A review by xterminal
Lakewood Memorial by Robert R. Best
3.0
Robert R. Best, Lakewood Memorial (CreateSpace, 2009)
Lakewood Memorial, the first book in a projected trilogy, takes a great what-if and runs with it: what if, when the zombie apocalypse hit, you were in a hospital? A lot of the lit glosses over the possibilities (think the Dawn of the Dead remake here) or just ignores the existence of hospitals other than as a possible source for medical supplies for survivors (Conrad Williams' One comes to mind). But in Lakewood Memorial, the surivor-band for one of the two parallel storylines is trapped in the titular hospital by a mob of the living dead. (The second parallel storyline details the adventures of Maylee and Dylan, teenaged daughter and preteen son, of Angie, the nurse who's one of the main characters of the first storyline, to avoid getting eaten while making their way to the hospital.) Best doesn't do anything new with the genre trappings, but playing what-if is a valid method of writing a zombie novel; give your protagonists access to what they would have in a hospital, set some conflicting personalities at each other's throats, and run with it. Best does a solid if not spectacular job with the material, though he's got a few language problems (he hits one of my sorest spots in consistently using the word “bitty” when he means to use “biddy”), and I'll definitely be moving onto book #2 in the series soon. ***
Lakewood Memorial, the first book in a projected trilogy, takes a great what-if and runs with it: what if, when the zombie apocalypse hit, you were in a hospital? A lot of the lit glosses over the possibilities (think the Dawn of the Dead remake here) or just ignores the existence of hospitals other than as a possible source for medical supplies for survivors (Conrad Williams' One comes to mind). But in Lakewood Memorial, the surivor-band for one of the two parallel storylines is trapped in the titular hospital by a mob of the living dead. (The second parallel storyline details the adventures of Maylee and Dylan, teenaged daughter and preteen son, of Angie, the nurse who's one of the main characters of the first storyline, to avoid getting eaten while making their way to the hospital.) Best doesn't do anything new with the genre trappings, but playing what-if is a valid method of writing a zombie novel; give your protagonists access to what they would have in a hospital, set some conflicting personalities at each other's throats, and run with it. Best does a solid if not spectacular job with the material, though he's got a few language problems (he hits one of my sorest spots in consistently using the word “bitty” when he means to use “biddy”), and I'll definitely be moving onto book #2 in the series soon. ***