Xombies

Xombies #1

by Walter Greatshell

WARNING: "This is the Emergency Broadcast Network. The epidemic known as Agent X has contaminated all but the most isolated pockets of the country. A state of martial law has been declared. Stay inside. Barricade all windows. Lock all doors. The infected are considered to be psychotic and extremely dangerous. Trust no one. This is not a test."

Agent X is unlike anything modern science has seen before -- a fast-spreading virus that turns the infected into raving maniacs on the hunt for earth's few remaining survivors...

One of those survivors is Lulu, a seventeen-year-old girl spared by a rare medical condition. Immune to Agent X, and witness to her own mother's bestial degeneration, Lulu is on the run for the frozen north, the last place on earth rumored to be safe. But what's awaiting her is as unexpected, and as frightening, as what's followed her there...

Genres: Horror, Zombies, Fiction, Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Dystopia

346 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 23, 2004

About the author

Walter Greatshell here. I am the author of XOMBIES (Berkley, 2004), which was re-released as XOMBIES: APOCALYPSE BLUES (2009), and followed by the sequels XOMBIES: APOCALYPTICON (2010), and XOMBIES: APOCALYPSO (2011). I am also author of the novels MAD SKILLS, ENORMITY (published under the pen name W.G. Marshall), and TERMINAL ISLAND. My short stories have appeared in the anthologies THE LIVING DEAD 2, TALES OF JACK THE RIPPER, and CTHULHU FHTAGN! My most recent works are the essay collection SPECIAL FEATURES: SHORT TAKES ON POP CULTURE FROM ANDROIDS TO ZOMBIES and the WWII saga SAFARI MINE: AN AFRICAN ODYSSEY 1928-1937.

Reviews

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am only about a quarter through but I feel compelled to respond to the many Goodreads reviewers who say this isn't a zombie novel.

It's a zombie novel.

They urghh and arghh like any zombie just a little faster. Just because you place a X instead of a Z doesn't make it different. You can put replace SK in skunk with a X and it stills stinks.

But is it a good zombie novel? It's a little early to tell but so far I keep thinking of Xunks.

---------

I finished it and will have a rating and full review up shortly. Hint: It is definitely not a xunk.

---------

So anyways...

Xombies: Apocalpse Blue, the first installment of Greatshell's Xombies series isn't a xunk but it is not exactly a rose (xose?) either. While it is a zombie novel it manages to do what all good zombie novels must do and that is be about something other than zombies. One of its faults is that it tends to be about way more than the author can comfortably handle. The first section features the onslaught of zombies, called xombies for reasons explained in the book, and the struggle for survival by our 17 year old heroine Lulu. Then about a third through the focus shifts away from xombies to the isolation and struggle of the survivors for power...on a submarine no less! This change is both incredibly imaginative and somewhat chaotic. We are introduced to some very shady characters and the basic themes are developed involving...well, I won't ruin it for you but lets just say some of our evil protagonist's ideas are sort of Ayn Rand turned on her head. Speaking of Ayn Rand, how come no one has ever written a novel in which Ayn Rand is a zombie? That would explain a lot. But I digress...

I ended up liking this book. However there was much that disturbed me. There are no really likable character. The main character Lulu comes close but she often feels too unreal to really identify with. Also, by the end it become very hard to take sides with anyone. In fact, I started to side with the xombies although I suspect that may actually have been the author's intention. But in the long run, the originality of this novel and the author's riveting style wins out to the point that I give it three and a half stars.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5
This story just screamed YA dystopian melodrama. The writing was bland and unoriginal. The characters lacked depth and most were pretty much nonentities.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best parts of the story itself had very little to do with the zombies, spelled with an "X" for reasons that will become apparent to anyone who reads the book. The strength of the story is the tale of what mankind will do in a truly global crisis, and how they react, as groups or as individuals.
The cover artist, or the art director who approved the design, should of course be severely punished. The abnormally young appearance of the central character is a major plot point, and she HAS no cleavage to display, nor would she in the sub-freezing temperatures of the scene displayed on the cover.
The story's weakness, oddly enough, was the scientific basis for the zombies. For me, that part didn't hold together as well as the story itself, which was a fascinating survival tale that I couldn't put down. Fast-moving, instant-conversion zombies with no visible source of energy...not so much.
One other minor thing was that by the end of the story, the main character's mother had migrated from nuisance to actual villain in my mind, as the character's medical condition was re-diagnosed. Still, a very good story with many strong points.

[Cindy Engelhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not for genre fans. It is a literary novel that happens to include zombies and a submarine. If you're interested in a well written novel with a deeply flawed and interesting female protagonist, read this book. All my female friends love this book, and so do I.

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I gave this book the old 100 page try and gave up then. I have way too many books vying for my attention to force myself to finish a book that is boring me witless.

Xombies started out well with a young girl named Lulu waking up one day to discover the world has gone mad and it seems that all women have turned into raging blue-faced Xombies due to some sort of disease. Lulu escapes this fate because she has a health condition that prevents her from maturing. After watching her mother turn blue, she escapes with an older male neighbor and they're on the run.

This book started out with a lot of promise but soon became one big chase scene with lots of male posturing thrown in. I didn't care about any of these people and found the old guys accent distracting beyond all measure. I found myself skipping pages at a time and eventually gave up, read the end and put the book back up for trade.

[Badseedgirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

My final read for my 2024 Zombie Jesus Easter book marathon.

This book was so close to a 4 star read. There was an interesting premise to the book and the characters were not completely unlikable. But the writing style was just so darn pretentious. It wasn't so bad that I wanted to quite reading, but I just found myself getting annoyed by the author. There are two additional books in the series. I'm not sure if I will continue on with them or not.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-¡Zombis! Bueno, no… ¡xombis!.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. Louise Alaric Pangloss, más conocida como Lulú, es una joven de diecisiete años cuya amenorrea congénita ha marcado mucho su vida pero que ahora, durante la plaga del agente X que transforma a las personas en agresivos psicópatas asesinos contagiosos (xombis, no zombis, recuerden), se va a mostrar inesperadamente útil aunque funcione como una espada de Damocles. Cuando gracias a un vecino termina en una zona restringida de la Marina estadounidense, cree que estará a salvo, pero está equivocada. Primer libro de la serie Xombis.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-¡Zombis! Bueno, no… ¡xombis!.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. Louise Alaric Pangloss, más conocida como Lulú, es una joven de diecisiete años cuya amenorrea congénita ha marcado mucho su vida pero que ahora, durante la plaga del agente X que transforma a las personas en agresivos psicópatas asesinos contagiosos (xombis, no zombis, recuerden), se va a mostrar inesperadamente útil aunque funcione como una espada de Damocles. Cuando gracias a un vecino termina en una zona restringida de la Marina estadounidense, cree que estará a salvo, pero está equivocada. Primer libro de la serie Xombis.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected a fun and gory zombie story. The submarine details were excruciatingly tedious and Mr. Cowper's overdone New England accent drove me nuts. I gave up after 100 pages.

[Dreadlocksmile · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published back in 2004, Walter Greatshell’s debut novel ‘Xombies’ (later reissued under the title ‘Xombies: Apocalypse Blues’) was originally planned to be titled ‘Dead Sea’ referring not only the classic George Romero zombie films, but also the extinct culture of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the inner sea of the human body – specifically, the tides of the menstrual cycle (the X in Xombies refers to the female chromosome). The title is also more relevant to the submarine voyage and its resulting dominating aspects onto the storyline.

Written in the first person perspective from the principal character of Lulu (Louise Alaric Pangloss) who is a seventeen-year-old girl afflicted with Chromosomal Primary Amenorrhea (a condition that suspends her from reaching puberty and therefore undergoing her menstrual cycle). Lulu and her mother soon learn of the airborne virus named ‘Agent X’ that is mysteriously spreading across the planet changing all women undergoing the menstrual cycle (i.e post-puberty and pre-menopause) into feral members of the undead who have been appropriately dubbed ‘xombies’.

The virus is not purely exclusive to women, but can be transmitted to men or indeed females who not undergoing their menstrual cycle, upon their death, but more often via a ‘kiss of death’ that is administered by one of the undead xombies.

Lulu’s mother quickly falls foul to the plague, leaving Lulu on her own in this terrifying new post-apocalyptic world. Before long, Lulu is running from a horde of attacking xombies (one of which is her very own mother) when she is rescued by her father, Fred Cowper, who Lulu has never properly known. It turns out that Cowper was a highly respected Navy veteran who had retired from the service a while back. Cowper now takes Lulu to a secret Navel outpost which is one of the few remaining areas offering protection to its men.

Upon arrival all hell breaks loose, with wave after wave of xombies storming the premises. Lulu (the only female there) and the four-hundred or so men and boys stationed at the outpost, board the huge submarine that is docked there. The submarine under the direction of a Commander Coombs is being taken to a new secret and much more secure location. Lulu, Cowper et all manage to board the submarine in a daring and desperate last act initiated by Cowper.

With the submarine now carrying too many passengers, rationing becomes life threatening, as well as maintaining control aboard the submarine. Wherever Coombs plans to take the submarine is kept as a secret until they close in to their final destination. But what have these few remaining survivors of this terrible apocalypse got in store for them when they do arrive at this new secret destination?

From the start Greatshell delivers a cleverly and well written zombie novel that screams of Nevil Shute’s despairingly apocalyptic novel ‘On The Beach’ mixed with undead action that has immediate echoes of the likes of Danny Boyle’s 2002 movie ’28 Days Later...’ as well as David Wellington’s ‘Monster’ trilogy.

With the majority of the novel taken up by the downbeat desperation aboard the submarine, the reader can’t help but feel reminded of the futile situation detailed so thouroughly throughout the novel ‘On The Beach’. Indeed, Greatshell plays along the lines of the misguided authority well, keeping the reader completely in the dark as to what is going on in so many occasions.

The atmospheric depth to the novel is truly second to none, with haunting moments of xombie madness lurking around each and every corner. Greatshell skilfully mounts up the suspense to Commander Coombs’s final planned destination for the submarine, until the reader is thrust into a whole new scenario that simply throws you to a whole new unnerving level.

The characterization throughout is beautifully developed, with a real love and heart felt sympathy going out towards the character of Lulu who is narrating the tale. The cold and emotionless boundaries projected by a number of the other characters, only further strengthens the hostile emotional atmosphere to the novel.

As a whole, the tale involves a reasonably complex array of subplots that weave a tightly-knit storyline throughout. The reader can’t help but become immediately submersed in this frightening new apocalyptic world.

Greatshell utilises a number of graphically violent moments at various predominant moments throughout the tale. This also includes a couple of disturbingly realistic moments of sexual violence, that although not hugely graphic in their descriptions, still leaves the reader with haunting images of the ordeals Lulu is put through etched on their brain.

All in all, ‘Xombies’ delivers a thought-provoking and highly original take on a zombie novel, that sets down a carefully thought out storyline to draw the reader into its dark depths. With so many strong points to the novel, the reader can feel somewhat bombarded by the unrelenting emotional turmoil that the narrator is clearly being put through. Greatshell rarely allows the reader to break the surface of this emotional assault, adding further to the delivery of this chaotic and desperate new world.

The novel runs for a total of 346 pages and was first published by Berkley Books. Walter Greatshell has a sequel novel planned entitled ‘Xombies: Apocalypticon’.

[Jeff Jellets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Xombies is a hard book to categorize.

It would be easy to just pigeonhole it as yet another zombie apocalypse story – but that would be the lazy reviewer’s way out because there’s a lot more to Xombies then … well … ummm … zombies. From a bit of The Hunt for Red October, to (as the cover proclaims) Lord of the Flies, to grim dystopian sci-fi, Xombies seems to move pretty effortlessly from genre to genre. But let’s start out with the zombie stuff because there’s nothing I like better than a good zombie novel and, for at least two thirds of the novel, Xombies works really well as just that.

In today’s market, it may be hard to make any zombie outbreak feel fresh, but author Walter Greatshell pulls it off. The book’s first two chapters are permeated with the creepy emptiness of “a-world-turned-off” by a sinister contagion and, when the zombies do arrive, it’s heart-pounding and portrayed with cinematic vividness. Like a good horror flick, it’s something you know is coming, but like a good film director, Greatshell still manages to build the tension and scare the pants off you when the inevitable rotting horde arrives.

Greatshell’s writing is clearly a large part of what makes this book enjoyable. Clean, crisp and built for speed, I pretty much devoured (pun!) the whole book in just a few days as Greatshell’s characters, pacing and plot twists kept me turning pages. There’s a wonderfully horrific section with an abandoned cruise ship ensconced in ice and lots of little twists and turns (such as when the characters make a quick stop in Newfoundland) that make this a really great horror story for most of the book.

But there is more. Greatshell also does a pretty good Tom Clancy imitation as sets the book’s protagonists up on a nuclear sub and, with only a single woman aboard, Greatshell is also able to channel William Golden and reinvent the tension of Lord of the Flies as a very Darwinist struggle simmers between the surviving boys, military men, and the lone heroine, Lulu. In less capable hands, I could see these elements fusing into quite a mess, but Greatshell handles these elements pretty effortlessly and hammers then into something a lot more than “just-another-zombie story.”

Perhaps unfortunately, the book doesn’t stop there and, as the protagonists reach a very questionable sanctuary in Greenland, Greatshell risks adding one more straw to the camel’s back, and we head into the realm of dystopian sci-fi more than anything else. Even here there is still a lot to like as the author moves the cast rather gracefully into a strange domed compound – complete with Vegas-style facades of the world’s greatest cities and, outside the main compound, a “billionaires-in-exile” airfield of stranded corporate jets. But the novel does seem to lose its footing here – almost as if the author was about as unsure as his characters as to what to do next. Where before the plot seemed to move along effortlessly, things start to meander a bit, lots of perverse old guys are introduced, and when the ending does come, it’s kind of unsatisfying. Maybe it feels a bit like the movie 28 Days Later? All that cool zombie stuff up front, and then the last half of the movie we get stuck inside a military base with some sexually frustrated soldiers whose only interest seems to be hanging on to last remaining women in England. Yeah … the end of the book feels a bit like that.

Still, despite the disappointing ending, Xombies is worth a look. So much of the novel is over-the-top fantastic than I can forgive the end and write it off as just a set-up for the next book in the series – which I will dutifully buy.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walter Greatshell, Xombies (Berkley, 2004)

Fairly standard zombie novel, when it's a zombie novel, but it very quickly becomes something else; the zombies are just a prop to get our core group of survivors onto a nuclear sub, where the real core of zombie novels-- the interplay between the survivors-- takes place. Not much chance to actually see too many zombies once they're on the sub, so some might consider this a bit of mismarketing. Me, I liked it well enough.

The plot: the survivors of a global plague of zombies (or xombies, as the case may be) caused by a virus called Agent X (you see where the term “xombie” comes from) force a ragtag band of Naval personnel, submarine yard workers, and the daughter of the sub's commander onto a nuclear sub headed for the icy wastes of the extreme north, where, it's presumed, the xombies will all be frozen. Roughly two-thirds of the book takes place on the sub, with the other third split between before-sub and after-sub.

The thing that's likely to make or break this novel for you-- assuming you're past the whole “it's not really a zombie novel” bit-- is the narrative voice. Normally I'd have likely found it grating, as the narrator, and many of the survivors with whom she has the most contact, are all eighteen or under. And boy do they sound like it. Yet there's something oddly charming about it in this case, with its badly-out-of-date (even in 2004) slang and devil-may-care attitude. This is important, given that the bulk of the book is nothing but this. I'm not entirely sure why it worked for me, but it did. The plot is solid enough to keep the pages turning, though it is derivative of a number of other works (the blurb that calls the book “a mix of 28 Days Later... and Lord of the Flies was written by someone who didn't have to look too hard). In short, it's not something that's going to break any boundaries, but if you're just looking for a good, solid thriller, this will fit the bill. *** ½

[Jason Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best zombie book (okay, specifically: running zombies) I've ever read, bar none. An ultra-weird science fiction bio-apocalypse with the world transformed instantaneously into a crazed game of "blob tag" between billions of unkillable blue zombies and a rapidly dwindling number of military outposts.

The gigantic zombie crowd scenes here anticipate the "World War Z" movie, but whereas that movie is serious and Brad-Pitt-heroic all through, this book is a bit more gonzo and funny. Not overtly comedic, but the absurdity of the situation reaches a point where you have to laugh, and there's over-the-top characters and images scattered throughout: the heroine's father, the trained Xombie-killing orangutan, the Beatles cover band. But when it needs to be scary and serious, it's completely convincing. The Xombies are unstoppable hunting machines, and their passionate lust for the living is scarier than any other zombie's cannibal snarl. The book ends on something of a cliffhanger, but in the best way, with some questions answered and others left open for the sequels (which Greatshell wrote several years after the first book; I get the impression it was originally intended to be a 1-book thing). Anyway, this book's ending is fairly satisfying by itself; when I found out there were sequels, it was like I'd had a full-course meal, and then ALSO found that extra piece of chocolate cake in the back of the fridge.

(As a side note, I can't believe some reviewers complained about the fact that the zombies are unkillable. Why do unkillable zombies get no love? Doesn't anyone respect classics like "Deadalive" or "Return of the Living Dead"? :P Without going too deeply into spoilers, the 'zombies' in this book are really more like "The Blob" or "The Thing" than boring old George Romero/Walking Dead zombies.)

[Thee_ron_clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here we have another take on zombies. The pandemic starts with women. Who knew?

Somehow, women contract the virus and all adult women begin turning into xombies. They, in turn infect other women and men.

Several well to do types escape to island free of the xombies along with some less well to do types. The less well to do types aren't given the same treatment as the haves. Some are even subjected to prison-style makeovers to become dates for the big-wigs. Down right scary, if you ask me.

Anyway, the heroine is a girl with a disorder preventing her from getting the xombie disease. This causes some people to desire her and others to hate and fear her.

This book has a number of twists and turns. It gets strange at some points and really had a lot of missed potential. Completists and zombie lovers should check it out though. You might like it.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book looked so good and I was so excited to read it. What a disappointment. For a book entitled Xombies (Zombies), you would expect xombies and to be scared....I did. You only see or experience these creatures in about 20% of the book. When you do, the author does it very well and you will be scared or creeped out! But most of the book is spent w/ simply the knowledge that these things existed....nothing more. If I hadn't had such high hopes, I probably wouldn't have been so disappoined. I don't plan on reading any further in the series.

[Rae Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't even get through it- and I love zombie stories. Horribly written, will spare no more words for this drivel. That's right, I called it drivel.

[Lvna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Puntuación: ⭐️

Apocalipsis zombi…femenino y azulado. Esa célebre frase de Parque Jurásico acerca de cómo la mujer heredará la tierra nunca llegará a cumplirse en esta sociedad con exceso de testosterona. Sólo una adolescente parece ser inmune al contagio…Esta es su historia.

Si este intento de sinopsis no suena bien, al menos sonará lo suficientemente interesante como para querer darle una oportunidad. CRASO ERROR. Este es un libro de zombis en el que si hacen aparición, te puedes sentir afortunado/a. Más que una epidemia, parecen ser una especie en extinción.

¿Dónde están los xombis? A ver, que yo los vea



La historia de nuestra protagonista se va a basar en descripciones excesivamente largas sobre la vida en un submarino lleno de hombres que no se sienten muy contentos de tenerla alrededor y, por supuesto, de la estructura del submarino en sí; además de otros temas llenos de tecnicismos militares, científicos o políticos que quitan cualquier posibilidad de protagonismo a algo de acción o terror.

Hablando de protagonismos, nuestra protagonista es lo más aburrido que puedas echarte a la cara; ni siquiera su estado de “exclusividad” la hace un poco más interesante. Es el típico personaje de apariencia pequeña, lleno de inseguridades, que se presenta como una persona debilucha, pero al que sin duda le toca resolver cualquier situación problemática y lo hace de 10.



Por si fuera poco, este personaje tiene que aguantar una constante sexualización por parte de algunos de los hombres con los que se relaciona, bajo el pretexto de ser la única mujer viva sobre la faz de la tierra. Una sexualización que se agrava al final del libro porque, como cabía esperar, el hombre es débil ante la necesidad de carne y no hay nada mejor que normalizar la imposición de la prostitución en el mundo postapocalíptico

El final tampoco me ha hecho cambiar mi opinión general respecto al libro (creo que más bien la ha empeorado) ni me ha dejado con ganas de leer su continuación.

Como conclusión: no lo recomiendo.

[StarMan]

I've read far worse zombie books than this, but I still wouldn't give it more than 2.2 stars on a good day.

However, I rarely give any zombie books 3 or more stars--so read it yourself if you're interested in a slightly different take, or simply enjoy tales of the weird/undead.

VERDICT: No actual stars punched.

CONSIDER THESE TITLES:
The Reapers are the Angels
The Girl with All the Gifts

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

A muddled book. Too much going on and poorly executed. Parts were rushed while others were too descriptive. At least I found a book to fulfill my "X" 2017 alphabet challenge...

[William M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have never heard of Walter Greatshell before, join the club. He seemed to have come out of nowhere and dive onto the scene with this very exciting zombie novel with a military/sci-fi/medical twist. The first two thirds are the strongest, and then the book takes a drastic shift. Some will enjoy it, some might not. I was in between. It was still very gripping, just not what I expected. I had a hard time believing that things could have been as organized as they were (at the air base) in such a short time with all the chaos going on. The science fiction aspect at Thule seemed way ahead of the technology when the story takes place.

That being said, Greatshell's technical writing is very accomplished and the imagery tensely vivid. His action moves very quickly and I really had a great time reading this. There were some moments, but only a few, where I was confused with the action and had to reread passages to figure out what was happening. Regardless, this is certainly one of the better zombie books in recent years, right up there with author Kim Paffenroth's Dying To Live, and the sequel Dying To Live: Life Sentence. I found this even more enjoyable than the Brian Keene zombie books. Readers should be warned, however, that Walter Greatshell's other book, Xombies: Apocalypse Blues, is the same book as this one, only retitled. Apparently, the only difference is that a character's accent was taken out for the reprinted version to make his dialogue more clear. Personally, I thought the accent was great and should have stayed the same, but I'm guessing that was a publisher decision and not the author. Definitely recommended.

[Ellis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably 2 & 1/2 stars. I liked this at the beginning, lots of scary zombie (er, xombie) goodness. However, the explanation for the virus stinks & the dialogue is terrible. I get that the guy has a Boston accent, I don't need it to be constantly spelled out. "Ya gatta look inta my haht!"

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Xombies is a magnificent and unique take on the zombie genre, a genre that was slowly shuffling into popularity back in 2004 when the book was first released. A 'Must Read'. I can't wait for the sequel!

[Laurie McLean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this years ago and loved Lulu and the gang. What a thrill ride of a story. Literary horror anyone? Not your typical zombie gorefest. A real story with characters you care about and lots of twists and turns.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic exploration of what happens when the world goes to hell. Loved it. Gotta get the second one now!"

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because I am doing a "all the letters of the alphabet" challenge and the X was a hard one to come by. With that being said, I wasn't forcing myself since I like the fantasy type genre.

I just didn't get that into the story. It felt like the author never really developed the main character, so all these minor characters who orbited around her and idolized her seemed farfetched and unwarranted.

This story jumped all over the place and never seemed to gain any traction. At times I had hoped that the author would settle in and develop the story, but no.

I sit here still pondering what the ending even meant.

I gave it two stars because I finished it and it helped me with my challenge.

[Tamara · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise started off goofy with the zombies being called "xombies" because it started with women and they have x-chromosomes haha but completely forgetting that everyone has x-chromosomes. Goofy I can handle, though.

But then it turned into a meandering mess with a game on the side called "guess how many times this 17yo will get assaulted by the end of the book." By the time she was getting dolled up to be made into a "royal" sex slave I was just rolling my eyes. And there were so many weird, offhand comments. It was really hard to get through this.

The final twist of the knife was that the last few pages before the epilogue were super interesting and I felt cheated that the rest of the book wasn't that good wth

[Michelle Bibliovino · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well that was…something.

I can’t fault the writing in this book, it’s very well done and eerily poetic. But the plot is just one crazy thing after another. I suppose when you’re imagining the end of the world you get some leeway, but I was blindsided again and again. It was hard to come up for air honestly.

Lulu is an interesting, but implausible character. She’s set up to be the Eve of the apocalypse, which is pretty cool, but making her out to be a genius in a child’s body was weird. I wanted to like her, but her strangeness made that difficult.

While I’m mildly curious about what happens in this world, it’s not enough to entice me to continue the series.

[Estheisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bueno qué te digo.

El libro tiene buena esencia, buen principio y buen final. No es que el medio sea un toyo, pero siento que las cosas se contaron fuera de orden.

Es como que el inicio fue una excusa para llegar al submarino. Creo que habría quedado mejor empezar en el submarino y que contarán el pasado de cómo llegaron ahí, porque como lo consiguieron fue una pendejá que no convenció a nadie.

Entonces la manera en las que se narraron algunas cosas… ñe.

No me tocaron los personajes, para mi todo el mundo era igual y prescindible…

Bueno, pensándolo bien, le daré 2.8 y por la trama.

Obvio voy a seguir porque tengo el tercero en físico 🤣 pero como dije, la esencia es buena.

[Jean St.Amand · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty fun xombie book. The final part was a bit over the top, language wise...a little hard to follow. I liked what happened to Lulu's ''boys'' at the end. I know there are a couple of sequels but my library doesn't have them so I might never read them. I think, though, that the way Xombies ended was a good ending and could have been THE end, without sequels, so I'm happy with the way it ended.

[Ana Mardoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Xombies: Apocalypse Blues / 978-0-441-01835-2

I love zombie fiction, and seem to be going through a lot of it lately. "Xombies" is one of those apocalypse novels where the emphasis is so much more on the human reaction to the breakdown of society, rather than on the cause of the breakdown itself - to the point where the zombies (or "xombies", if you prefer) could be just as easily replaced by space aliens or an invading force of Teletubbies and the book would still read pretty much the same.

It should be noted that author Greatshell does not have a stellar opinion of mankind, which is par for the course for these tracts on the breakdown of human society in the face of serious disaster, but where Greatshell could perhaps be forgiven for automatically assuming most humans to be complete jerks, it's strange that he also seems to assume they will be so singular in their approach to jerk status. The conceit here is that the titular "Xombie" virus (with an "X" for X chromosomes), was first airborne and affected all the women on earth capable of menstruation (the science for this part is soft enough to spread on a biscuit, so don't think to hard about it), but since our young heroine doesn't menstruate, she's immune - a single girl among hundreds of male refugees. What's odd is that pretty much every single member of a crew of hundreds - minus, basically, the dozen named characters - absolutely hate her with a vengeance for being (a) female and (b) not their moms/sisters/lovers/daughters that they left behind.

This setup is so foreign that it seems extremely odd and alien. I've no doubt that in such a situation, there would be quite a large amount of resentment toward the surviving girl, but for basically *everyone* without a name billing to react this way is so anathema to human behavior, which is frequently varied. You'd think a good portion of the refugees would go overboard the *other* direction, adopting the girl with an uncomfortable fervor to replace the ones who were lost, but not one person in this novel ever seems in the slightest danger of doing that, and it's just...weird. The few "good" guys just sort of tolerate and accept the protagonist, for the most part. And while it seems like a small complaint, it's worth noting that the male reactions to the female protagonist in their midst take up at least half of the novel, so that's a good half that (a) isn't filled with zombies, and (b) isn't a very realistic portrayal of the variance of human emotion and is therefore distracting and odd.

Anyway, we plunge on. Obviously, what with all humans being horrible jerks and with most of the women on earth out of commission (minus the very young and the very old), it's just a matter of time before the raping begins, and probably enough said about that except that it's rather rare to see an author embrace the reality that the raping isn't going to be confined to male-on-female in a situation like this. The narrative glosses over without any gory details, but somehow this matter-of-fact handling of the horrors makes them worse, and I am forced to admit that of all the novels I've read where it seems humanity might do best to wipe itself out, Greatshell manages to make one of the most terribly convincing cases - most readers will be rooting for the xombies to win, before the end.

If I'm disappointed with "Xombies", it's perhaps because I feel a lot of potential was wasted. The titular infected only take up about a third of the novel, with the other third focusing on interim survival and humans being jerks, leaving the novel feeling a little weak on the actual horror. The infected are scary, and yet somehow hard to take seriously - they are bright blue (easy to identify) and they turn humans by kissing, rather than biting, them - a plot point that would *seem* to make it easier to prevent being turned, by handing out oxygen masks to everyone. For that matter, a lot seems to have been poorly thought out - the infected aren't put down easily, and even a loose arm or leg can continue to attack apart from the body, and while that sounds like an *extremely* fun plot point, nothing is ever really done with it, which seems very much like a Missing Moment of Awesome. There should be at *least* one scene where a peacefully sleeping person is killed by a rogue arm that made its way slowly through the air ducts, or something. And since half the xombies are intelligent, it's just plain odd that they don't rip their own limbs off in the face of destruction, to achieve this. Beyond anything else, despite these zombies being the theoretically impossible to take down with basic weapons, the humans manage to do so time and again, without any real explanation - we're just to assume that they easily and quickly bludgeon everything into a pulpy mass, and it just doesn't work well in the imagination.

I enjoyed this book overall, and I'll probably pick up the sequel, but the soft science and self-induced plot holes, the one-size-fits-all social commentary, and the slow pacing means I probably won't read this one again.

~ Ana Mardoll