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bsparx's review
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Slavery
Minor: Cancer
waffle_party's review
4.0
My least favorite so far - i skimmed a lot in the Brother/Father Preston back-story. Still a quality post-apoc/zombie story.
kaelyn87's review
2.0
Enjoyed how this ties Into other lives and stories from the precious two books. However, the misspellings, grammatical errors, and ridiculously slow burn of a read had me bored as all get up. The ending though was quite a turn around of events. Ready for book 4 to continue the journey. High hopes it’s as good as the first two and not this one.
secre's review
2.0
I didn't get on with this installment in the series as well as I did the first two; the characters didn't grip me anywhere near as much and too many themes were simply repeated rather than expanded on. We've already seen the infected used as slaves, there's nothing new there. We know they eat flesh. Nothing new there either.
I also found it difficult to quite believe that one person alone would be able to care for a hundred infected in a mental hospital, even with a certain amount of help from the local community. That in addition to her close friendship to the woman who euthanises the infected, just didn't quite sit right in my mind. In fact, a lot about this novel just didn't quite sit right.
The priests reminded me of those American rabble rousers who stir up hatred and I could see that, however the ease with which these people followed him into torture and murder wasn't quite played right, particularly in light of the people they were killing. Once again we have a very, very bad guy but there's no reason for him being a bad guy other than the fact that he is evil; at least the priest has a backstory, the main villain is just a 2D cut away. And on that matter, I found the flash backs to the priests background to be quite frankly boring.
The ending simply didn't make sense either. I won't say anymore because, well, spoilers, but the entire thing is so far out of the realms of believability that it really jolts you out of your reading. There are a million other ways I could see the ending going; all of which make far more sense than the utterly bafflingly unrealistic one which the author picked.
Finally, the swapping between characters within the novel didn't work for me either. The authors way of telling a different characters tale with each novel is inventive and works well, but swapping between multiple characters within the same book was nowhere near as effective. Much like the cut-scenes, I found the sections with our earliest characters from the first book to be nothing more than boring.
A pity, because the first two were really quite good.
I also found it difficult to quite believe that one person alone would be able to care for a hundred infected in a mental hospital, even with a certain amount of help from the local community. That in addition to her close friendship to the woman who euthanises the infected, just didn't quite sit right in my mind. In fact, a lot about this novel just didn't quite sit right.
The priests reminded me of those American rabble rousers who stir up hatred and I could see that, however the ease with which these people followed him into torture and murder wasn't quite played right, particularly in light of the people they were killing. Once again we have a very, very bad guy but there's no reason for him being a bad guy other than the fact that he is evil; at least the priest has a backstory, the main villain is just a 2D cut away. And on that matter, I found the flash backs to the priests background to be quite frankly boring.
The ending simply didn't make sense either. I won't say anymore because, well, spoilers, but the entire thing is so far out of the realms of believability that it really jolts you out of your reading. There are a million other ways I could see the ending going; all of which make far more sense than the utterly bafflingly unrealistic one which the author picked.
Finally, the swapping between characters within the novel didn't work for me either. The authors way of telling a different characters tale with each novel is inventive and works well, but swapping between multiple characters within the same book was nowhere near as effective. Much like the cut-scenes, I found the sections with our earliest characters from the first book to be nothing more than boring.
A pity, because the first two were really quite good.
tania_kliphuis's review against another edition
4.0
Of all of the books in the series, this one made me the most uncomfortable. Good grief, the baddie is just so awful (actually there are two really awful baddies). The whole situation just made my skin crawl.
I really enjoyed this series because the author doesn't shy away from the truly evil parts of our humanity. And she also doesn't make a grand show of the really good parts either - it's never completely black and white.
I really enjoyed this series because the author doesn't shy away from the truly evil parts of our humanity. And she also doesn't make a grand show of the really good parts either - it's never completely black and white.
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