Title: Dearly Departed
Author: Lia Habel
Series: Gone with the Respiration #1
Published: 29 September 2011 by Doubleday
Length: 451 pages
Warnings: zombies,
violence, romance 12+
Source: Bought
Other info: Book two, Dearly Beloved should be out some
day.
Summary : Love
conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the
living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady
find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie? In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly
imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and
macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.
Review: Nora
Dearly is your typical New-Victorian young lady. Having finished her year of
mourning for her father, she is finally allowed to go out and do things. Party.
Be social. Wear colour. But maybe not
find out what her father did for a living. Which leads her into a pack of
zombies. Finding herself abducted, she ends up at a military base full of
undead. Where there may or may not be a war breaking out. And she may or may
not be falling in love with Bram. A zombie.
I heard about this one ages ago. And thought:zombies plus
Victorians plus technology equals win. I wasn't so sure about the romancy side
(it doesn't always work out, especially if one's falling apart), but I was
definitely willing to see how it would go.
It actually begins with Bram being trapped underground with
a dying friend. Nice action at the start. Then it cuts to Nora's normal life,
giving us the chance for some world building, which comes as a block of text
about what happened since mid-twentyfirst century to the setting of the book.
It provides a nice explanation of how Victorian aesthetics are back in fashion
so far in the future (even if you do wonder why), and what's happened in the
meantime. Great future world history from Lia.
Nora was a strong character, but not totally amazing. It was
realistic how she kept to her ideas ie protesting against wearing knee length
skirts, but it was a bit annoying. Bram
was funny. Especially his initial
exchanges with Nora. He doesn't seem to develop very much though. My
favourite character is either Pamela or Chas. Both are girls with a lot more to
them than you think, with Chas rotting, and Pamela being another girl from high
society. Chas’s dialogue with her boyfriend are so so good.
Pacing, it gets started quite quickly, but then some things
started dragging a bit. The writing wasn’t of quite a high standard as I’d
hoped. It was nice and it kept the story moving on really well, and it kept it
flowing, but it didn’t make me laugh or keep me as enchanted as the summary
did. The multiple POV was a bit over the top-I think we only needed Nora, Bram
and Pam’s views on everything.
The zombies in this are amazing! Fighting zombies! Not just
rotting and going after people’s brains (I like those kinds. But something
different. And no love triangle. YAY!!!
Overall: Great premise, a little lacking sometimes, but still a good read.
Strength 4 tea.
I enjoy zombie books, and I like when main characters are named Nora since that's my name (shallow though that is), so I'll probably really go for this one. Great review!
ReplyDeleteYay - glad you liked this one. I can't wait to read Dearly, Beloved.
ReplyDelete