Final Destination #2: Destination Zero

Final Destination #2

by David A. McIntee

A journalist discovers that a Victorian England relation of hers escaped from the clutches of Jack the Ripper, and ultimately, Death itself. Now Patti Fuller must learn how to cheat Death too, by finding out how her great-great-grandmother did it all those years agoÏ¿½

Genres: Horror

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 15, 2005

About the author

David A. McIntee was a British author who specialised in writing spin-offs and nonfiction commentaries for Doctor Who and other British and American science-fiction franchises.

Reviews

[Andy Crow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some thoughts and reflections really resonated with me, it's a shame the story was so convoluted. Too many characters and some situations were a bit crazy, bordering on ridiculous. Very different from what Dead Reckoning was.

“...there was no law that you had to stop loving someone because they didn't love you back. There was no law that said you could only feel love for one person at a time. Any such law would imply people could pick and choose who to love, and when, and how. There were enough different kinds of love to go round.”

However, the author touched a few sensitive fibers in me, and just for that, I'm giving an extra star.

★★★☆☆

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like rating this 3 is me being VERY generous, as it’s shit. Plan and simple, this book is basically Final Destination 2 x Wattpad. I’ve read Wattpad stories written better than this, also just the whole Sherlock and Watson being here really threw me off, also ********spoilers****** Bill being Jack the Ripper, just why is Jack the Ripper here in the first place? Also didn’t help I’m quite versed in Victorian England culture and customs so I was quite disappointed that the author clearly didn’t know some stuff. If you found it for cheap I’d say read it, if you’re thinking of buying it on like eBay, do not waste your money on this book.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one made me want to bash my head in. What’s up with the past and present shit. Also there’s Jack the Ripper and Sherlock and Watson?? What?? And all they had to do to escape death is die for a second?? Also that death is taking a more physical form in this?? I liked the nod to book one tho but what happened to the other guy survivor?? Will’s death was really sad tho

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m honestly not sure what my feelings are on this book. It’s been on my shelf for quite some time, along with the other 3 that I could get my hands on in the series (which are now quite frankly going for silly money on eBay and Amazon). I bought this and the rest, because I enjoy the films and I also enjoyed the novelisations of the films. (As far as I can find, only the first 3 have been novelised.)

There are a couple of things that instantly date this book, which were glaringly obvious - Governor Schwarzenegger being mentioned on the first page and repeated references to Palm Pilots.

I did feel that, much like the films, there were too many characters and underdeveloped characters at that, included in this. I found them quite difficult to track of, and it took me considerably longer to read than I was expecting. For me, the characters in the films stand out more, because they’re easily recognisable - a few of the characters in this, I completely muddled up who was who at certain points, losing my grasp on the storyline.

The storylines were good - there are multiple storylines going on at once, but I do think the whole storyline set in Victorian London, could have been a completely separate book/novella. It had no reason to be included, apart from being referenced, like Dead Reckoning was. I found the inclusion of this past storyline to be quite distracting from the present day storyline, and it didn’t seem to flow with the rest of the story - almost like it had been written by two different people, or added in as an after thought.

The deaths are well described, with some very similar to the deaths in the films. Some were quite horrible to picture in your head, but there were a couple that I couldn’t picture at all. Ultimately, the deaths work better in the films, for obvious reasons.

For me, while I will read the rest of the series, this just didn’t stand out enough for me, compared to the films.

[Valerio Pastore · Rating 1 out of 5]

My GOD! What did I just read?? A parody???
This second book of the series is the stuff of NIGHTMARES -and no, I don't mean in the horror sense.
This book is BAD BAD BAD -I mean, bad to the point there was no supervisor, no editor, no ONE to tell the author to just take a deep breath and trash for good this story and rewrite it from the bomb scene!
The terrorism part was an interesting twist -in fact, I had imagined the group dying while everyone blamed on the terrorists, and a spectacular end with the last survivor throwing herself to certain death just to make sure her enemies will be gone with her!
Nope!
Jack the Ripper, the main character' ancestor, killing herself for a new lease on life and then, yes, there was even WORSE than this!
This book series is based on the namesake movie franchise and so we should expect reference to those movies, right? WRONG! It turns out that this thing happened several reported times already, dating back to 1888!!!!
And where the f(bleep)k WERE those piles of dead when the movie series was running? There should've been a f(bleep!)ing LORE about those weird deaths already, in the movies!
WHY adding this lore right now? It serves no purpose, it's completely useless in a boring story with boring characters.
(bleep) (bleep) (bleep)(bleep)

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

An explosion of a train burning through steel, aluminium, plastic and flesh like a blowtorch to a stryoform cup. A strange eerie coldness in the air envelopes the people before a sheet of glass will fall from a building site slicing through the brain, down to the heart and cut a man completely in half, shattering glass, organs, bone and leaving a lifetime stain in the concrete pavement. A women slashed open her stomach contents still warm and steam rising above like stew, glistering red meat from a cauldron. Gaining consciousness during an autopsy after the lung already removed from the open ribcage. CDs spewing out of various players like ninja stars severing the spinal cord and going through their throat. Loads of great kills but the convoluted story with too many characters and timelines made this the bottom in this franchise.

[Derrick Derby-Klecman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would have been better if the Victorian Era stuff was a novella separately, and didn’t have Sherlock Holmes being very bluntly referenced but never named (probably due to copyright). This book is better if you read all the Victorian stuff as one story first, then the rest of it. I did enjoy the terrorist/Jack the Ripper stuff as an interesting parallel twist between the two storylines.

[Hazel Mae · Rating 2 out of 5]

what did i just read? why are we spending so much time on jack the ripper, detectives and a long backstory from the 1800s? it took me months to get thru and i only did because im not a quitter plus i like the FD franchise. but my god. the 1800 deaths were not great. i was never once in the edge of my seat. there’s way to much cop stuff and not enough of the victims from the accident.

[Kayla Greer · Rating 3 out of 5]

death sucks

[Bailey Wakeling · Rating 4 out of 5]

another interesting read for this series, though i have to say i did not enjoy it as much as the first. the two story lines going on i didnt really like but unique enough to keep me reading still

[wiwi · Rating 1 out of 5]

honestly i couldn’t finish the book…i tried but nah it was boring for me and too confusing like there were too many characters and the past and the present bruh nah thanks.

[Kimhok Taing · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish the book, though. I did try half of the book, but it was dead boring by going back to the past events while I was expecting the plots in the present time.

[Chai LeFaiver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly good read. The constant transition between 2005 and 1888 is fairly confusing. Personally, this should have been 2 different books, the current day and the Victorian Era.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really like the Victorian time

[L.K. Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a lot going on with it, which made it difficult to remember the lengthy list of characters. It was like reading three books in one. There was tracking down the terrorists, Patricia trying to save survivors, and Juliette and her run-ins with Jack the Ripper. I feel a lot of this could've been cut in order to spend more time developing the characters. There were a couple deaths that were just ridiculous and laughable, which I didn't feel fit into the atmosphere of the story at all, but there were some good ones though.

Other than that, the wording was nice and it was an easy read and offered something fresh and new to the Final Destination series. I won't read it again, but I am very glad I read it once and that it's now forever in my collection.

[kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3/5)

3 stars is a generous rating, honestly! this book is SUCH a downgrade from the first in the series, and that's incredibly disappointing. i definitely like the general idea of an MC's ancestor's "cheating death" story impacting their own, but, man, this book didn't do it well in any way. the characters don't have heart to them, the writing is bland except for very few instances (i did like the whole jack the ripper thing!), and it just didn't feel like there were any stakes.

to be honest, i should've known that i wouldn't love this as soon as i read the super rushed & empty premonition sequence. i'm not sure how you can turn that scene into one of the least detailed/significant of a final destination book, but this did that!

[Rhonda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok, I actually only got through about 4 chapters in this book & had to stop reading because it was so lame. Was I expecting it to be good? No! But I was at least expecting it to hold my interest because it was so bad. Make sense?

The lesson of the story is, cheesy horror movies should stay movies & not attempt to branch out into books that are, at best, poorly written fan-fiction.

PS How does one go about getting fan fiction published? Coz I have written plenty!

[Carlos Pacheco]

nice

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much like bad fanfiction for me to have got any enjoyment out of it.