I almost stopped reading this book 20 pages in when I realized there was going to be zombies. It was bad enough that it was a steam punk novel, but OMG zombies? Um, the Bandwagon came by, and it wants its memes back. Steam punk (which is "what happens when goths discover brown") has been strangely annoying to me since it exploded a couple of years ago. Strange because I should be into it as I do dig the aesthetic, but I just can't enjoy it because it turned into such a mindless hipster thing so quickly. But zombies? Give me a break. That was something that was over before it started. There was exactly one zombie meme that didn't suck, and it was the first one I heard of, when zombies attacked SCA practitioners at some park in Montreal like 7 years ago.

But enough about me and me being a curmudgeonly hater. This book didn't totally suck. If I were a teenage boy still, I think I would have dug it. I couldn't help feeling the entire time it would have made an awesome graphic novel. But it is not an awesome book. I don't read a lot of fiction these days, and when I do it tends to be things from literary greats like DeLillo, Pynchon, Eggers, Moore, etc. The author of Boneshaker was spinning a decent yarn, but without any sign of literary skill. I was constantly thinking in the back of my mind I should just stop reading it, but finally pulled the plug this weekend when I was telling some friends about it and just could not make any justification for why I should keep reading it.

Avoid unless you're a teenagr, or really into steampunk and zombies.