Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines

by D.L. Snell

Zombies have devoured mankind. And the few survivors would be better off dead because a clan of vampires, bloodthirsty and vicious, have captured the remnants of humanity for livestock.

In an apartment building barricaded with wrecked cars, concrete rubble, and snarls of barbwire, the vampires breed lobotomized amputees. Ann, the secret blood slave of the maternity doctor, has evaded this fate, yet her sister Ellie has not. Though she longs to escape, Ann cannot abandon her sibling and unborn niece. But she may have to if she wants to survive.

The living dead have found a weak spot in the barricade and are quickly invading the building. Shade, the vampire monarch, defends her kingdom, while Frost, Shade's general, plans to migrate to an island where they can breed and hunt humans. In their path stands a legion of corpses, just now evolving into something far more lethal, something with tentacles---and that's just the beginning.

Genres: Horror, Zombies, Vampires, Fiction

243 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2007

About the author

D.L. Snell is a writer and freelance editor at Permuted Press. He edited Dr. Kim Paffenroth twice, John Dies at the End once, and provided a constructive critique to Joe McKinney on his next major novel after Dead City. He has also edited Permuted’s Undead series.

Reviews

[Matt D · Rating 1 out of 5]

Arguably one of the worst books I've ever read. It was like somebody took Dawn of the Dead, the terrible 3rd Resident Evil movie, and Underworld... jammed them together in a blender, and poured the liquefied remains between a book's covers.

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting from a novel about a post-apocalyptic world in which vampires control the remnants of humanity, while mindless zombies shuffle around waiting to destroy them both. It sounded cool in theory, very dark, brooding, and dystopian; in reality, however, it couldn't be anything further from these elements.

By and large, this book seems to be a violence-filled wet dream of the author, in which there is pointless sex every ten pages or so; these detailed romps of the vampires seem to be an excuse to try to describe a vagina and penetration is as many colorful, symbolic means as possible. While I am far from a prude, the sex in this book seems utterly out of place and without purpose; rather than add to a 'feel' or set a 'mood', it just winds up being distracting and, by and large, obnoxious. As far as I can tell, these sections are simply for mental masturbation with some fetish elements present; all of the women seem to have desirable breasts and a kink for walking around in leather and corsets.

There's also a strange amount of instances of characters urinating on themselves, that for the life of me I can't understand why it has to be included.

The main female lead is the definition of "Mary Sue", being absolutely amazing at everything. Can she leap from a tall building without problem? She sure can! Can she shoot a zombie in the head with a handgun from the top of a building? You bet'cha! Is she a sexual bombshell with a dark and brooding past? Ohhh yeaaah! She's not a real character, in my view; there's no honest depth, nothing to make her anything more than a two dimensional caricature with elements piled on to make her seem more amazing than she is, without any actual work to get her there.

The core elements of the book would make a wonderful story, but they are bogged down by terrible characters and distracting writing elements.

[Patrick D'Orazio · Rating 4 out of 5]

DL Snell has cooked up very creative and wild ride in his book, Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines. We are treated to some genre smashing horror with a mixture of zombies, vampires, and an almost alien entity that is turning the zombies into mutants with the ability not only to regenerate but to creatively embellish on human physical characteristics.
The humans in this story play a limited role, mostly as victims. Ann, our human main character, is a tormented prisoner of the vampires in their building fortress in the 'City of Roses' who is trying to survive and protect her sister and unborn niece. While she plays a role in this story, the real plot surrounds Shade, the leader of the Vampires, and Frost, her General. The entire story takes place over the course of a couple of nights-as the zombie/mutants close in on Haven, the last Vampire stronghold. There are betrayals and deceipt, along with plenty of action to keep things interesting the entire way.

I do appreciate the creative energy it took to not only create a new form of zombie hybrid but to also cross two forms of undead for the story, but I would be remiss if I didn't state that the story almost felt a little too slick and stylized. Vivid descriptions and hyperbole abound in this novel-there was virtually no place with out it. An Italian zombie gets its face minced into ground sausage...another gets his face kneaded into unrecognizable dough, daubing the brick with rotten tomato paste. The sun doesn't rise, instead: the clouds would part, and cherubs of sunlight would surpass the mountaintops, trumpeting golden horns. Warriors in platinum breastplates would descend in heat waves, hurling mercury lances and slashing through the darkness with fiery swords. The shadows would scream, spilling smoky entrails. Their bodies would burst into cinders and ash.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy highly descriptive verse and DL Snell creates some very interesting images in his work. Even the name of this work is pretty sleek. I can't say that it does not work here, because it does. Something about Vampires, which this story is essentially about (far more than humans or even the zombies that inhabit it), typically demands a more epic feel to things and this story delivers. It just was pretty heavy duty in this story and there were certain parts I had to re-read to make sure I got the authors meaning. I just haven't seen this volume of metaphors and similes in one story in a long time. Again, it works here, because this is truly a dark fantasy, a world apart from our own, with humans simply as food for all the evil creatures that thrive here.

Overall, this book has an almost epic feel to it. Disturbingly dark and inventive, we are taken to the grim extremes between one evil blacker than the next.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Not You're Everyday Vampire/Zombie Story, August 19, 2007

How can you ask for more? In ROSES you've got vampires. You've got zombies. And you've got the poor humans trying to survive. None of these fulfill their typical literary roles. The vampires are not angst ridden yuppies worrying about their last tryst. The zombies are not the typical Romero-esque automatons slowly moving toward their inevitable cranial explosion. The humans are not the hunters trying to corner either of these traditional threats and wipe them off the face of God's green earth. The vampires are beast-ridden monsters, the zombies almost an alien threat and the humans...well, they're food for everyone.

The novel is all a whole lot different, and that's what I appreciate about Snell's ROSES OF BLOOD ON BARBWIRE VINES.

The difference is not just how he treats these usual boogey-creatures and ourselves, but in the language he uses in presenting the story. As you might expect from the cover (a woman caught in mid-leap shooting into a crowd of "Puppets"), the book has a lot of action. Unlike a lot of stories like this, the language is rife with metaphor and imagery. That's not to say it's pretentious, because this book is anything but. However, I have not read anything like it for a good long time.

If there's anything I have to complain about, it's that I wanted to know more.

I can go into more things: the development of Shade, Frost and the rest of the vampires, the tension that mounts between the factions and explodes, the shear wrongness of the way these creatures treat things. I'm sure you've got better things to do, so go ahead and order a copy. It's great addition to any horror library.

[Alison · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible. I couldn't even finish it.

[Leah Andrews · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good. Poorly written fetish writing.

I was expecting a vampire/zombie apocalypse survival kind of story. It's a cringe-worthy combination of tropes with hyper-sexual vampires wearing cloaks, corsets, and leather, but the plot around the vampires, always-nude humans, and zombies is much less important than the sex scenes and the fairly extreme fetish representation (amputation, mutilation, so much urine, and more). This was pretty unexpected and in case it wasn't obvious, I didn't really like it.

Oh and there are Nazis.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very gruesome almost depraved book, the beginning had me wondering if I could continue, and I wouldn't want my mother reading this, nor some people knowing I have read this. However, it was a good book. The plotting was excellent, the two main female characters kicked ass, each in their own way. Writing was quite baroque at times, the author drawing a vivid image of guts and gore that at least twice made me giggle with the absurdity of words used to describe the violence, or the characters eyes, who often had very descriptive colors. Would have preferred a different ending but it did not spoil the book.

[Joe Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I devour everything zombie, I was very pleasantly surprised with this one. A fresh take on the zombie story, even though it did have vampires in it. Characters were well thought out, and it was a quick read. Give it a shot, you will not be disappointed.

[Jude Felton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An original twist on the zombie and vampire genres

[CJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

DID NOT FINISH

Really cool idea. Poorly executed. Writing style is OK and descriptions was good. the story, i can't explain why, just really sucked.

[ItzSmashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very slow pace made this one hard at times, but an interesting premise and some visceral gore got it to 3 stars. A vampire clan attempt to move to a new home during a zombie apocalypse and struggle with descension in the ranks.

[Izabela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this book. The idea of a post-apocalyptic world infested by zombies, run by vampires with humans for slaves has so many different angles Snell could have taken, but he decided not to take any of them. The story itself, in fact, is rather dull. The only thing that made this book worth reading was the writing itself. I loved the descriptions, the gore! The plot and characters, however, left much to be desired.

[Caridad cruz · Rating 1 out of 5]

i found the story boring from the very beginning, once that happens i cannot get into the book at all!!!