Undead on Arrival

Undead on Arrival

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4.28 of 5 stars 4.28  ·  rating details  ·  29 ratings  ·  18 reviews
Today is the last day of Glen Novak’s life.

Five years after the end of the world, the few remaining humans are barricaded in a small vacation town on the California coast, beset by hordes of the undead.

A single bite turns a man into a walking corpse. There’s no cure and no hope.

Someone made sure Novak was bitten and now he has one day to put things in
order, protect his peo...more
Paperback, First, 300 pages
Published June 21st 2012 by Solstice Publishing
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Fran
Undead on Arrival: Justin Robinson

Glen Novak is dead but is he really dead dead? Glen Novak was shot in the head and his thoughts and feelings have not been erased, well not yet anyway. Humans are practically extinct. The war that started over five years ago is over. The human race is gone so who is telling this story and how why does he have one day: 24 hours to make things right? What exactly does he think he will accomplish? Why?

This man’s entire world ended five years ago. A strange and mys...more
Leila
With zombies saturating the market lately in the form of movies and books, I was a little skeptical about how I'd feel when I finished this book. There was absolutely no reason for me to worry.

Although it's a novel about zombies, I really enjoyed the fresh take on how survivors would act post-zombie apocalypse. (I'm assuming it's a fresh take; I don't really love zombie stories and haven't read a ton of them) And since it follows just one man and only for one day, I didn't get overwhelmed with s...more
Teddy
If you check out the description and find yourself interested (which I assume you would be if you're also checking out the reviews!), you MUST read this novel. Undead on Arrival will not let you down- delivering what you demand from a horror novel and serving up so much more.

Mr. Robinson's writing juxtaposes stark and vivid, creating a black & white world full of explicit detail and action. He has extracted a tiny portion of the zombie apocalypse aftermath (simplified down to the survivalist...more
Kevin Hogan
A series of disconnected thoughts about Undead on Arrival:

Once the story starts to move, it doesn't stop for anything.

The zombie apocalypse has happened, and it weighs heavily over everything. It is not a lighthearted romp through post-industrial society. Post-apocalypse implies that the apocalypse has ended -- this is not the case here. The book is bleak, but manages not to be without hope.

The violence is matter-of-fact, but not fetishistic (zombie fiction of all media is prone to this trap).

T...more
Scott
Glen Novak is a dead man. Unfortunately for the scumbag that had the guts to take him out, Novak will keep on cracking skulls and breaking bones until he either finds the piece of trash that set him up for a geek bite, or is forced to take himself out before he turns into a walking sack of rotten meat. With Undead On Arrival, Justin Robinson gives us a hard boiled take on the Zombie genre that stands out as one of the most compellingly brutal examinations of the living dead you’ll ever read. Thr...more
Kate
A cynical noir antihero meets zombies - sorry, geeks - in what's a pretty darn clever update on the zombie survival genre. I don't even LIKE zombie novels, and this one kept me reading - with distinctive, if rather unlikeable (in that wonderful noir way), characters and a race-to-the-finish-line plot, it was pretty hard to step away, even when the geeks were coming fast and furious and the humans were as awful as the monsters they were fighting. The rendering of a postapocalyptic mini-society wa...more
T.j.
Mr. Novak is not a nice person. Then again, there are few nice people in noir novels; its how light the grey is that defines the protagonist. He does questionable things; he'll make you downright disgusted at times. But, due in large part to Mr. Robinson's deft characterization of the populace of Devon, you will root for him nevertheless. Undead on Arrival is a meld of dark noir, zombie fiction, and a bit of historical siege warfare in one that starts fast and continuously builds momentum until...more
Mana Taylor-Hall
Jul 11, 2012 Mana Taylor-Hall rated it 5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Mana by: Justin Robinson
The world has ended and has started to rot.

With words as stark and vivid as the hatchet on the cover we see the world in decay. This is not the last society of good that has clung together against the hungry maw of the undead, this is where every hardened murdering psychopath that you need in a zombie movie ends up after the rest of his happy-go-lucky group gets slaughtered by the undead.

It is gritty. It is dark. Its humor is really dark. And it is fantastic story. With a colorful crew of charac...more
Nik Morton
Joseph Conrad's character Kurtz said 'The horror! The horror!' in The Heart of Darkness. He could have been alluding to this slice of zombie fiction. The horror is unrelenting, from the doom-laden beginning to the riveting end. This book is not for the squeamish, being peppered with blood, gore, swearing and sex, but it certainly maintains an uncanny quite clammy grip of suspense, while grimly examining the duality of human nature. (I wrote the above as an advance review for the book and still a...more
J. Ringo
Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, Cornell Woolrich, Patricia Highsmith, Stephen King…and now Justin Robinson.

Seriously, if you like any of the above authors, then you’ve gotta read this book. Even though I usually don’t really like zombies that much, I read the description and the reviews and I was intrigued enough to give it a shot. Next thing I know, I’d finished the whole thing. Robinson really does an amazing job of creating an immersive world that you'll get lost in. I alrea...more
Xach
The book was recommended to me by a friend, and while I am not really a fan of zombie stories anymore--I think they've jumped the shark--I decided to take a chance on this one.

I'm glad I did.

From its roots in classic noir stylings, "Undead on Arrival" offers a stark reality of flawed characters who the reader comes to realize exist in a world where there is no such thing as a good guy. It's not that there are only bad guys in this story, just that every villain is the protagonist of his/her own...more
Clinton
Something is rotten in the Central California town of Devon... and it's not just the smell of the zombies besieging its walls. Welcome to Undead on Arrival, a novel that ingeniously fuses the hard-boiled detective genre with the horrors of the zombie apocalypse. Get ready for a two-fisted thrill ride of murder and betrayal as Glen Novak has only a matter of hours to find out who punched his ticket and get his revenge, before he succumbs to the virus in his veins that will truly make him a dead m...more
Hoss
I picked up this book last night, started in on the second chapter, and didn't stop turning pages until I was finished, if that tells you anything about how much I liked this book. It's a classic noir murder mystery set in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, chronicling the tale of Glen Novak attempting to solve his own murder before being devoured by the zombie plague he has been purposely infected with.

I'm not normally into noir or murder mysteries (I enjoy them, but I've never focused on t...more
Brian
A solid, suspenseful read. It isn't so much a zombie book as a revenge mystery that takes place in a world that happens to contain zombies. That may seem like a minor point, but I think it makes all the difference in the world and is what sets this book apart from other zombie tales.
Holly
Aug 26, 2012 Holly rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2012
This zombie noir thriller is a suspenseful, satisfying read, as evidenced by the fact that I couldn't put it down and finished it in one day. Not to say I liked the characters; I didn't, as they were all pretty horrible human beings. But they were incredibly interesting, and actual characters and not simply cardboard cut-outs made to walk around a post-apocalyptic novel like dolls. No, these characters were despicable yet compelling and complex. The plot was intense, and the story world itself w...more
Hope
This is a story about an already bitten human-soon-to-be-zombie trying to figure out who wanted him dead. It's a sort of "who dunnit/apocolypse/zombie/thriller". The writing and suspense are real and true, albeit a bit unsavory at times. That's really my only warning about this book...Robinson sure likes his characters to talk like sailors.

Everything happens within a single day - the last of Novak's life, but seems an eternity. Time slows down then your heart races through gritty action scenes....more
Janice
I really enjoyed reading this book. I won this book on Goodreads.com.
Lauri
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's fast-paced, full of zombies, with plenty of intrigue for those who like a mystery in addition to chilling scenes of humanity gone awry. Plus, Pulaski is probably one of the most entertaining supporting characters in a book ever.
Nicole
May 19, 2013 Nicole marked it as to-read
Monica
May 10, 2013 Monica marked it as to-read
Lauren
Apr 27, 2013 Lauren marked it as to-read
Sundance
Apr 09, 2013 Sundance marked it as to-read
Melinda
Apr 07, 2013 Melinda marked it as to-read
Anna
Mar 19, 2013 Anna marked it as to-read
Jaron Kie
Jan 10, 2013 Jaron Kie marked it as to-read
Matt
Jan 04, 2013 Matt marked it as to-read
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topics  posts  views  last activity   
Q&A with Just...: Influences 1 4 Jul 23, 2012 11:24am  
Q&A with Just...: Undead On Arrival 1 2 Jul 23, 2012 11:24am  
Q&A with Just...: Writing Process and Other Stuff 1 1 Jul 23, 2012 11:22am  
Q&A with Just...: Welcome! 1 2 Jul 23, 2012 11:21am  
5831306
Much like film noir, Justin Robinson was born and raised in Los Angeles. He splits his time between editing comic books, writing prose and wondering what that disgusting smell is. Degrees in Anthropology and History prepared him for unemployment, but an obsession with horror fiction and a laundry list of phobias provided a more attractive option.
More about Justin Robinson...
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