As with most long series, they do go downhill over time, and this one is no exception. This is a longish review as I'm rounding up season 4 (books 22-25).
I've stuck with it, even though it's been a struggle at times as I wanted to know how it ends, but I have a lot of problems with this now - I'm going to delve into a few below:
- There's too much rinse and repeat going on. This last book in particular, could have been edited down by 100/200 pages, and you wouldn't have missed a thing.
- Howie and his 'team' have basically become nothing more than a cult, I mean, really, they have... everyone's just mindlessly following him and running around killing zombies for no other reason than they can. Anyone who dares to disagree or stand up to them are threatened, bullied, and belittled. There's been bits of this throughout the series, but in this season 4, it's really stepped up a notch.
- The hypocrisy is also off the charts, Howie goes on about doing the right thing, yet has on more than one occasion, gotten people killed with some of the stupid decisions he makes. Some things are fine when Howie or his cult do it, but anybody else... very, very bad. And don't even get me started on Marcy turning innocent people to use as shields whenever they need extra help. The double standards are really jarring at times.
- Maddox has rightly stated that Howie has now made himself 'judge, jury and executioner'. This obviously means the Author is aware how Howie's behaviour is starting to look. The narrative has become too much tell v show rather than the other way round.
- We've also been introduced to yet more new characters, none of which fetch anything different to the story. The very unlikeable mean girl Tappy, Danny, Booker's been dragged back out from Season 1, the people at the school all seem to have just been shoe horned in as what feels like yet more book/plot filler. The agents/spies are equally unlikeable. They've been hiding for nearly a month and now just stroll into the story murdering people and taking everything over... I mean, really?
- There's way too much romance and badly done at that. If I want romance, I'll go and pick up a romance book. I get Authors sometimes want to genre blend a little, but most of the time in this series, it's become an actual detriment to the characters in question. All the flip-flopping from person to person has become annoying.
- The Author is way overusing deus ex machina via Dave and/or Marcy whenever a sticky situation arises. There was a scene at the end of this book, where the series not only jumped the shark but literally flew over it. If you've read it, you'll know what I mean, I was rolling my eyes… hard.
So rounding up, most of the characters (bar a few) have become annoying and unlikeable. The story super repetitive, riddled with plot holes and too much plot armour, and in some places, it's just plain stupid and nonsensical. Even the 'banter' isn't funny anymore. When it gets to the point where you're rooting for the zombies over the supposed 'heroes', it's time to call it quits.
Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed some of the books in this series, hence why I stuck with it for so long, but this season has put me off from continuing.
If the Author ever does get around to finishing it off, I might come back to see how it ended, but for now, at least, I'm out.