 'chemists'. The users bodies began to morph, causing sickness, death and reanimation as zombies. This story follows military man Mason as he tries to stay a step ahead of the zombies. I disn't complete the book even though it was short as I couldn't stand the characters. You know you're in trouble in a zombie book when you want them all to be eaten.

To be honest the language didn't bother me in the book or I never noticed it amongst the other issues. For a military man, Mason has the brains of jello and his plan to get them safely from one location to the other was crazy. The fact that so many zombies were able to sneak up on him on the beach showed that he wasn't exactly switched on in the brain department. The rest of the MCs we meet are dreadful steriotypes. Pualani the spoiled bitch with the pet dog who whines more than it does and is dumb enough to take it for a morning walk on the beach in the middle of the apocalypse. Barry is the Irish drunk who can only think of holing up in the pub so he can drink all the Guiness. Brody is a dumb idiot. I can't say I liked anything about this short novella and I won't read any more in the series.

Read July 2020
DNF 2 stars.

2) Eli Constant-Red Eye
When a red-eye flight from London to Los Angeles brings two strangers together, they have no idea that it’s the end of the bloody world! Rose, a British runaway, is ready for the adventure of a lifetime. Her hopes are high, her funds are low, and nothing is going to rain on her parade. Except maybe the apocalypse! Sam is an American ballerina on her way home from a hellish vacation. She’s tired of culture, tired of traveling, and seriously tired of men. She can’t wait to get home. That is until everyone turns into flesh-eating zombies! Neither woman expects their exhausting overnight flight to devolve into bloody carnage of terror and mayhem. But when you’re over 30,000 feet in the air and there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide…what else can you do but team up with as many survivors as possible and try to stay alive?

I have read books by both of these authors so I was looking forward to this joint work. On the plus side, I liked the way the drama unfolded in the air with limited options on how to survive the immediate crisis. The zombies were well written, there was tension and some gore and of course enough death to satisfy the zombie fan. As the plane approaches LAX, it is clear that there is trouble on the ground as well as in the air but the women are desperate to give themselves a chance by getting off the flight in one living piece. I'm not a great fan of joint narrator MCs but it worked in this case for setting the scene.

My problem was that I hated Rose, one of the two narrators. She was a dumb female who for example is clueless about ears popping on a plane. OK she might never have flown but surely she'd have heard of that. Instead Rose is running away from the future her family have planned out for her and all she can think about is how amazing that big planes have toilets. She then lets the other passengers order her around and send her to investigate the blood in first class. Seriously Rose is pathetic. But what always rubs me up the wrong way is British steriotypes. We have a mild climate in the UK so the sun isn't as hot, less humidity, the snow isn't as deep, the storms less severe and the rain keeps everything green but it doesn't bloody rain all the time. I wish authors would stop putting the UK down in books as it makes for a bad impression. Who wants to visit if they think it never stops raining? There is also a ton of fat shaming in Rose's thoughts as if everyone here is fat, being fat is a British problem, and that fat people are disgusting. It was really infuriating and insulting. I was already switched off from the book by the time it got halfway and I won't be reading on. I hope Rose gets eaten.

Read July 2020
DNF 2 stars.

3) TW Gallier-The Horde Rises
Kyle is awakened out of an amazing dream by his friends, Ralph and Olivia. They are all frantic, saying it's the end of the world. He thinks the dumb computer geeks are crazy and he just wants to go back to sleep, but then they turn on the TV news and his world changes. Zombies are running amok. There was a full-scale nuclear exchange overnight, followed up with a biological weapon attack. He just wants to get home to his family. The three of them are convinced the skills they learned playing the video game Zombie Hunter will serve them well. It quickly proves nothing like the game, and there are a lot of zombies between them and home. Kyle fights his way through the undead and other survivors, with his friends by his side. Their desire is to get back to their small home town before the zombies get their families. And then the next wave of attacks hit and the lights go out. 

Our three MC's are big fans of the zombie computer game they always play so when they find themselves in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, they are sure they know what to do. The apocalypse began with gas warheads from the Middle East striking the US and everyone who breathes in the fumes turns zombie. If it is such an airborne virus and there are zombies all over their town, I found myself wondering how our MC's seem to be fine when all around them is chaos. 

Surprise I hated all three of these characters. You've discovered the apocalypse has begun, you need to get to somewhere safe...but the three characters found time to leer at each others bodies as they got dressed. Naturally, they were all dopeheads as well which really annoys me. For so called zombie experts they had no clue, seemingly unaware that making as little noise as possible keeps you safer, that having a coherant plan before you go charging off is a good thing, that silent weapons are as important as guns, conserving your ammo is good, and knowing where you are going to run to is essential. Instead they bicker, change the plan every few minutes ie 'north is colder so zombies might freeze ah but south is better as we'll get too cold without warm clothes and camping gear', lets find our families but oh wait why not stop in this other town and see if they'll give us all the supplues and ammo we need! Jeez. These people were idiots and seemed to think they WERE in the middle of a game. I didn't get halfway through before I had enough of these muppets.

Read July 2020
DNF 2 stars.

4) Charlie Dalton-Virtual Insanity
Four friends celebrate a stag weekend at Virtual Insanity, a cutting-edge virtual reality company. Built on a disused military research facility, the futuristic headsets scan existing landscapes and re-imagines them with post-apocalyptic environments. They battle zombies, overcome obstacles, and fight to stay alive. But when one member of the team falls off the grid, he uncovers a secret even the game’s designers aren’t aware of.
 
Pat, Jack, Ron and Georgie are having a different kind of stag event for Ron, who is marrying soon. Instead of a night on the town, they are trying out a new virtual reality zombie event. The technology is advanced and they are all impressed by what they are shown when they arrive. Everything through the headsets look real-the landscapes, the weapons and the zombies. The men can't wait to get started on the game and their first zombie encounters leave them tired and excited by the realism. Pat and Ron decide to create a diversion and draw the zombies away to let Jack and Georgie enter the building and find the 'cure' in the lab that means they win the game. This is when things go a little wrong.

I can't say anything else without spoiling the book but I enjoyed this short zombie novella. I'm not a tech person but I actually found the descriptions of the virtual reality technology interesting, and it sounds like the kind of thing that lots of people would enjoy playing. There was realism in Georgie struggling to stop wasting bullets as he tried to shoot the zombies rather than everyone being instantly accurate. I liked the overall set up of the story and the satisfying ending. Yes I was able to predict the couple of twists in the plot but that never stopped it being an enjoyable read. This was my first Charlie Dalton read and I look forward to reading more by the author.

Read August 1st
3.5 stars. 

5) Brian Moreland-The Girl From The Blood Coven
Who—or what—killed them all? In this short story prelude to The Witching House, the year is 1972. Sheriff Travis Keagan is enjoying a beer at the local roadhouse when a blood-soaked girl enters the bar. Terrified and trembling, Abigail Blackwood claims her entire family was massacred at the nearby hippy commune in the woods. But when Sheriff Keagan and his deputies investigate the Blevins House, they discover there’s more to Abigail’s story than she’s told them. Much more.

This was a really short prequel so I can't say anything much about the plot, other than I really enjoyed reading it. We get to know the Sheriff quite well considering the book is so short and I liked him straight away. I also had sympathy that after a long day, he just wants a quiet beer and a good sleep when all hell breaks loose and the blood covered girl stumbles into the bar. Travis and his deputies have to go out to the hippy commune that is rumoured to be full of witches and what he discovers there is horrific. That's all I can say about the plot!

I can say that this was the first offering I've tried from the author and it does make me want to read the follow up novel The Witching House, as well as trying other work by him. I found the writing style to be good and it flowed nicely, not over descriptive. He built up the tension nicely as we waited to see what was going on in the commune and this little story really packed a punch. I look forward to reading more by the author.

Read July 2020
4 stars.