octavia_cade's review
2.0
There are some lovely images in this - the bougainvillea in the water, especially - but it doesn't have the creep factor of the novels in the series. Bar the zombies attached to the outside of pirate ships, of course, but I'm kind of failing to see the logic in that strategy. Sure, it threatens land-based populations with infection (if they aren't infected already) but it's got to be easier to loot a settlement that isn't crawling with the undead, surely. Same with the pirate's desire to keep Iza alive, as if a 15 year old girl is necessary to taking over an island refuge that's already shown it's willing to follow force rather than any sense of (however shoddily defined) legitimacy. I don't buy it. I mean, the story's likeable enough, but it's severely undercut by the fact that the zombies are the most believable thing in it.
prationality's review
4.0
Its set only a few (maybe a decade?) years after the Return (aka: when the mudo began manifesting) and it gives us a different perspective on things. Iza remembers life before the Return, though really only vaguely. The story is told in both the 'Before' and the 'Now', going back and forth between her memories of growing up on Curacao and the events leading up to an epiphany about not only her father, but herself as well. The ending is...bittersweet. She found her strength, but by doing so she lost a piece of herself. As always Ryan made me tear up. I think she does this on purpose.
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