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The Breathing Dead: Horror Book Reviews

Title: The Breathing Dead
Score:
Author: A M Esmonde
Rating: Not available
Comments: 2 Comments
Hits: 271

Review of The Breathing Dead

First of all, I would call this a novella, and there's nothing wrong with that. Better to have a short-read that's a quality story, rather than junk that rambles on longer than necessary.

I have read a lot of zombie books, and this is the first one that gave more depth to female characters (Paffenroth's Dying to Live: A Novel of Life Among the Undead being the only other one that comes close). I liked Jane because she had absolutely no reason to live. Made me question how people can sink so low, and yet still keep going. Zombies being the salt in the wound.

At first glance, Frank and Samuel seem like the typical male responses to the crisis, but you soon find out what lies beneath. Not every little detail is explained, but it's good to leave some things to the imagination.

You can plainly see Romero's influence on Esmonde because of all the psychological stuff going on. This isn't just about people trying to survive a zombie outbreak - they have to survive the consequences of their own decisions. Zombies aren't nearly as bad as making a reckless decision or two.

If your first zombie book was the ZSG or WWZ, I suggest you familiarize yourself with the genre before judging Esmonde's style.

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(2) Comments for The Breathing Dead

Posted by Harryangel

It's not perfect but a great debut novella!

If you like quick reads this is a worthwhile zombie book. The other short previews of other books are interesting.

I must say though it does make a better audio book, I got mine from audible com only to find it was on iTunes cheaper! It's not wwz or monster island but it's very fast paced and the characters are developed as well as can be expected for such a short book. For once the women are a little more real.

It would make a great zombie film. If you like romero I recommend it.

I'll be checking out the authors next book blood hunger. But the book I'm most interested in, called deathwach, is another zombie one hopefully this one will be longer with more development.

The book I score at 3-4 but the audio book is a 5 even with some dodgy gun fire sound effects.

For zombie fans only.
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Posted by Harryangel

(resubmitted, I though scores were out of 5!)

It's not perfect but a great debut novella!

If you like quick reads this is a worthwhile zombie book. The other short previews of other books are interesting.

I must say though it does make a better audio book, I got mine from audible com only to find it was on iTunes cheaper! It's not wwz or monster island but it's very fast paced and the characters are developed as well as can be expected for such a short book. For once the women are a little more real.

It would make a great zombie film. If you like romero I recommend it.

I'll be checking out the authors next book blood hunger. But the book I'm most interested in, called deathwatch, is another zombie one hopefully this one will be longer with more development.

The book I score at 7 but the audio book is a 9 even with some dodgy gun fire sound effects.
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