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A review by brianmcdonald42
Dead Sea by Brian Keene
2.0
"Dead Sea" is a horror novel. It's not going to be a feel-good kind of experience. But when you can see the end telegraphed a couple hundred pages in advance, it makes the journey a rough slog.
This is a zombie book. You pretty much know what you're going to get from zombie fiction: blood, guts, gore, violence, some shambling, and a lot of head shots if the human characters have guns. You have tight spaces, overwhelming crowds of zombies, dwindling supplies, and dwindling characters. Maybe there's a "man is the real menace" subplot thrown into the mix. This book has all of those things, done with a minimum amount of craft and skill, with nothing particularly new to say. The zombie animals are a nice touch, but again, telegraphed from a mile off.
"Dead Sea" is competently written, for the most part. I may pick up another one of Keene's books when I'm looking for a basic gory horror book. But maybe zombie stories just aren't suited to be novels. I can't imagine how padded the zombie trilogies and series must be.
This is a zombie book. You pretty much know what you're going to get from zombie fiction: blood, guts, gore, violence, some shambling, and a lot of head shots if the human characters have guns. You have tight spaces, overwhelming crowds of zombies, dwindling supplies, and dwindling characters. Maybe there's a "man is the real menace" subplot thrown into the mix. This book has all of those things, done with a minimum amount of craft and skill, with nothing particularly new to say. The zombie animals are a nice touch, but again, telegraphed from a mile off.
"Dead Sea" is competently written, for the most part. I may pick up another one of Keene's books when I'm looking for a basic gory horror book. But maybe zombie stories just aren't suited to be novels. I can't imagine how padded the zombie trilogies and series must be.