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The Undying Apathy of Imogen Shroud

by Ben White (Goodreads Author)

4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 · rating details · 15 ratings · 7 reviews

Imogen Shroud is the unhappiest seventeen year-old in all of existence. The world offers her nothing, and so she offers nothing to the world. Given the choice she'd just lie in bed all day every day, a stack of books beside her, locked safely away from the uncaring outside.

But reality intrudes on even the most sedentary life. Imogen is forced out of her room and halfway ac...more

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Published (first published April 14th 2011)

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The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Best Cover Fall/Winter 2011

232nd out of 402 books — 1,492 voters

The Walking Dead, Vol. 1 by Robert Kirkman

Zombies!

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Dec 09, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Book Title: The Undying Apathy of Imogen Shroud

Author: Ben White

Published By: Clover Island Publishing (April 14, 2011)

Genre: Horror

Recommended Age: +14

Reviewed By: Emily Tuley / AngelsCryHavoc

Blog Reviewed For: Great Minds Think Aloud Literary Community

Rating: 4 Ravens

First upon my receiving of this book I forgot that I had registered to win it off of Librarything. Being swamped with recent reviews and as well as the holidays I glanced at the title and then selected it for one of my weekly rea...more Book Title: The Undying Apathy of Imogen Shroud

Author: Ben White

Published By: Clover Island Publishing (April 14, 2011)

Genre: Horror

Recommended Age: +14

Reviewed By: Emily Tuley / AngelsCryHavoc

Blog Reviewed For: Great Minds Think Aloud Literary Community

Rating: 4 Ravens

First upon my receiving of this book I forgot that I had registered to win it off of Librarything. Being swamped with recent reviews and as well as the holidays I glanced at the title and then selected it for one of my weekly reads. Imagine my surprise when I realized this wasn’t your normal Zombie story. Being the lovers of Zombie literature I was expecting a lot of the same old same old. I’m pleased to find that it was nothing of the sort and actually enjoyed this book thoroughly especially with the odd turn of events. The Undying Apathy of Imogen Shroud will have you laughing, crying a little and then laughing more as she struggles not only to save her life but her brothers , mothers, grandfathers and … dad?

Imogen is a 17 year old girl, dealing with the loss of her first girlfriend and the fact that she is a lesbian. Depressed clinically to the point that she doesn’t even want to leave her room. She finds the only reason she gets out is to do what her mother forces her to do. Which are take care of her brother and go see her senile and little crazy grandfather. Who brings a very laughable dirty old man to the mix. He’s quite crazy but Imogen clearly loves him. Upon returning from visiting with her grandfather, Imogen is told by her mother that she is taking her brother to his comicon a comic book convention at the convention center. Unknowing of the crazy day that will begin for them both once there.

As if the costume wearing comic geeks weren’t enough for Imogen as she things of them at times. She’s stuck with a crowd of people, nowhere to smoke and the feelings of depression struggling just to go home and stay in her funk wishing she was dead. For someone who wishes so hard to die it’s clear later that Imogen wants to live. Due to a weather experiment from some Japanese scientists a crazy wind is unleashed upon the whole of the US and Imogen finds herself in the middle of the whole crazy thing when whatever was in those winds starts to bring the dead back to life. The problem with these dead is you can’t kill them by just a hole in the head. In fact they can’t be killed at all only disabled but that begins the whole crazy hard display of life or death situations making Imogen fight… fight for her life and fight for her little brother who she loves just to get home. Meeting a list of crazy characters and other people as well as Zed Imogen and her group fight to get out of the city and home. (less)

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Jun 08, 2011 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, member-giveaway-reviews

Fast paced, funny, and at times completely horrific I found myself staying up all night to finish this little gem. Imogen, wrapped in a deep depression after a failed romance, slogs through life just trying to meet her mothers demand that she leave her house once a week. Being 17 and tortured by the attentions of her hero worshipping younger brother, Imogen finds herself forced to endure the company of the undersized 11 year old Zack on a trek across town to a comic con. Once there all hell brea...more

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Oct 20, 2011 Doskoi_panda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook

Ben White's "The Undying Apathy of Imogen Shroud" begins with an angsty, vaguely gothy, 17 year old girl suffering from a bout of depression due to a romantic betrayal (her girlfriend turned out to have used her to get a boyfriend.) She lives at home with her mother (a possible couch potato with a bad leg) and her 12 year old brother, Zach. She ventures out only to make her mother's minimum of leaving the house once a week, returning library books and visiting her grandfather, who is growing sen...more Ben White's "The Undying Apathy of Imogen Shroud" begins with an angsty, vaguely gothy, 17 year old girl suffering from a bout of depression due to a romantic betrayal (her girlfriend turned out to have used her to get a boyfriend.) She lives at home with her mother (a possible couch potato with a bad leg) and her 12 year old brother, Zach. She ventures out only to make her mother's minimum of leaving the house once a week, returning library books and visiting her grandfather, who is growing senile in a geriatric centre. One day her mother volunteers her to act as chaperon for Zach on a trip to the convention centre for a comic convention (her mother also specifies a trip to the job centre, a suggestion which is largely ignored.) Imogen and Zach get to the convention centre, tour the con a bit, then things go ... wrong. And then there were zombies. The book shifts from teen angst to survivalist terror as it follows Imogen's attempt to survive.

White handles the interaction between siblings well; Imogen's mixture of irritation, teasing, name-calling, and possessive-caring attitude and Zach's adoration, whinging, inability to shut up, and childish priorities are all very believable, though I felt that his actions could be read as younger than 12 at times. Descriptions of locations, costumes, zombies are all excellent; you can visualise it clearly, though the convention centre is confusing in its layout (and this comes across both in description and character comments) - I couldn't map it out in my head. Fight scenes, too, are chaotic, but it leaves the appropriate impression in the reader's mind - an experience of the chaos of a fight. Gore is ... well... gore; zombies being 1) undead and rotting 2) corpse eaters and 3) not known for hygiene or table manners, this was never going to be pretty. That said, the author keeps things just this side of nauseating.

Now for the less delightful: there was a definite repetitive feel to the zombie attacks, so much so that I wound up skimming the longer attack sections, picking up on major changes or impacts. The formatting and font (please note: I read this converted on Calibre) felt designed to assault - hurling giant blocks of dense text. While that increased my awareness of the strain the characters were under, and it definitely grips and doesn't let go, it also made the reading experience part of the zombie's assault. Not sure I can really criticise that exactly, but I feel it worth mentioning. The characters need more depth - they feel cartoony; 2 dimensional rather than fleshed out or real. A lot of questions unanswered (significance of the monorail scene, particularly the weird rhythm Imogen hears; everything about the convention centre's weirdness; the question of the leg, etc.) though hopefully some sort of sequel will expound on these.

Overall: 4 or 4.5 stars. I'm still oscillating - I almost decided on a 5 star rating, but the repetitiveness of the fight scenes really got to me. I really liked this enough to give it 5 stars, but the problems I've listed do make an impact on both the story's value. That said, it's a pretty fun ride if you enjoy the zombie genre.

I gave this a 5 star on Amazon in the end - at $2.99 it's a steal.

Review copy supplied by the author as part of LibraryThing's Member Giveaway Program.(less)

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Apr 06, 2012 Marie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: paranormal, ya, zombies

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 18, 2011 Kat rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: zombie, updated

Imogen Shroud is a 17 year old dragged down by life, her days existing of hiding away in her room, reading and generally staring into space. I didn’t know how to feel about Imogen to begin with – she was an intriguing character, but not exactly likeable. However, as the book progressed, I grew to like her more and more – her tenacity, her black sense of humour and loyalty to her family endeared Imogen to me, and by the end she was one of my favourite book characters of this year.

The writing is f...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Laura Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! It was a bit hard to get into in the beginning, but after that I couldn't put it down! Would love to see a part 2!

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Mar 17, 2012 Khrystine rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really really liked this book. It would make an awesome movie as well. The way it starts out, I was expecting something a little different, so if you aren't sure at first, keep reading.

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Shelves: zom-nom-nom, young-adult-coming-of-age, f-f, read-me-soon

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About Ben White

Oh, hello! I'm Ben, Benjamin Joseph Kuniyoshi White if you're not into the whole brevity thing, BJK White if you're somewhere in the middle. I'm sometimes an author person. Most of my books would fall under the umbrella of 'Girls Kicking Arse', and probably if you had to choose a section of the library to put them in, Young Adult would be the safest bet.

To get specific, I'm the leastselling author...more

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