M. R. Carey – DaneCobain.com

Claire C. Riley – Odium | Review

September 6, 2016 danecobain

Authors P-T (By Surname)Fiction

Title: Odium

Author: Claire C. Riley

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 374

Rating: 7/10

Claire C. Riley – Odium

I picked up my copy of Odium over a year ago now, when I paid a visit to the Second City Signing in Birmingham. It was a great day, and I came away with three or four books, and for some reason I never get round to reading this one. I’m glad I did, though.

Riley is an indie author who tells stories that’ll scare you, and this book is the first book in a series of zombie novels and follows the travels of a couple of girls after they’re exiled from behind the walls of a corrupt survivors’ camp and have to make their own way in the big, bad world.

To some extent, Riley relies on some cliches and stereotypes that are common to the zombie survival genre, but she does also add some of her own unique takes on it as well. It also borrows heavily from other genres – the romance, for example, felt very young adult to me – but manages to merge them all together into a cohesive whole.

Claire C. Riley

With many indie books, you’re subjected to grammar fails and spelling mistakes, but that’s not so here. I spotted maybe a couple of errors at most, and the layout looked good and did the contents justice. It’s strange, because reading this made me realise that I don’t actually read many zombie novels, despite being a fan of the genre.

Odium wasn’t mind-blowing, and it wasn’t the kind of book that made me just stare at the pages while asking myself ‘how did anyone come up with this?’. But it was a good read, an entertaining zombie story that’s one of the better indie novels that I’ve read in the last six months. I’d still recommend other books – such as The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey – if you’re new to the genre, but I’d recommend it if you like to support indie authors or if you’re a frequent reader of zombie stuff.

I’d be interested to see what else the author has been up to since I met her at the signing. Probably working on the rest of the series!

Claire C. Riley

Click here to buy Odium.

M. R. Carey – The Girl With All the Gifts | Review

July 31, 2014 danecobain

Authors A-E (By Surname)Fiction

Title: The Girl With All the Gifts

Author: M. R. Carey

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 407

Rating: 10/10

M. R. Carey – The Girl With All the Gifts

My god, I wasn’t expecting this book to be as good as it was – it’s the type of book that you can hardly put down, extremely well-written with exquisite characterisation and a story-line to die for. First, though, I have to thank Francesca from Fashion Dough for launching her blogger book club – this is the first book to be assigned to the book club, and if this is a sign of things to come then I can’t wait to keep on going.

See, The Girl With All the Gifts is essentially a zombie story with a difference, written by “an established British writer of prose fiction and comic books”, who’s written for DC and Marvel, as well as for a Hollywood movie. Loosely speaking, it follows the story of an infected child, who’s kept under lock and key at an army base with dozens of other children – I don’t want to say too much more because I don’t want to give away any of the major plot twists, but I can promise you that it’s an interesting take on the standard format of the zombie novel.

Melanie herself, as the infected child and one of the protagonists, is vaguely reminiscent of Clementine from the Walking Dead games, with a sort of wild-eyed innocence that accentuates the inevitable depravity that the world has sunk in to. Meanwhile, the whole vibe of the novel is more like the eerie stillness of 28 Days Later than the full-on zombie action of one of the Resident Evil movies, and I like that.

M. R. Carey

Plus there’s the epic twist at the end, which I kind of saw coming but still enjoyed immensely, but I don’t want to tell you about that. Instead, I should tell you about how much of a bad-ass Sergeant Parks is, or how the hungries start to take on human traits despite the obvious spread of the infection. There’s so much going on between the pages of the book that there’s something in there for everyone, even if you’re not normally in to zombie reads – I highly, highly encourage you to go out and purchase a copy and give it a read.

Besides, who knows? When the zombie apocalypse finally strikes, this book might just save your life. Thank me then, folks.