A review by sian_24
Timberdark by Darren Charlton

adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I struggled so much to get through this one unfortunately. You find yourself a cute zombie dystopian novel and turns out the real enemy was capitalism and consumerism all along, and the bad guys are actually just us. This wasn’t at all the direction I thought the book would go in, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it a few hours after finishing it.

The world building is fine if you contain it to the small settlements the characters visit, heck knows what the rest of the world is like at this point. The characters are bland, with no redeeming or endearing qualities, the charm of the first book is completely lost. Conversations between characters are unrealistic, and don’t get me started on some of the comments/observations that made me uncomfortable on so many occasions to the point where I must have had the most disgusted look on my face while reading this in public.

What was the stag-head ranger thing all about? Was that ever explained? Did I miss it?

So little happened in this book, I honestly don’t know how it’s more than 400 pages. If Peter and Cooper had just had a conversation, we wouldn’t have been in the mess to begin with and I might be bit of a happier reader.

I wish I had some positives for this, I hate spending time reading a book I just can’t connect with, but I never like to give up on a read in the hopes of an improvement, even if I’m not rewarded after all.