Jenny Duncan works the evening shift at the local shop in the town of Lillington, in the Midlands, UK. On Guy Fawkes night, during the bonfire celebrations, a virus sweeps through the town. Jenny finds herself trapped with three customers as the infected attack anyone they can find outside.
Then the dead start to rise, the power and communications are cut off, and a fire breaks out in a building nearby. The group of survivors must find a way out if they are to reach their families and safety.
It soon becomes apparent the virus has gone global, and safety is a difficult thing to find. The group must work together if they are to survive.
Book 1 in the Dead End series. Dead End is the story of ordinary people living in the UK, with no special skills, trying to survive a zombie apocalypse.
Kady Monroe lives in Scotland where she was born and raised. She is the author of the Dead End zombie novel series. Book 3 in the series will be out in 2018 along with a Scottish based Horror Novel.
I enjoyed this nice quick debut novel by author Kady Monroe featuring convenience store clerk Jenny caught in the midst of a zombie attack. Set in England, Jenny and some of her customers are caught unaware when the living dead start attacking in the streets and are forced to band together, figure out what's going on, and adapt and survive.
I'm a bit mean giving this only 3 stars, it's worth 3.5 easily but I couldn't quite go to 4 because it's standard zombie fare and it does require a proof-read to sort out some of the grammar problems (specially with over-used commas and apostrophes).
Good bits - it's refreshing that the characters actually call the antagonists 'zombies'; it's set in Britain (the Midlands) and there are no guns (although a shotgun is poked out of a door at one point it is not fired). The storyline is consistent and travels at a good pace. There are no logic holes that I spotted and the writing is active and descriptive, enabling a clear mental image of people and events. The tone is suitably menacing at times and there is some fighting and goriness but it's not overdone. Characterisation is good and I did care enough about the characters to read on to the end and hope that they survived. As the blurb says, they are just ordinary people who get scared and make mistakes.
Bad bits - besides the above-mentioned grammar issues, the characters' speech is too wordy - people would not speak in lengthy proper sentences when being attacked by zombies. There is a tendency to over-explain things rather than leave it to the imagination, meaning the writing lacked sophistication at times (e.g. 'He was dead.') There is a very sudden ending with one of the characters left isolated and in peril (although to be fair this is marketed as part 1 of a series).
All in all though, a worthy effort for a first novel and I would read part 2.
Since I'm listening to an audiobook, I'll start with a critique of the narration.
Narration:
Nym's voice is pleasant to listen to. She did a pretty good job, though I'm a bit surprised that a person with such a soft spoken voice was chosen for a zombie book. With that said I'd be happy to listen to other books read by her. The one thing regarding the performance that I would have liked that is no fault of Nym's is a reader with a British accent. I feel like hearing the characters speaking like people from the UK would have made the setting come more alive.
Story:
So far as zombie apocalypse novels go, this is a pretty short book, but well presented. If three or four installments were released together as an omnibus, I'd buy it. As it is, with only 5-6 hours of play time, we don't go too deep into how the end of civilization changes people in the long term. The idea that corpses are walking is still new to the characters, and even by the end of this story they don't have enough time to become jaded or desensitized to their situation which is true for protagonists in a lot of other ZA books.
This is a good read/listen for what it is. The book seems well edited, and held my attention from start to finish. I just wish there was more of it. Listening to this book is not time wasted.
A couple of times I found one of the characters to be extremely dense but then I considered that she was an addict, and saying whatever she thought she had to to deny responsibility for her addiction. I liked that the protagonists were all more or less normal people, and behaved as such as they were trying to survive. They weren't all readily willing to throw things like concept of law and order out the window at the first sign of zombies. It's only at the end of the book that the PoV protagonists accepts that sometimes they are going to have to do illegal things to survive (in this case stealing gas). When was the last time you saw someone on the Walking Dead worry about that? I like that we get to see the ZA story unfold from the first infections.
I'm wondering how dark the author can go in subsequent novels because, as I said, everything is still new to the characters in this book and no one seems to be in danger of losing their humanity or starvation (yet). Whether I continue with the series will really depend on how she handles things in the next book or two as the zombie apocalypse drags on, and the characters have to accept that life as they knew it is gone and dad.
Dead End is almost like a continuation of the Walking Dead series. A virulent illness is sweeping through Lillington, Jenny is horrified as the true repercussions of this catastrophe are revealed in graphic detail. Streets are littered with corpses and with zombies on the prowl. All semblance of normal life has evaporated, survival is the only thing that matters. The non-stop action keeps the reader on the edge of their seat as Jenny and a small group of unaffected strive desperately to locate family and a safe sanctuary. But at the same time, they need to avoid the clutches of the continuous threat of the pursuing walking dead. The lover of the walking dead-zombie themed books will relish this action adventure. This is book one of a series. My only gripe is it leaves you in limbo at the finish. There is no resolution, buy book two to continue the adventure. I know series writing authors need to leave an inducement to buy the next book, but I feel the first book needs to have some sort of conclusion. Then a question can be posed, or a new scenario floated, to entice another purchase.
I love the Walking Dead and has been anxiously awaiting the next installment on Netflix to get my Zombie fix. I was so excited to find this book, and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. I love the way the author brings the characters to life and the twists and turns of the plot. I’m so glad the next book is coming out in a few days. I don’t have to anxiously wait for it! A recommended read.
As a massive fan of zombie novels, I try and read as many as I can. I like to read new authors as you never know when you're going to discover someone whose style you love.
I read somewhere that Kady Monroe said that the idea was to write a zombie novel with ordinary people, who don't have any special skills or training. That's a great idea, one I love. After all, how many of us can relate to a Special Forces operative who has access to guns? It's the reason I get so frustrated with a lot of zombie novels. I want novels set in Britain, for a start. I want them without guns and I want them in my area (the Midlands) if at all possible. If not, I want them outside London, as so many zombie books set in Britain are always based there.
On the whole, I enjoy Kady's style of writing. It is a simple approach to language, for the most part, which suits the subject matter. One thing I think that critics sometimes forget is that language has to be put into the context of time and place; not just language used by the characters but also that used throughout the book. I think that Kady often the balance right in this first novel. The characters do sometimes over-explain at points where there is no need, but this is a minor point.
I am intrigued by the concrete barricades that have appeared in different places all over the country, blocking the group's escape route - or herding them in a particular direction. That's an interesting twist in the tale and I can't wait to find out what it's all about.
The characters are interesting and, as the book continues, you do find out more about them, giving them depth. I don't like one particular character, which let's face it is probably a good thing; we don't like everyone we meet in life and certainly wouldn't in a zombie apocalypse.
The bad points for me are the grammar errors. I'm not a grammar queen myself and do make any number of mistakes, but some of the commas in wrong places made the text a little awkward at times. If I could recommend anything it would be a good editor or proof-reader. I think that would improve the book significantly.
That said, I will definitely be looking out for part 2 and reading it. It is going to be interesting to read the next book and see how it develops, what happens to Jenny and whether the others make it to their intended destination.
This review is for the audiobook... Overall I enjoyed this 1st installment book in this series. It was a bit short, but it kept my interest and had good character development, suspense, and was well written and edited. Here is what I didn't like, the narrator seemed miscast to me. Frequently the tone of what she was reading was not what the character was feeling in the next sentence or two. For example, a sentence "there is no food" would be read as a question when the very next sentence would indicate it was a sad observation. It threw me a couple of times and jarred me out of the story. This narrator also has the very common problem of using a super annoying whiny voice for "teen girl". Really hard to listen to sometimes. Also the narrator seemed to have a cold when recording this or possibly has a deviated septum. Weird phlegmy sounds on the end of words kept breaking through and was a bit distracting. Not unlistenable or super annoying, but if you are bothered by such things... The only part of the story I didn't like was the willfully obtuse mother character who seemed to be there just to cause conflict and grind on my last nerve. Kill her off please ;) For fans of this genre this is absolutely worth giving a shot. There was almost no swearing, no sexism, no racism, no creepy rapey scenes, not very graphic, no politics. YA appropriate but not boring for adults. I will buy the second installment.
Full disclosure: I received this audio book in exchanged for an honest review)
As some of you may have realised, I bloody (see what i did there?)love a good zombie story so when I spotted this one I jumped at the chance to review it.
What we get is a solid action adventure in two parts with the first part being a chlostrophobic under siege story and the second half turns into a road trip where all hell breaks loose. The action wakes during the early stages of the uprising which means there's plenty of room for tension building and the first half works especially well as a result.
I loved the story being set in the UK (CALL me biased but I love the novelty of towns I know in absolute (fictional (obviously)) chaos. The only slight issue I did have was I would have preferred a British narrator as I felt some of the pronunciations a little jarring. It's a minor niggle because otherwise the narrator was great at building tension.
I believe this is the first part of three and I was certainly left wanting more. I'd love to see some more character development and am eager to see where the story goes from here.
A shop assistant and her customers end up fighting for their lives when a mystery virus causes people to go "kill crazy".
The pace and storyline were good, as were the characters, who were all ordinary people responding to an extraordinary situation. The descriptive sections of the book were clear, allowing a reasonable amount of tension to develop. The gore wasn’t excessive. The cliff hanger ending indicates this is likely to be the first of a series.
My overall rating is 3.5 stars as some of the writing / dialogue wasn’t tight enough.
If you enjoy series such as ‘The Walking Dead’ this book may be worth a look.
This is a very good first book in a series.A flu hits and zombies appear.Jacqueline Nym does a fine job narrating.I wonder though,this is obviously set in the UK,so why is the accent for everyone American?“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”
My husband’s favorite show is The Walking Dead, which I’ve never been able to get through more than one episode — because zombies are equal parts gross and petrifying. Thus, I was nervous when I picked up Dead End. Would I have to lock myself in a closet as I shook uncontrollably, my find filled with hordes of dripping, empty-eyed zombies lurching toward me?
The answer is no. While zombies are still petrifying, they are less gross in prose form.
This novel follows a group of individuals who are thrown together when zombies begin a reign of terror. It’s a little like Poseidon but with a road trip through the English countryside replacing an escape from a sinking ship. The pacing stays taut, particularly toward the end, when the zombies close in.
The characters aren’t well developed enough for my taste; they’re mostly identifiable by age, gender, and name. This causes the story to sometimes read like a police blotter. More moments like when Jenny (the protagonist) and Clive have a heart to heart would add depth and substance.
There are punctuation errors, notably with quotation marks, and some nonstandard grammar (“Matt and her had done the same”), but if you’re looking for straightforward thrills, this delivers the goods.
One of the curious things about paranormal phenomena in prose form, particularly zombies, is that they offer such a thrill to readers that, unlike other genres, their plot is never flagged as implausible. It seems, in fact, that with zombies, one can easily ‘get away with anything’ just like with comedy. That, perhaps, is part of its appeal. And Dead End—a debut work featuring ordinary people trapped in a cul-de-sac of a city by zombie invasion—taps into that joy. So, it turns out that on the night of an annual fireworks display in Lillington, U.K., a strange virus breaks out, setting off anarchy that transforms the dead into the undead.
The plot is a simple one and the characterization—of a small group of random survivors identifiable by gender and name—give the book an insubstantial feel of sorts. But while the story is interesting, the narrative voice is weakened by some odd expressions and nonstandard grammar. In spite of that, I believe Dead End will appeal to fans of zombie tales.
This was such a great story! I seem to rarely come across zombie-related stories and after seeing the author about supplying a free copy for an honest review, I leapt for the chance to listen (audiobook).
One area of audiobooks that I question, maybe it's more related to the person(s) who decide which narrator goes with which story is the fact that this story is based in England with English terms, yet the narrator did an American accent. Why? At least get a narrator that can do English accents.
In the end, I loved this story! It held my attention the entire time and I didn't want it to end. When it finally did, it was on a huge cliffhanger, I thought I was going to cry. lol I can't wait for book 2 in this series.
The story:
There was a part when Jenny and Maggie were talking in which Maggie acknowledged she wanted to keep her car because she had nothing left of her previous life. When Jenny questioned her about her still having her daughter, Sophie, Maggie was upset that Sophie hadn't wanted to ride with her, instead choosing the group. Jenny tells her to basically be thankful that Sophie is still alive because Matt has no clue what happened to his father. Wrong! His father was dead, it was his mother whose whereabouts were unknown.
I'm curious as to why the author chose to categorize the "creatures" differently. For example, overall they're zombies, but some are referred to as undead or those infected. That this sentence, for example, there's a time when Jenny says she sees “the dead shambling here..." but it not being as "...bad as Meadow Hills..." and how "...she saw no sign of the infected.” Aren't the dead and infected the same? They're all zombies. Some walk, some run.
The narrator:
While I liked her calm voice, I couldn't help but notice random background noises taking place throughout her reading/narrating of the story. For example, every so often when she'd pause, I assumed she was pausing her narrating program, there'd be a click kind of sound. Additionally, I was she would have done a longer pause between chapters. With how it was performed, she'd read the final sentence of Chapter 1, for example, then automatically say "Chapter 2." Maybe I'm just being too picky. I've listened to many audiobooks and there's usually a longer pause between chapters. Either way, she did pretty good with the variety of voices she supplied in the story.
This book has zombies and people, but the latter behave more like robots. The zombie apocalypse just began, but they stoically speak about the events. I never got a good sense of emotion. It was interesting the survivors were just that. There weren't ex-Special Forces or cops slaughtering the undead. They were regular people trying to get out of town alive. I'm also glad the undead were actually called zombies. It annoys me authors usually act like the word doesn't exist.
My biggest issue was formatting. It was a mess. Perhaps my download was bad, but I used Kindle Unlimited. Paragraph breaks made little sense. This matched with stilted dialogue ruined the mood for me. The story was short, but ended with a cliffhanger. I see no reason to continue with the story.