Review: Burn the Dead: Quarantine by Steven Jenkins
Burn the Dead: Quarantine by Steven Jenkins 4/5
Robert Stephenson makes his living burning zombies – a job that pays the bills and plays tricks on the mind. Still, his life is routine until one day his infected wife, Anna, shows up in line for the incinerator, and Rob must cremate the love of his life.
In a race against the clock, he must find his four-year-old son Sammy, who is stranded in a newly quarantined zone, teeming with the walking dead, and crawling with the Necro-Morbus virus.
Does Rob have what it takes to fight the undead and put his broken family back together?
Or will he also end up in the incinerator – burning with the rest of the dead?
I downloaded this book for FREE from Amazon Kindle
Review:
Zombies or ‘Necs’ are a real thing and normal human life carries on around them. There are even companies that incinerate the Necs- Robert works for such a company and is what they call a ‘Burner’. Infection breakouts are common, but quickly maintained. But what happens when they cannot be quickly maintained? When human misjudgment, or empathy for their infected families, or simple idiocy, gets in the way of the greater good?
Jenkins has a knack for shock- not simply by gore, but by cleverly mastered plot twists. I had only read 10% and I already had a ‘wow, I did not see that coming’ moment. Those moments are not sparse. Throughout the book, Jenkins continually surprises the reader.
The narrative was well paced and all the characters were believable. The range of emotions that Robert goes through in his quest to find his son are honest and his character felt well rounded. His character arc developed narturally, and his fatherly instincts take over an otherwise subdued man.
Zombie novels are everywhere and are full of the usual cliche tropes. This book felt different. I can’t put my finger on exactly why it did because there are some of the expected tropes throughout, however, the narrative felt fresh.
The opinions expressed here are those of K.J.Chapman and no other parties
All books reviewed on this blog have been read by K.J.Chapman
K.J.Chapman has not been paid for this review
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