beledit's review
2.0
Just finished the audio version. It was kind of boring. I bought it because I actually liked the idea of the focus being on the survivors, but their story was uninteresting. And at the end, when the zombies "arrived" they stretched my credulity way beyond breaking point.
This feels like the author just strained to find a new angle on zombies - he did, but it's an uninteresting angle and nothing else about the book stands out. And the occasional attempts to write lyrically fall very, very flat.
I bought the sequel (well, got it free - it was a three for two offer) so I guess I'll listen to that so as not to waste it, but I'm not eager to start.
If you're looking to first rate zombie novels try the Rhiannon Frater trilogy. It's worlds ahead of this.
This feels like the author just strained to find a new angle on zombies - he did, but it's an uninteresting angle and nothing else about the book stands out. And the occasional attempts to write lyrically fall very, very flat.
I bought the sequel (well, got it free - it was a three for two offer) so I guess I'll listen to that so as not to waste it, but I'm not eager to start.
If you're looking to first rate zombie novels try the Rhiannon Frater trilogy. It's worlds ahead of this.
otherwyrld's review
2.0
I found it very hard to like this book. I didn't like any of the characters, finding them petty, small minded and mean spirited for the most part, and there were major gaps in what should have been important characterisations which had an impact on the plot. I found it hard to keep going and had to keep putting the book down, not because it was unpleasant, but because it was boring me even though at 288 pages it was a short book. The ending was a major turn off for me too - I mean, all the wronged women in Northern Ireland turn into zombies and eat the person that wronged them? Seriously?
Perhaps my problem is with the setting - Northern Ireland is just too real and not exotic enough for a zombie story to really come alive. I have had the same problem with some of [a:Thomas Emson|1388626|Thomas Emson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1460456112p2/1388626.jpg]'s books. Perhaps as a Brit I need a more outlandish setting such as the USA for a zombie story to feel "real" - after all, I am still reading and enjoying the Walking Dead graphic novels.
Perhaps my problem is with the setting - Northern Ireland is just too real and not exotic enough for a zombie story to really come alive. I have had the same problem with some of [a:Thomas Emson|1388626|Thomas Emson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1460456112p2/1388626.jpg]'s books. Perhaps as a Brit I need a more outlandish setting such as the USA for a zombie story to feel "real" - after all, I am still reading and enjoying the Walking Dead graphic novels.
paulopaperbooksonly's review
2.0
Suffice to say I didn't enjoy the book.
Why do you ask?
Well probably because it has some deep flaws.
Our story begins with people dying as we follow a dozen characters lives and how they cope with it. Some were interesting and some were really flat - cardboard. Then some band together others stood alone. We follow every couple of pages about their daily lives (very succinct in my opinion) and how they develop.
There is no explanation on why people fell dead (only in the last two pages we learn of a theory), interesting people are rotting away (not all bodies, women are not - as I said we never learn why).
This book also has some commentary like the republican Irish gal and the British soldier type - of course they hate each other but then try to cope and so on.
The problem is that the book has only 290 pages and so with the setup we are left 50 or so pages to some action, explanation and conclusion - unfortunately it didn't satisfy me. I've seen and read better zombie flicks. I don't want to know why zombies appear (it really doesn't matter in most media) but why only women? He tries to give some explanation but its so far fetch it's really anticlimactic.
The ending is crap... yeah woman are sick of men so they turn into a zombie and kill people who wrong them - so why not the men? So why some women died and other no? Bah
Sorry...
I've heard there is a second book but I will not get it nor read it. Sorry.
Why do you ask?
Well probably because it has some deep flaws.
Our story begins with people dying as we follow a dozen characters lives and how they cope with it. Some were interesting and some were really flat - cardboard. Then some band together others stood alone. We follow every couple of pages about their daily lives (very succinct in my opinion) and how they develop.
There is no explanation on why people fell dead (only in the last two pages we learn of a theory), interesting people are rotting away (not all bodies, women are not - as I said we never learn why).
This book also has some commentary like the republican Irish gal and the British soldier type - of course they hate each other but then try to cope and so on.
The problem is that the book has only 290 pages and so with the setup we are left 50 or so pages to some action, explanation and conclusion - unfortunately it didn't satisfy me. I've seen and read better zombie flicks. I don't want to know why zombies appear (it really doesn't matter in most media) but why only women? He tries to give some explanation but its so far fetch it's really anticlimactic.
The ending is crap... yeah woman are sick of men so they turn into a zombie and kill people who wrong them - so why not the men? So why some women died and other no? Bah
Sorry...
I've heard there is a second book but I will not get it nor read it. Sorry.
natazzz's review
1.0
This book is so bad, I don't know where to start. First off, it's so boring and nothing much happens the first 2/3 of the book. There are many main characters, none of them are interesting or likable, with very little character development. I started disliking them so much I was almost glad when they all got eaten. Nothing gets explained in this book, there doesn't seem any reason why...well, apart from all the women who were wronged by the evil men coming back as zombies to eat their predators. WTF? I don't get why anyone could enjoy this book let alone want to read the sequal.
xterminal's review
4.0
Wayne Simmons, Drop Dead Gorgeous (Permuted Press, 2008)
My experience with Permuted Press up till now has been David Moody's Autumn Quartet and a slew of press releases about books that have made me say, every time, “man, I have got to read this.” Oddly, I never saw a single press release for Drop Dead Gorgeous, the first novel from Irish novelist Wayne Simmons; I stumbled across it in my local Half Price Books. (There is a small-press horror fan in my area who routinely sells stuff there. Whoever you are, bless you.) I actually found three Permuted titles the same day and snatched them all up. I knew the other two (D. L. Snell's Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines and Z. A. Recht's Thunder and Ashes) well by reputation, but this one I'd never heard of. So I cracked the cover on this one first. And after I'd finished it a couple of days later, the only word I could come up with was “DAY-um.” This is not at all what I expected from the original publisher of the Autumn books. This is bloody awesome.
First off: ignore the jacket copy, which makes it sound as if the story centers around Star, the tattoo artist who graces the wonderful (if amateurish) cover. Instead, like the Autumn books, Drop Dead Gorgeous is an ensemble drama rather along the lines of Autumn but somewhat better-structured. We start off with the sudden and unexplained death of billions (once again hearkening back to David Moody and the beginning of the small-press zombie revolution) and a handful of survivors, including Star, who eventually find one another. But we also have a second storyline that runs parallel involving a former Orangeman and a former IRA member who are forced together in leadership positions with another band of survivors in a smaller town a ways up the highway from the first band. The two don't cross until close to the end (though their proximity in the book tells you they eventually will), so essentially you've got two separate stories throughout. And they're both exceptionally well-written for this sort of thing.
Also, I did allude to Drop Dead Gorgeous as a zombie novel above. And it is, for about fifty pages, though the zombies are nothing at all like the ones you're used to. But the majority of Drop Dead Gorgeous contains not a single member of the walking dead. Simmons focuses on the survivors and nothing else for the first three-quarters of the book, and while hardcore zombie-heads will probably be disappointed by this, anyone else on the planet who picks this up will be very pleasantly surprised by how much care Simmons takes in drawing his characters. Yes, some of the coincidences are a little too neat, and there are some scenes that seem to exist solely to advance the plot, but Simmons weaves them in skillfully enough that if you're not paying attention, you may never notice.
Simply put: this is awesome. If you're at all a horror fan, you want to check this out. Simmons has dome something almost unheard-of in horror these days: he's actually written a novel that can be called “original”, and you can keep a straight face while saying it. I love this book. ****
My experience with Permuted Press up till now has been David Moody's Autumn Quartet and a slew of press releases about books that have made me say, every time, “man, I have got to read this.” Oddly, I never saw a single press release for Drop Dead Gorgeous, the first novel from Irish novelist Wayne Simmons; I stumbled across it in my local Half Price Books. (There is a small-press horror fan in my area who routinely sells stuff there. Whoever you are, bless you.) I actually found three Permuted titles the same day and snatched them all up. I knew the other two (D. L. Snell's Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines and Z. A. Recht's Thunder and Ashes) well by reputation, but this one I'd never heard of. So I cracked the cover on this one first. And after I'd finished it a couple of days later, the only word I could come up with was “DAY-um.” This is not at all what I expected from the original publisher of the Autumn books. This is bloody awesome.
First off: ignore the jacket copy, which makes it sound as if the story centers around Star, the tattoo artist who graces the wonderful (if amateurish) cover. Instead, like the Autumn books, Drop Dead Gorgeous is an ensemble drama rather along the lines of Autumn but somewhat better-structured. We start off with the sudden and unexplained death of billions (once again hearkening back to David Moody and the beginning of the small-press zombie revolution) and a handful of survivors, including Star, who eventually find one another. But we also have a second storyline that runs parallel involving a former Orangeman and a former IRA member who are forced together in leadership positions with another band of survivors in a smaller town a ways up the highway from the first band. The two don't cross until close to the end (though their proximity in the book tells you they eventually will), so essentially you've got two separate stories throughout. And they're both exceptionally well-written for this sort of thing.
Also, I did allude to Drop Dead Gorgeous as a zombie novel above. And it is, for about fifty pages, though the zombies are nothing at all like the ones you're used to. But the majority of Drop Dead Gorgeous contains not a single member of the walking dead. Simmons focuses on the survivors and nothing else for the first three-quarters of the book, and while hardcore zombie-heads will probably be disappointed by this, anyone else on the planet who picks this up will be very pleasantly surprised by how much care Simmons takes in drawing his characters. Yes, some of the coincidences are a little too neat, and there are some scenes that seem to exist solely to advance the plot, but Simmons weaves them in skillfully enough that if you're not paying attention, you may never notice.
Simply put: this is awesome. If you're at all a horror fan, you want to check this out. Simmons has dome something almost unheard-of in horror these days: he's actually written a novel that can be called “original”, and you can keep a straight face while saying it. I love this book. ****
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