Mini Reviews-Zombies Don't Cry by Rusty Fischer and Hellbent by Anthony McGowan

Title: Zombies Don’t Cry

 Author:  Rusty Fischer

Series:  Living Dead Love Story #1

Published:  1 October 2012 by Electric Monkey

Source: won from US publisher

Review:  Maddy Swift is Normal. Trying to pass food class, sneaking in and out, and going out to dances. This stops when she is struck by lightning. Which makes her a zombie. Under the wing of some fellow zombies, Chloe and Dane, Maddy starts to adjust to life as a one of the undead. Even when you take into the fact that Zerkers, crazy ones past civilised zombie-ism, are running round her high school.

I’d heard of Rusty and his books ages ago and so was happy to see he got a deal in the UK.

These zombies are very original. I like the fact that there’s more to them than eating brains, but that is a big part of them. I also like the use of the lightning-not the bolt on the creators table, more a bolt while out doing normal things, and the subversion of the trope is good.

The main characters, Maddy, Chloe and Dane, are all very likable and make a great friendship group. Love interest Stamp is cute, but he doesn’t really do much. I like the fact that Maddie was quite active and did lots of things despite just being throne into this new world with its bureaucracy and rules. Chloe is my favourite  character because she just wins in terms of coolness.

The writing is chatty, open and fun. I love the chapter titles. All the things that happen to Maddy after she becomes undead are unpredictable and crazy. The climax at the school was well done. I liked the circular structure-the way it comes back to the guy in the blue suit…

Overall:   Strength 3 tea to a fun zombie romance.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |

Title:  Hellbent

 Author:  Anthony McGowan

Series:  N/A

Published:  2005

Source: library

Review:  Conor ONeil dies and goes to hell. There he finds that hell is a mix of hells for different people. His hell, with him being a teenage boy into all the stereotypical teenage boy things, is to be surrounded in a room with classical music and heavy books. Hacking into a computer then leads Conor to find there’s someone whose hell is his heaven. with his pet dog who comes along as part of a new initiative, and Clarence, the demon who was assigned to oversee his eternal punishment, he sets out to find that someone.

I picked this up in a shop and started reading it. It wasn’t a great start, but the concept was very interesting.

It’s definitely for people who find humour in stereotypical teenage boys’ views of sex, excrement and such.  A lot of Conor’s narration revolves around it, which is fair enough, considering where they are, but sometimes it gets in the way a bit.

It’s a very chatty book. Conor is talking directly to you, telling you all about his life, and his death.

The characters were all exaggerated for comic effect. I particularly liked the Café Valhalla, where Vikings are put in as waiters and forced to form a string quartet. Conor isn’t the most engaging character for me, but some may like him more than me.  

Overall:  Strength 3 to a very different interpretation of Hell that may be enjoyed more by people with different senses of humour.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Dante's Journey by JC Marino

Title: Dante’s Journey

 Author: JC Marino

Series:  N/A

Published:  22 February 2010

Length:368 pages

Warnings: hell, violence

Source: Library

Summary :A flash of light and Detective Joe Dante steps through. No longer on the cobblestone streets of 1961 Boston, Joe finds himself in a horrifying new world-Hell itself.
Joe was in hot pursuit of his family’s killer, drug lord Filippo Argenti when both were killed, and he isn’t about to let a little thing like death slow him down.
So with a healthy dose of New England stubbornness and the help of a mysterious guide, Virgil DiMini, Joe must evade angry demons, and search ever lower through the rings of the original Dante’s Inferno in hopes of finding justice for his wife and children.
However Joe will soon discover that behind every sin lies a secret and each secret revealed could land Joe in an eternity of hot water...VERY hot.

Review: DI Joe Dante died and went to Hell. He meets Virgil, his guide, and descends through each of the nine circles in order to find the man who killed his family. There isn't that much more to it really.

The majority of it is a description of the circle itself, who is in it, Dante interacting with someone in that circle, then moving on, normally being pursued by some demon. The other part is flashbacks to Dante's life, his wife Bea, his brother Mickey,  his two daughters, Argenti the drug dealer, and other people involved in Joe's life that ended him up in Hell.

I really like the concept-another updated classic, this one being The Divine Comedy, by Dante(the one who lived a long time ago). I've not read the original, only heard of it, and I can't tell you how much of it is true to the original. Judging by the amount of detail in the descriptions, I'm guessing it's fairly accurate. I also like the fact that it is still A Virgil guiding A Dante(I know that much about the Divine Comedy at least).

At some points it gets a little confusing-another Virgil comes along, and tells Dante something rather interesting about Virgil number 1.

I liked Dante a bit. He wasn't the most interesting of characters, or the easiest to connect with. It was written entirely from his perspective which lets us kind of connect with him, but it also shows his personality as being fairly blunt, slightly emotional and quite straight to the point-suiting his character as a policeman but a little boring and not very engaging. The character development was very good, especially when if realised his sin that ended him in Hell, but also throughout he kept moving on.   

I also like the way the back story was only revealed little by little. It kept me interested, and always seemed to cut off just when you wanted to know more. I also like the way that lots of random little things throughout got neatly tied up at various parts during the book.

Overall:  Strength 3 to a book that is more than just a trip through hell.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |

Book Review- Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L Howard

Title: Johannes Cabal the Necromancer

 Author: Jonathan L Howard

Series:  Johannes Cabal #1

Published:  7 July 2009

Length:304 pages

Warnings: profanity, violence, the devil, hell, vampires

Source: Library

Other info: There are many more in this series.

Summary : A charmingly gothic, fiendishly funny Faustian tale about a brilliant scientist who makes a deal with the Devil, twice.
Johannes Cabal sold his soul a year ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. Now he wants it back. Amused and slightly bored. Satan proposes a little wager: Johannes has to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever. This time for real. Accepting the bargain, Johannes is given one calendar year and  a travelling carnival to complete his task. With little time to waste, Johannes raises a motley crew from the dead and enlists his brother Horst, a charismatic vampire, to help him run his nefarious sideshow, resulting in mayhem at every term.

Review: Johannes Cabal sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the secrets of necromancy. A little later, he decides he wants his soul back. So he goes to Hell and asks. Satan tells him that if he can get 100 people to sign their souls over to him, Cabal gets his soul back. Cabal sets up a travelling carnival, gets the help of his older vampire brother Horst, conjures up some things as attractions and staff, and sets out/

The book is basically all of that happening. I like the idea behind it. It’s not often we see people who have entered into a Faustian contract, decide they want out, skip the queues and the paperwork to get into hell, and makes a bet with the devil. A fun and original concept.

I like the little sidestories that document what happens at each stop on the way. It doesn’t document the whole year, as that would take too long, but it gives you a very good idea of what happens at every stage.

I liked the characters. I think Horst Cabal was my favourite because of the way he handled his brother and the fact that said brother is trying to get 100 people to sign forms agreeing to eternal damnation. They were all well characterised and easy to distinguish. However, there were a few characters that appeared for about three pages, then were never heard of again. All right, these three pages described who they were and how they died, but still it would have been nice if they’d have been cleverly worked in somewhere along the line.

The humour in this seemed to come and go. It had a extremely funny opening, where Cabal summons a demon and has an arguement with it about how he should have correctly summoned it, with Cabal saying that the demon was there now and therefore it didn’t matter, but then the humour died down, came back, and went and came back throughout. The writing was third person, kept the book going, but kept you slightly distanced from the characters.

With the ending there was, I’m not entirely sure how a sequel could be produced. However, there’s a whole series, and I’ll read book two some day.

Overall:  strength 3 tea to an original and somewhat funny book.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |