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Double Dead (Tomes of The Dead, #1)

Chuck Wendig

Start date: June 1, 2016

Finish date: June 30, 2016

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Apr 11, 2016 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror, sci-fi, 2016-shelf, dystopia-yes-pls

Serious fun stuff. I can't believe this is his first novel, and the first one I've read. It certainly isn't going to by my last. :) I love the concept. Vampire MC in a zombie wasteland. SO TOTALLY COOL.

And yes, there's a full-blown tribute to either the comic for The Walking Dead or the TV series. Soo many great scenes, all made with just enough difference to be all Wendig, but with a very classy evil humor that's all Wendig, too. :)

So I fell into this novel having a grand ole time and it never ...more

26 likes · Like · see review

Sep 24, 2015 Justine rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016-read

3.5 stars

Coburn had seen lots of bad shit. He'd been the engineer of most of it. He'd seen blood and horror aplenty and it didn't mean squat. To him, the human population of the world comprised nothing but meat-puppets and blood-bags: people to manipulate and motherfuckers to eat. And that was that and never would it be different. Or so he thought.

Coburn is a vampire who arises from a long period of dry out due to lack of blood to find that while he was incapacitated, the zombie apocalypse has 3.5 stars

Coburn had seen lots of bad shit. He'd been the engineer of most of it. He'd seen blood and horror aplenty and it didn't mean squat. To him, the human population of the world comprised nothing but meat-puppets and blood-bags: people to manipulate and motherfuckers to eat. And that was that and never would it be different. Or so he thought.

Coburn is a vampire who arises from a long period of dry out due to lack of blood to find that while he was incapacitated, the zombie apocalypse has come to pass. The apex predator who formerly used to live the high life and treated the world as his personal buffet suddenly finds that his food source is in much shorter supply. Faced with the challenge of having to actually hunt, Coburn sets out in search of uninfected humans amongst the zombies in this new wasteland. He meets up with a group of people, including a girl named Kayla, who propose that instead of making them his next next meal, he join them. They offer him a place with their group in exchange for his protection against the most dangerous part of the zombie apocalypse: other people.

Double Dead is Wendig's first novel, but you wouldn't know it. There is an ease in the writing that shows he was definitely pursuing his craft well before his first book was published. Zombie books are hard in some ways because they are such standard fare that you need to do something really interesting to make the story stand out. The twist here is obviously introducing the vampire into the equation, but the idea of looking at relationships under stress, with lots running and biting, still remains the same as it does in any zombie book. Kayla unlocks some key to Coburn's previously buried conscience so that he actually has some feeling that at first he can't quite identify towards these people. At the same time, Kayla and the rest of the group also navigate through their own feelings about striking a deal with a being who eats other people in order to live, but has the ability to make choices.

There is the usual gore, violence, and vicious characters without which a book like this just would not be complete, including cannibals and religious zealots. I would almost say this book sufferers from too many tropes, but at the same time, it doesn't take itself too seriously, which is really refreshing. While the zombies and the vampire on their own aren't particularly original, the genre mash up is, and it does that quite well. My only complaint really is that I felt the story was a bit weak towards the end and I would have liked a stronger finish, and that is where the book lost a bit in the rating from me. But if you enjoy zombie apocalypse books, this is a decent one, and better written than many. ...more

21 likes · Like · see review

Jun 27, 2016 Emma rated it really liked it

Shelves: post-apocalypse, zombies, vampires

4.5 stars. This was a fun read. This is a surprise to me as, although a fan of grimdark, there were some really gruesome description in here and there was so much swearing. But it worked. It more than worked...Wendig can write! Fast paced, exciting, an original take on the apocalypse.

16 likes · Like · see review

May 24, 2016 Amanda rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 stars

6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 09, 2016 Chris Haught rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: specfic-group-reads

4 likes · Like

Sep 10, 2018 Tyler marked it as to-read

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