Hell bound: A Vacation From Hell by Kathy Dinisi is a great zombie apocalypse novella. It is a short read; however, I would have finished in one day, but I just recently got out of the hospital, hence it took me a few days to read.
I WON THIS E-book in return for an honest review.
Now, onto my review!
I feel that if this novella was re-edited, thoroughly looked through, and more descriptive, and her characters had more life in them, then I would rate this book a 5 star. There were many grammar errors, for example: "stifle gas" when it should be "siphon gas". One phrase that stuck out like a sore thumb, that loved being said throughout the entire book was, "on the floor", used when someone had fallen. It should have not been used to speak of the outdoors grounds in this way, but instead, she should have wrote, "I fell on the hot sandy dessert ground" or "I fell on the hot sand", as well as "on the hot pavement", when speaking of the asphalt ( parking lot), etc. These would have been more descriptive, than "on the floor," when you speak of outdoors. It would have helped the story flow better. Also, misused words, such as, "A heard of them chasing us", should have been, "A herd of them chasing us." I could name more grammar errors; however, I don't like being nit-picky in my reviews, because the review is supposed to be about the actual story; if it was good or not.
The plot, the guts of the story is a modern day twist of what a zombie apocalypse would be like in true reality. I actually like this, because it gets you thinking of "what if?" Sam, the nurse, who first sees a patient is said to have "rabies". Then the rabies spreads quickly from one person to another, and so forth. It quickly evolves into making the infected people more powerful, strong zombie-like person(s), and very intelligent beings. This is a brilliant idea on how zombies could come about in this modern real life time novella.
Sam is married to Mathew; he surprises her with a vacation for the two of them to The Grand Canyon, without their two sons for some much special romance time for these two; however, their vacation they had longed for, turns into zombies chasing them!
They meet up with Kat one of the employees at their hotel they were staying at during the attack on the train ride. Kat decides to go with them instead of staying and waiting for her sister to pick her up there at her place of work. This was a great add of this character in this novella. Kat helps to bring the main characters together in the story.
I enjoyed seeing the zombies start to come to "life" in the novella, meaning one talks back to Sam and one of the zombies in the beginning, they begin to realize he is actually following/chasing them. This is definitely something new with zombies. I like this, because it's a different take on how zombies are.
One of my favorite parts of the novella was the guy on the radio, Steve, who had just lost his wife, Gina to a zombie. I loved how he was being the "lone survivor" with information for any other survivors. By adding this character, it helps to see where the story is going. I hope she continues to keep him in the next book!
I am looking forward to reading the second book, so we can find out where their boys and her parents are; if they are ok or not. I'm also hoping the grammar is much better in the second story.
Either way, I do like this new modern twist if zombies, because it does add more descriptive ways of how zombies could be in real life. Who knows Kathy Dinisi might be on to something and we should prepare ourselves for intelligent zombies, instead of one track mind zombies!
Happy reading!!