A review by mikekaz
Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry
4.0
This is a solidly entertaining book with more heart and emotion than I thought it would have. On the eve of a superstorm, something weird has happened at the local mortuary of a rural county in Pennsylvania. The two officers sent to investigate find bodies missing and people who should be dead but are still moving. Meanwhile a local reporter gets tipped off to separate weird happenings at the local prison. The two events end up connected as the start of and the origin of the zombie apocalypse.
One of the things that made sense but was also a bit annoying was how long it took for the characters to admit the undead were zombies. In real-life, I'm sure it would take some time before zombies were seriously accepted even if they were biting you on the arm, but here it seemed to take even longer. Not even a semi-cliche "Zombies? Are you crazy? Those don't really exist." I did enjoy the investigative aspect taken by the reporter to find the origin of the zombies. While it might have been a bit cliche (I'm not going to say it so I don't spoil anything), it fit the story perfectly. The final thing I wanted to discuss was the main character, Dez Fox. I found her to fluctuate between being strong and barely holding on. She seemed to be dealing with the story events one moment and then nearly falling apart the next. I didn't feel that I was connecting to her throughout most of the story, but then the final sequences of the book happened. And I found them heart wrenching. I could feel the tears in my eyes. And this was mostly due to the raw emotion that Dez Fox was experiencing, her difficulty in accepting what was happening. I was feeling what she was feeling which meant I was more connected than I thought. I've already picked up and am reading the next book in the series: FALL OF NIGHT.
One of the things that made sense but was also a bit annoying was how long it took for the characters to admit the undead were zombies. In real-life, I'm sure it would take some time before zombies were seriously accepted even if they were biting you on the arm, but here it seemed to take even longer. Not even a semi-cliche "Zombies? Are you crazy? Those don't really exist." I did enjoy the investigative aspect taken by the reporter to find the origin of the zombies. While it might have been a bit cliche (I'm not going to say it so I don't spoil anything), it fit the story perfectly. The final thing I wanted to discuss was the main character, Dez Fox. I found her to fluctuate between being strong and barely holding on. She seemed to be dealing with the story events one moment and then nearly falling apart the next. I didn't feel that I was connecting to her throughout most of the story, but then the final sequences of the book happened. And I found them heart wrenching. I could feel the tears in my eyes. And this was mostly due to the raw emotion that Dez Fox was experiencing, her difficulty in accepting what was happening. I was feeling what she was feeling which meant I was more connected than I thought. I've already picked up and am reading the next book in the series: FALL OF NIGHT.