Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Book Review: The Boat - Zombie Survivors

It's the apocalypse again!  Watch out for zombies!  

I downloaded this book free from Amazon.  It's currently $4.99.  You can click the image for more info.



Can you guess where this story takes place, based on the title of the book?  It's so simple, and yet I haven't really seen this idea in another zombie book, comic or show.  The survivors take to the water on boats.  In this reality, the infected people-turned zombie can't swim.  Makes sense to me, since all but their basic functions are gone, like in most zombie stories.  They call them sinkers.  The bad part is, although they can't swim, they don't die once they enter the water either.  So taking a refreshing swim to ease the troubles of your apocalyptic life - not such a good idea!

There are three boats, and all radio to one another and help each other out.  There's a self-professed leader among them, although I personally think he's a jerk and doesn't have a single endearing quality about him.  We meet a handful of survivors, and a back story to go with most of them.  The story takes place a mere two months after the outbreak of the disease.

I like that Dougherty gave us a glimpse into the cause of the disease.  In anything else that I have read, there has yet to be an answer on why everyone started dying and reanimating out of nowhere.  I won't give it away here, but it's an interesting idea, and one that could really be all too realistic in our world.

If you're a fan of The Walking Dead, one of the main themes that they have started to pinpoint is the idea that even in a world where there are people-killing machines everywhere, zombies still might not be your biggest threat.  That is a big focus here in this story.  If nothing else, trust your instincts!  Now, you shouldn't go shooting every stranger you come into contact with, like our good buddy Carl from TWD, but strangers shouldn't be fully trusted either!

Since I'm making references to the show and comics, one thing that did throw me off slightly was the similar names in the book.  There was, in fact, a Carl on one of the boats.  It was hard for me to picture the character that he was supposed to be and not the stubborn kid from TWD.  I think there was another name that was the same between the two stories, but I didn't write it down and I already forgot.  Oops.  That's really where the similarities ended, though.  I'm glad that Dougherty didn't try to just rework the story that has and continues to be written that is so popular.  She took her own spin on the idea of zombies taking over the world, and I really enjoyed reading it.

If you're a fan of the whole zombie craze, check this book out.

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