by
3.55 of 5 stars
First in a brand new urban fantasy series that's "fresh and funny, with a great new take on zombies" (Karen Chance) and "full of dangerous magi... read full description

reviews

May 21, 2011
Paula rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Nancy’s Holzner’s Deadtown is not just another tale about a sexy demon fighter in leather pants (although the cover does feature pretty cool cover art of our hunter in leather pants, brandishing a smoking semi-automatic rifle and a flaming sword).

While it ticks all the usual boxes – zombies, vampires, werewolves, bad ass demons, witches, sorcerers et al – it also has a social conscience.

Like the vampires in Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series and the mutants of the X-m More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Aug 12, 2010
Shannon rated it: 2 of 5 stars
2.5 stars: Mediocre urban fantasy in a genre filled with other great offerings

Victory Vaughn, a shapeshifter and professional demon slayer, lives in an area known as Deadtown--Boston's quarantined section for shifters, vampires and zombies. The monsters have recently come out of the closet. Many 'Paranormal Americans' are fighting for their rights, including Vicky's on-and-off again boyfriend Alexander Kane, lawyer and werewolf. The fast paced plot includes demon-plagued clients, pol More...
2 comments like (5 people liked it)
Feb 21, 2011
Tammy rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Oct 10, 2011
Anna rated it: 4 of 5 stars
My full review of the series will be up at Bite Club on 10/11/11. Here's what I had to say about book 1:

Deadtown introduces us to Victory Vaughn, aka Vicky, a Cerddorion (shapeshifter) that happens to be the only demon slayer in town, while throwing us head first into a world where zombies, vampires and werewolves are all trying to establish equal rights while living in a quarantine zone complete with checkpoints and guards. The worldbuilding alone would keep even the most seasoned u More...
Jul 15, 2011
Sara rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Plot: 5 Stars
Paranormal Americans are fighting for citizenship around the country, and specifically in Boston, home of Deadtown, a part of the city where zombies and all other PAs are forced to live. I really liked the political aspect to the story, even though it took a slight backseat to the mayhem of Victory Vaughn's life. As the only demon hunter in Boston, Vicky running around town slaying the personal demons of others. Deadtown is a fresh and entertaining addition to the genre that h More...
Feb 20, 2011
♆ Bookaddict rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I don't like zombies. It's rare that I read a story with zombies in it. Deadtown by Ms. Holzner was surprisingly good. In her world, zombies are not as bad as you think. Still, Tina, one of the zombies annoyed me greatly and I can only hope she gets killed in the next book.

Ms. Holzner creates a world where the paranormal exists and are persecuted. This is not so different than any other book, yet her take on it is interesting. I liked how each character in the book possess flaws. More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Jan 12, 2011
Ithlilian rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Demon killing shapeshifter meets zombie filled Boston. Excellent premise, great worldbuilding, but flawed characters, execution, and plot. I can honestly say I didn't like a single character in Deadtown. Our heroine, Victory, is pretty flat. I can't think of a single unique trait about her. Her past with the demon was interesting, though it only took up a page or two, but other than that she's pretty normal. Her boyfriend, Kane, is highly irritable, pushy, and rude. A large section of the novel More...
Dec 31, 2010
Kim rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Urban fantasy is a very popular genre these days. At its best, it takes familiar elements from our world and blends them with a creative interpretation of fantasy tropes to create stories that are fast-paced and moving, neither too alien nor too mundane. At its worst, it can be an excuse for an endless parade of sexy paranormal creatures (some of whom have no business being sexy to begin with), Mary Sue heroines who attract these creatures by the busload, and the kind of love triangles in which More...
Dec 29, 2010
Karissa rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This is the first book in Holzner's Deadtown series. Last I heard Holzner had two books on contract for this series, the second one Hellforged is due out the end of this month. I was super excited to read this book; it sounded right up my alley. Zombies, demons, and a kick-butt heroine! Well I was a little disappointed; this was an okay book but not great. Some of the story line is really interesting, but the majority of characters are annoying and hard to love.

Vicki is a shapeshi More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jul 19, 2010
Monster rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Deadtown depicts a world where parahumans have no civil rights and are forced to live in one area of town, to the point where they have to have permits to leave that area of town. The lead character is Victory Vaughn, the latest in a recent line of Welsh true shape shifters, and a demon hunter. Her kind-of-boyfriend is the lead civil rights attorney for Paranormal Americas, and a werewolf. When one of her clients is found dead Vicky realizes that the Hellion that killed her father is now hunting More...
Feb 05, 2010
Marianna rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Deadtown is an easy to read urban fantasy book. I finished it in one night. The story was one of those ones were only the heroine with the unique powers (etc) can save the day. I didn't hate this book, but I didn't love it either. Most of the characters I disliked. Victory was your average, witty and smokin' hot heroine. Kane (the sorta-boyfriend) was annoying. Daniel (the potential boyfriend, who sets Vicky's loins a blazin') was meh; I need more than just a pretty face. Vicky's family was just More...
Jan 13, 2010
Fiendishly rated it: 4 of 5 stars
If you are intrigued by a new paranormal world where zombies (oops Recently Deceased Humans) just want to be loved and treated equally, then you'll love Deadtown. Brilliantly funny and believable zombies, werewolves, vamps and other dark creatures of the night exist side by side in a sort of refugee camp outside of Boston separated by the New Combat Zone, a buffer between the norms and the paranormals (PR). A This class schism erupts after a plague breaks out in Boston and other cities and its c More...
Jan 15, 2011
Ami rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Victory "Vicky" Vaughn is a Cerddorion, a shapeshifter that can shift into sentient being. She also works as demon hunters -- with a sort-of American lawyer/werewolf boyfriend, a vampire roommate, and a zombie teenage underling. Then her client is killed and Vicky finds herself facing an enemy from the past, a Hellion who murdered her father, is coming to Deadtown ... and it might be the end for the city.

I was a bit uncertain when I started this book, mainly because there w More...
Jan 15, 2011
Sharon rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Ok, I read the first few chapters & yes I could of just put it back down again,( only because the relationship with the zombie teenager irked), but I stuck with it & as the plot expanded it did suck me in. Our protagonist Vicky (short for Victory) is the only registered demon slayer in Bostin , shes a rare active Welsh shapeshifter (can change into any sentient being), as well liking leather & kickass boots, can banish demons in clients dreams, (harpies etc), she's not afraid of anything, is int More...
Feb 28, 2010
Eunmi rated it: 2 of 5 stars
I liked the world building in the beginning. I especially appreciated the Boston setting since I have been living in the Greater Boston area last 17 years. I was Also overwhelmed by different paranormal species that entered the story... she is a shape shifter, her roommate is a vampire, her boyfriend/lawyer a werewolf. Then the baddies are demons of various kinds. A lot was told and not shown which made me tired. It was a busy busy book but the plot was fairly predictable and not so interesting More...
Mar 27, 2011
Alice rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I has the pleasure of meeting Nancy Holzner at Arisia this year, and I found her smart, funny, and interesting on all of her panels. I'm glad I picked up her book.

The author described the series as her reaction to book blurbs that describe characters who fight their personal demons. What if you could hire someone else to fight those personal demons? And thus was Victory Vaughn born.

The book has a lot of familiar monsters, many of whom act in just the way you've heard i More...
Feb 25, 2011
slayra rated it: 2 of 5 stars
RATING: 2 stars

This book was... unremarkable in every way. The characters, world and story didn't stand out at all. And in the Urban Fantasy world you have to stand out, because the genre is saturated.

Unfortunately, as I said before, "Deadtown" didn't. The world presented in the book is pretty standard and not very original. Vampires are not explained and the only vampire we meet - Juliet - seems to be a toned down version of the sexy!vampire stereotype. Werewol More...
Dec 14, 2009
Review courtesy of AllThingsUrbanFantasy.blogspot.com
*Deadtown releases on December 29th* Victory Vaughn is a shapeshifting professional demon hunter living in Boston's mandatory ‘paranormal reservation’ known as Deadtown. In Deadtown, things that go bump in the night (werewolves, vampires etc.) have always been around but the world at large has only just learned of their existence. And the coming out process has been anything but smooth. Zombies, or Previously Deceased Humans, are a di More...
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
Jan 05, 2011
Yolanda rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
Oct 03, 2011
Fans of Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series and Chole Neill’s Chicagoland Vampires series will want to check out Deadtown by Nancy Holzner. It has the same type of feel to it, the heroine, Victory Vaughn, is snarky and kick ass. Oh and she’s a shifter that has a kind-of-sort-of boyfriend that’s a werewolf. Her roommate is a vamp, Juliet, like as in Romeo and Juliet. She has a teenage zombie as a sidekick and she just happens to hunt demons.

After a mutated plaque hit Boston, it turned s More...
Jan 06, 2010
Justin rated it: 4 of 5 stars
When FanLit interviewed Nancy Holzner last month, I thought she sounded so nice, and her debut, Deadtown, sounded awesome. While shopping that night at my local Wal-Mart, I noticed Deadtown on the shelf, so, naturally, into my cart it went, and I started reading as soon as I got home.

After a mysterious plague strikes Boston, its fallout area becomes known as Deadtown. Deadtown residents are controlled by the state of Massachusetts — they have few rights and must carry identifying pap More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jul 14, 2011
L-D rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book is a pretty good start to a series. I give it about a 3.5 star rating with potential. After a virus kills about 3000 people in Boston, a few days later those dead people rise as zombies. Since only humans were affected by the virus, non-humans were outed and then segregated into Deadtown. While I did like the main character, Victory Vaughn - a demon-hunting shape-shifter, her relationships with the other characters don't seem to have much depth. Her on-again/off-again pseudo-boyfr More...
2 comments like (1 person liked it)
Dec 22, 2009
Smokinhotbooks rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Zombies in pink skirts? Yes, please. After reading this line I knew I was going to like this book. Usually zombies are undead monsters that like to feed on human flesh *eye roll*, where’s the personality?! In Deadtown zombies are like any other undead/inhuman residents in the old quarantined section of the city. Vicky has the unfortunate pleasure of taking on an immature, pink skirt wearing zombie, Tina – as an intern. Zombies are civilized just be careful not to prick your human finger in More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Sep 23, 2011
Victory loves her job. She gets to kick demon butt, and she is quite good at it. She lives in Deadtown, named for the zombies that were created there. Its borders hold all the paranormal residents be they alive or undead, keeping them separate from humans, for now...

Deadtown was completely different than I had expected. In the past I hadn't been interested in zombie books for the most part. They just weren't my thing, so I had passed over reading Deadtown in favor of other books. Howev More...
Feb 22, 2011
Katyana rated it: 3 of 5 stars
***3.5***


I have been waffling back and forth all day on this book.

On the one hand, there was some fun stuff going on. This world is an exciting one, with some twists on old monsters (zombies and shapeshifters are a little bit different than we have seen them in other places) and an explosive framework as the relatively newly revealed "monsters" fight on the world stage for basic human rights. Things are touch-and-go for them right now. In some states (f More...
16 comments like (7 people liked it)
Nov 14, 2010
Gail rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Paranormal Americans are fighting for their rights. PAs have been making their presence known to humans for awhile and unfortunately the US government has not been quick to afford them their rights as citizens. When a virus/plague struck down a number of citizens of Boston, they came back to life. They are previously deceased humans, and they are cordoned off and live in a section of Boston called Deadtown.

Vicky Vaughn is a demi-human, shape-shifter and demon hunter. Marked by a More...
Nov 03, 2011
Joseph rated it: 4 of 5 stars
What if the monsters were forced out into the open? What if a plague hit, and millions of people are turned into zombies, in isolated places around the world, forcing the shape shifters, the werewolves, the vampires, all the things that hide in the darkness out into the light? Would they take over the world? Would they be accepted and blend in? No, there aren't enough of them, and we are many, like anything different, they would face discrimination, hate, and fear....quite an interesting take on More...
Feb 12, 2010
Nancy Holzner's debut urban fantasy is filled with great ideas. Unfortunately, there are too many of them and they are all lacking oomph.

The lead character is Victory Vaughn, a demon slayer and shape shifter. She's got some bad-assery going on (who on earth owns so many pairs of leather jeans?), but thankfully she's not overwhelmingly stubborn. She is, however, prone to bouts of stupidity. Actually, poor judgement might be a better way of phrasing it. Still, she's decent and forthrig More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jan 31, 2012
Sharon rated it: 4 of 5 stars
http://ismellsheep.blogspot.com/2012/01/...

*my thoughts of Urban Fantasy*
I finally got to read a book from my “pleasure” pile, these are the books I don’t have to review, just ones I want to read or are part of series I have been following. Deadtown is the first book in Nancy Holzner's Deadtown Series and it represents everything I love about the Urban Fantasy genre. UF is usually written from the first person POV of a strong heroine. It is about the character’s relationships w More...
Dec 31, 2009
FictionVixen rated it: 4 of 5 stars
A good cover is important because it creates a first impression. This cover says: action, adventure and bad ass heroine, all the ingredients I like in my Urban Fantasy adventures. This one caught my eye the moment I saw it and I knew this was must read.

Nancy Holzner’s Deadtown is based in Boston, in a section specifically designated for the area’s paranormal population. Holzner’s world is interesting, with a few unique twists to the usual zombie, demon, shifter sorts.

Vi More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)