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A review by ladytiara
Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
4.0
Dearly, Departed is a terrifically entertaining debut novel from Lia Haber. The book's description calls it a "steampunk romance-meets-zombie thriller." Although it has some streampunk elements, I think it's perhaps better classified as dystopian. But classification quibbles aside, Dearly, Departed is a great read.
It's 2195, and most of the world's countries have disappeared or become uninhabitable. Long ago, a tribe of survivors from North America made their way south to Central America and started a new civilization, New Victoria. Although they are technologically advanced, they have embraced the ideals of a past era and modeled their society on Victorian England. And much like the actual Victorian era, the civilized veneer of society is masking lots of unpleasant things.
Nora Dearly is an upperclass orphaned teenage girl. Unlike most proper young ladies of her class, she's fascinated by the Punks (a rebel group who periodically attack the borders of New Victoria) and war documentaries, an interest she shared with her late father. One night, she's attacked in her home by a group of strange creatures who appear to be both dead and alive. She's rescued by a group of soldiers, but she soon realizes they may be just as scary as her original attackers and she finds herself kidnapped. I won't say anything more about the plot because I don't want to give anything away, but there are many twists and turns in store for Nora. Habel's descriptions of Nora's hometown New London, the zombie soldiers' camp, and various other locations really came alive for me, and I found it very easy to picture this unusual society in my head.
The story is told from multiple points of view. Most of the chapters are narrated by Nora or Bram, a young zombie soldier who still has most of his faculties intact, despite being infected with the zombie virus. There are also a few chapters told from other characters' points of view, which keep the reader involved with the parts of the story that are happening away from Nora and Bram. This point of view switching works much better than I expected it to, because Haber does an excellent job of differentiating between the characters.
I really liked both Nora and Bram. She's an engaging heroine: smart, funny, strong, and not willing to be kept in her place by a society that deems her a second-class citizen because of her gender. Bram is a sympathetic hero. He's been dealt a raw hand in life, but there's no self-pity. Their budding romance could seem creepy, but it's actually very sweet. And if you're not interested in the romantic side of this story, don't worry, there's lots of nonstop adventure of the nonromantic variety, and the plot is very fast moving. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.
I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine.
It's 2195, and most of the world's countries have disappeared or become uninhabitable. Long ago, a tribe of survivors from North America made their way south to Central America and started a new civilization, New Victoria. Although they are technologically advanced, they have embraced the ideals of a past era and modeled their society on Victorian England. And much like the actual Victorian era, the civilized veneer of society is masking lots of unpleasant things.
Nora Dearly is an upperclass orphaned teenage girl. Unlike most proper young ladies of her class, she's fascinated by the Punks (a rebel group who periodically attack the borders of New Victoria) and war documentaries, an interest she shared with her late father. One night, she's attacked in her home by a group of strange creatures who appear to be both dead and alive. She's rescued by a group of soldiers, but she soon realizes they may be just as scary as her original attackers and she finds herself kidnapped. I won't say anything more about the plot because I don't want to give anything away, but there are many twists and turns in store for Nora. Habel's descriptions of Nora's hometown New London, the zombie soldiers' camp, and various other locations really came alive for me, and I found it very easy to picture this unusual society in my head.
The story is told from multiple points of view. Most of the chapters are narrated by Nora or Bram, a young zombie soldier who still has most of his faculties intact, despite being infected with the zombie virus. There are also a few chapters told from other characters' points of view, which keep the reader involved with the parts of the story that are happening away from Nora and Bram. This point of view switching works much better than I expected it to, because Haber does an excellent job of differentiating between the characters.
I really liked both Nora and Bram. She's an engaging heroine: smart, funny, strong, and not willing to be kept in her place by a society that deems her a second-class citizen because of her gender. Bram is a sympathetic hero. He's been dealt a raw hand in life, but there's no self-pity. Their budding romance could seem creepy, but it's actually very sweet. And if you're not interested in the romantic side of this story, don't worry, there's lots of nonstop adventure of the nonromantic variety, and the plot is very fast moving. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.
I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine.