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The Undead #1-7
The Undead. The First Seven Days
An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.
The Undead. The First Seven Days Compilation Edition. Days One to Seven
A deadly infection spreads across Europe. The Undead Series: A terrifying account of one man desperately struggling to survive this harrowing event.
*The Undead is entirely self-published.
The Undead. The First Seven Days Compilation Edition. Days One to Seven
A deadly infection spreads across Europe. The Undead Series: A terrifying account of one man desperately struggling to survive this harrowing event.
*The Undead is entirely self-published.
802 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 12, 2012
1519 people are currently reading
1277 people want to read
About the author
R.R. Haywood
94 books1,230 followers"One of the most original voices of our time." - Richard Moriarty, The Sun
"Whether it's gritty horror, spectacular sci-fi, or insane comedy, RR Haywood delivers in style." - Chris Riches, Daily Express
RR Haywood is a Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and Audible bestselling author with over 4 million books sold and more than 30 Kindle Bestsellers. As one of the top ten most downloaded indie authors in the UK, Haywood has captivated readers worldwide with his diverse storytelling.
His creations include the global sensation EXTRACTED, the riveting CODE TRILOGY narrated by Colin Morgan, the phenomenal UNDEAD Series, the blockbuster DELIO, PHASE ONE, and the chart-topping A TOWN CALLED DISCOVERY. His latest work, FICTION LAND, narrated by Game of Thrones star Gethin Anthony, has been hailed as "an outrageously funny tour de force."
A former police officer, Haywood now resides with his dogs on the north coast of the Isle of Wight. He entertains audiences and shares his expertise on TikTok with his Writing Class for the Working Class.
"Whether it's gritty horror, spectacular sci-fi, or insane comedy, RR Haywood delivers in style." - Chris Riches, Daily Express
RR Haywood is a Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and Audible bestselling author with over 4 million books sold and more than 30 Kindle Bestsellers. As one of the top ten most downloaded indie authors in the UK, Haywood has captivated readers worldwide with his diverse storytelling.
His creations include the global sensation EXTRACTED, the riveting CODE TRILOGY narrated by Colin Morgan, the phenomenal UNDEAD Series, the blockbuster DELIO, PHASE ONE, and the chart-topping A TOWN CALLED DISCOVERY. His latest work, FICTION LAND, narrated by Game of Thrones star Gethin Anthony, has been hailed as "an outrageously funny tour de force."
A former police officer, Haywood now resides with his dogs on the north coast of the Isle of Wight. He entertains audiences and shares his expertise on TikTok with his Writing Class for the Working Class.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 292 reviews
January 23, 2020
I'm up to day 6 and I can't read any more. This book is bad. How are there so many 5 star reviews? I keep waiting for it to get better, and I've finally given up hope that it will. There are so many things wrong with it, maybe too many to mention, but I'll give it a try.
1) This story has a problem with women. Until halfway through it is really a man's story, specifically that of everyman 'Howie' and his macho buddies as they fight and swear and joke their way through an army of zombies. Our first encounter with any female comes early on when Howie finds one zombified in a nightclub. Although she's clearly undead and dangerous, Howie's first instinct is to reach out and try and touch one of her breasts (because she's currently chained up, I guess, and therefore easy meat for a man who probably hasn't had many encounters with women up til now). The next encounter comes on a farm where they find an undead family that includes an overweight girl. Howie and his macho friend Dave taunt and poke fun at her until they finally give in and kill her. Soon after that, we meet a female police sergeant (alive) who is portrayed as officious and rude - because women in authority always are, I suppose - and she doesn't even wear make up! (according to the narrator). At the halfway point we finally meet Howie's sister, a living breathing woman who isn't annoying or meek or stupid - but even then, her whole purpose in life is to be rescued by Howie, she can't just leave the place where she's trapped like he did and fight for herself. Maybe her prospects improve later on or maybe we meet other women who are able to look after themselves in the later books. I'm no longer willing to plough on and wait for that to happen.
2) Howie is a one dimensional, boring protagonist. We're meant to root for this guy who somehow ends up leading a pack of soldiers through the undead hordes, yet I can't find anything to like about him. Apart from his aforementioned difficulties with women he is arrogant and judgmental of everyone. Example: when talking about the prophets of doom in a former life who used to annoy him so much, he comes out with this belter: "Are they feeling self righteous and pious, walking round their communes, patting each other on the back? Maybe one of them even started it?...F***ing fundamentalists. They're just mentalists, no funda about it." God, I can’t believe I paid to read this!
The book is peppered with narrow little opinions like this, which lead me to suspect the author has an axe to grind.
3) Howie and the group he ends up with have extraordinary luck. I get that a zombie thriller where the lead character gets killed early on wouldn't be much of a thriller. But even my credulity was stretched on day 5 when they manage to escape from a confined space surrounded by thousands of human and rat zombies all baying for their blood. One wonders why the rest of the human race couldn't similarly defy the odds and stage a resistance to this epidemic.
4) Speaking of Howie's gang, none of them are as dislikable as him but neither are any of them interesting enough to care about very much. I imagine these kinds of characters appeal to certain types of men, uninteresting men who secretly wish they could be heroes. Despite being surrounded on all sides by murderous zombies, Howie and his friends still find time for juvenile displays of machismo, cracking puerile homophobic jokes about each other. Is the writer's masculinity so threatened he has to write this kind of story to make up for it?
There are plenty of other flaws to discuss (like, why are there so many typos in the Kindle version), but I won't go on. I strongly suspected from the beginning that this book wasn't written for a reader like me, but I persevered for a long time, hoping against hope that something would turn around eventually. Sadly it never did.
1) This story has a problem with women. Until halfway through it is really a man's story, specifically that of everyman 'Howie' and his macho buddies as they fight and swear and joke their way through an army of zombies. Our first encounter with any female comes early on when Howie finds one zombified in a nightclub. Although she's clearly undead and dangerous, Howie's first instinct is to reach out and try and touch one of her breasts (because she's currently chained up, I guess, and therefore easy meat for a man who probably hasn't had many encounters with women up til now). The next encounter comes on a farm where they find an undead family that includes an overweight girl. Howie and his macho friend Dave taunt and poke fun at her until they finally give in and kill her. Soon after that, we meet a female police sergeant (alive) who is portrayed as officious and rude - because women in authority always are, I suppose - and she doesn't even wear make up! (according to the narrator). At the halfway point we finally meet Howie's sister, a living breathing woman who isn't annoying or meek or stupid - but even then, her whole purpose in life is to be rescued by Howie, she can't just leave the place where she's trapped like he did and fight for herself. Maybe her prospects improve later on or maybe we meet other women who are able to look after themselves in the later books. I'm no longer willing to plough on and wait for that to happen.
2) Howie is a one dimensional, boring protagonist. We're meant to root for this guy who somehow ends up leading a pack of soldiers through the undead hordes, yet I can't find anything to like about him. Apart from his aforementioned difficulties with women he is arrogant and judgmental of everyone. Example: when talking about the prophets of doom in a former life who used to annoy him so much, he comes out with this belter: "Are they feeling self righteous and pious, walking round their communes, patting each other on the back? Maybe one of them even started it?...F***ing fundamentalists. They're just mentalists, no funda about it." God, I can’t believe I paid to read this!
The book is peppered with narrow little opinions like this, which lead me to suspect the author has an axe to grind.
3) Howie and the group he ends up with have extraordinary luck. I get that a zombie thriller where the lead character gets killed early on wouldn't be much of a thriller. But even my credulity was stretched on day 5 when they manage to escape from a confined space surrounded by thousands of human and rat zombies all baying for their blood. One wonders why the rest of the human race couldn't similarly defy the odds and stage a resistance to this epidemic.
4) Speaking of Howie's gang, none of them are as dislikable as him but neither are any of them interesting enough to care about very much. I imagine these kinds of characters appeal to certain types of men, uninteresting men who secretly wish they could be heroes. Despite being surrounded on all sides by murderous zombies, Howie and his friends still find time for juvenile displays of machismo, cracking puerile homophobic jokes about each other. Is the writer's masculinity so threatened he has to write this kind of story to make up for it?
There are plenty of other flaws to discuss (like, why are there so many typos in the Kindle version), but I won't go on. I strongly suspected from the beginning that this book wasn't written for a reader like me, but I persevered for a long time, hoping against hope that something would turn around eventually. Sadly it never did.
July 9, 2014
Absolutely hated it, and this comes from someone with a huge weakness for zombie novels.
The dialogue is just terrible. As a test, drink a shot every time the protagonist calls someone 'mate'. Wake up on the floor covered in urine and realise that you've only finished one chapter.
I won't even discuss the 'plot'.
The dialogue is just terrible. As a test, drink a shot every time the protagonist calls someone 'mate'. Wake up on the floor covered in urine and realise that you've only finished one chapter.
I won't even discuss the 'plot'.
April 16, 2013
My journey of discovering better than average ebooks by amateur writers has been a somewhat hit and miss affair. I've read a fair number of appalling attempts at fiction by people who should stick to only writing birthday card messages. I keep on reading in the hope of finding evidence that some amateur writers can in fact write, and write well enough to keep me turning the page.
When I stumbled across The Undead: The First Seven Days I was intrigued by the title, for me anything undead is worth investigating. I don't read reviews as they're way too misleading for many reasons. But I do scan the first few pages of the "look inside" bit to check if the quality of writing/style/layout etc is worth shelling out a few quid.
I finished this book about 2 weeks ago. I prefer to digest what I've read before writing anything about it so I can get my thoughts in order and provide a well balanced review. It's all well and good to crank out a quick "This is an awesome story!!!! The best ever!!!!!!" or even "Total dross, don't bother, it's rubbish" but it doesn't do a writer or fans of a genre/author any credit for their hard work and effort.
Well rounded, thoughtful and above all constructive feedback is where I prefer to go when it comes to reviews.
Usually I head to the Good Bits and end with the Bad Bits, however, this time I'll hit the bad stuff first because I want this review to end on a high point
Before I get started I will say now that I enjoyed this book immensely, despite its faults. If you're a fan of the zombie/apocalypse genre then you should read this book. Simple as that. There are some spoilers here folks, though nothing hugely important that gives away the plot in any great detail.
What's BAD about The Undead: The First Seven Days:
Point of View: The story starts off with a first person perspective. It's not entirely clear if this is a diary or simply an account, not that it matters much. I enjoy first person stuff - seeing events unfold inside a characters head can make a story tense and gripping. The problem with the POV is that it switches about. A lot. From first person to third person, and back again, then to another character first person and back once again.
I felt R.R Haywood realised he wanted to tell more than what was being seen by the main character, Howie, and needed a quick get-out clause to go off and explore the world beyond Howie. At one point Howie explains to the reader that he will be switching to 3rd person in order to better explain the events around those 7 days. Okay. Weird. I could live with that, just about. The weird thing about the switching is how it was relayed to the reader. When the story flips to 3rd or 1st person of another character, Haywood titled that section as "Extract from Howie's diary" which didn't make sense to me.
How could Howie write about a plague of zombies, zombie rats and cats (a cool twist I thought) when he wasn't actually there to see those characters? When writing a diary based first person POV it doesn't make sense to switch to another 1st person POV and still call that chapter "Howie's diary" because it wasn't him! And cat's, rats, zombies and plague virus's can't write (as far as I know) so having them tell their story didn't make any sense, in the context Haywood laid out for the reader.
I overlooked that quirk because the story told from the plagues POV really did add a nice element to a tried and tested zombie plot.
Personally I wouldn't have had Howie tell the reader he planned to switch at all or used the frequent implausible chapter titles "Extract from Howie's diary." Giving a chapter a number or brief name is enough, and the reader would easily pick up on the fact that the POV has changed.
Details that didn't upset my enjoyment I should add for reasons I'll get to in a bit.
Repetition: Within the first few pages I almost deleted the book from my kindle. When Howie is at home and the zombies are at his front door, he spends a lot of time saying stuff like: "I next go into the lounge" and "I go back to..." and "I run into the..." and "I look around" and "I grab things." And so on. I understand it's going to be a traumatic experience for any sane person to be plagued by zombies but that sort of repetition is very exhausting.
This calmed down after about 10 pages or so. Thankfully. The other form of repetition is the hacking/slashing/whacking/chopping/dicing and slicing action. Zombies are everywhere. It's gross, dirty, horrific work to chop down what used to be human beings, but it felt as if Haywood enjoyed writing every little detail often rather than giving thought to how much was necessary to move the story forward.
Tenses: I don't recall specifics but I'm sure I came across plenty of contradictions in the use of tenses. Like the POV switching the tenses get muddled up in places with present tense and past tense combined. Enough to make me wince at times but again not enough to put me off turning the page.
Dialogue:Some of the dialogue is pretty damn good. The characters come across very well with dialogue alone without the need to add: "...said Howie" after speech. The weird thing I noticed is that Haywood has a knack for writing a lot of dialogue without paying enough attention to how people actually speak.
For example, one character might say "He is dead..." instead of "He's dead..." because it's their personality trait. But when every character speaks like this it doesn't read right. More so in tense, action scenes. In a life or death situation I'd be caught off guard, and likely killed by zombies if I noticed everyone around me said things like: "They have killed him" and "We have got to get out here" and "You do not understand."
Writing is about constantly learning, so I apologise for bashing Haywood over this little thing, but it's an important little thing that often made dialogue stand out as awkward rather than flow like we talk banter with our friends/family etc. Paying attention to dialogue can make a huge difference to a reader feeling a book was okay and easily forgettable rather than fantastic and memorable.
Thankfully there are loads of good points that still make this a memorable one for me.
What's GOOD about The Undead: The First Seven Days:
Get over the bad stuff and it's a cracking story! Initially Haywood wrote it in 7 individual parts so I'm very grateful to have read the entire thing in one go. And I'll be grabbing the next set very soon, I think the story currently goes to day 10 at the time of writing this review.
Howie and Dave: A brilliant partnership and friendship grows between these two. Howie, a supermarket manager and Dave, an ex-special forces guy. Their interactions alone drive the story along, the way they grow to need, respect and protect one another. Their dialogue ranges from witty and smirk raising to sombre and tearful in places.
Their journey is the main highlight for me. There were times when I feared for them, and that doesn't happen very often when I'm reading a book - Dark Tower by Stephen King, the bit with Eddie Dean, if you're a fan, you'll know what I'm talking about - that was tearful and scary.
I found plenty of subtle facets to their friendship that kept me turning page after page until well after my bedtime alarm had gone off.
The Recruits: Slight negative one here - I found the new army recruits (TA I think, perhaps)ability to learn and master weapons and combat techniques a little too easy. That aside there are plenty of interesting characters to get your teeth into, just the right amount of description too. Occasionally I'd find myself flipping back a few pages when a name is mentioned, thinking "er, who's this guy who's just died?" because a few of them don't have much if anything to say.
The banter between them is well paced and flows beautifully (for the most part.) Lots of quick retorts, put-downs etc that build characters in the imagination machine inside your noodle. Aside from the easy ability to master army stuff, the journey of the recruits coming from wet-behind-the-ears lads to an organised and hardened team is thoroughly enjoyable. The impact of this is felt close to the end of the story.
The Plague: The idea of telling parts of a zombie story from the POV of the virus is a stroke of excellence. I don't recall coming across that concept before, though I dare say it's been done before, but then hasn't everything? The plague's journey is every bit as enjoyable and essential as each of the other characters.
It's refreshing to see this side of a zombie story, how a plague thinks, how it uses humans as hosts, how it learns and evolves, creating a hive mind spread across the globe. A nice twist I wasn't expecting, though as mentioned before told in clunky manner.
At times I felt guilty for quietly rooting for the plague because it too wanted to survive. Just once I wanted to see it win, though to be fair that would make for a pessimistic plot twist. However, I suspect not entirely a bad one if done well.
Scale: Zombie apocalypse plots are rooted in a global event of human downfall. Anyone who's read World War Z or seen the movie trailer (yeah, I know, but I'm still going to see it anyway) will expect epic scenes of thousands or millions of undead swarming or shuffling after those few survivors.
Haywood starts small with a handful of creatures in a quiet suburban street. He ups the pace by a few degrees at a time, moving to a supermarket bloodbath, to a country village, city, army barracks, London and more. The size of the zombie hordes increases at a good rate though I was very aware that Howie and his army also increased their skills and abilities to deal with the ever increasing numbers. I felt this was somewhat unrealistic but the alternative was to kill the main characters off quick because they're not Rambo clones but normal people. And that's not a recipe for successful heroic last stands and pitched battles is it?
Last Stand: It goes without saying that many zombie plots need a last stand. Whether that's against a small or large horde. Without giving too much away this one had me reading fast and furious. I'm not joking when I looked at my clock to find it was 3am, groaned because I had to be up at 6 and then kept on reading.
In the end I had to put it down but only after promising myself I'd finish it the moment I got home the next evening. The only gripe I had was the obviousness of a last stand pretty much in the first 20 pages or so, mentioned in a radio broadcast that Howie hears in the car. After that it's obvious that last stand is coming.
In one way that's sort of bad because you know it's going to happen and more or less where. It puts a dull sheen on the "oh man, what the hell's going to happen next?" feeling. On the other hand it sure was something to look forward to and watch to see which character wasn't going to make it there.
Final Thoughts:
Putting aside the bad points, this was a hugely enjoyable read. It's a long one too with lots of action and struggle to get your apocalyptic taste buds into.
I could go on about the good points, but I'll leave it there to preserve the fun for potential readers. I paid £2.98 for The Undead: The First Seven Days - a book Amazon states as having 799 pages. I consider that very good value for money.
What I did notice is that Haywood seems to have matured as a writer during the process of creating this story. The latter parts, days 4 onwards, are considerably better written than the early parts. I like that. Haywood clearly enjoyed writing this story, enough to continue after day 7.
I think if I met him I'd shake his hand and say: "Well done, fella, you had a story to tell and told it very well. Keep writing and I'll keep reading."
And isn't that the essence of a good story teller? The ability to hook the reader and keep them wanting more. I know I do.
When I stumbled across The Undead: The First Seven Days I was intrigued by the title, for me anything undead is worth investigating. I don't read reviews as they're way too misleading for many reasons. But I do scan the first few pages of the "look inside" bit to check if the quality of writing/style/layout etc is worth shelling out a few quid.
I finished this book about 2 weeks ago. I prefer to digest what I've read before writing anything about it so I can get my thoughts in order and provide a well balanced review. It's all well and good to crank out a quick "This is an awesome story!!!! The best ever!!!!!!" or even "Total dross, don't bother, it's rubbish" but it doesn't do a writer or fans of a genre/author any credit for their hard work and effort.
Well rounded, thoughtful and above all constructive feedback is where I prefer to go when it comes to reviews.
Usually I head to the Good Bits and end with the Bad Bits, however, this time I'll hit the bad stuff first because I want this review to end on a high point
Before I get started I will say now that I enjoyed this book immensely, despite its faults. If you're a fan of the zombie/apocalypse genre then you should read this book. Simple as that. There are some spoilers here folks, though nothing hugely important that gives away the plot in any great detail.
What's BAD about The Undead: The First Seven Days:
Point of View: The story starts off with a first person perspective. It's not entirely clear if this is a diary or simply an account, not that it matters much. I enjoy first person stuff - seeing events unfold inside a characters head can make a story tense and gripping. The problem with the POV is that it switches about. A lot. From first person to third person, and back again, then to another character first person and back once again.
I felt R.R Haywood realised he wanted to tell more than what was being seen by the main character, Howie, and needed a quick get-out clause to go off and explore the world beyond Howie. At one point Howie explains to the reader that he will be switching to 3rd person in order to better explain the events around those 7 days. Okay. Weird. I could live with that, just about. The weird thing about the switching is how it was relayed to the reader. When the story flips to 3rd or 1st person of another character, Haywood titled that section as "Extract from Howie's diary" which didn't make sense to me.
How could Howie write about a plague of zombies, zombie rats and cats (a cool twist I thought) when he wasn't actually there to see those characters? When writing a diary based first person POV it doesn't make sense to switch to another 1st person POV and still call that chapter "Howie's diary" because it wasn't him! And cat's, rats, zombies and plague virus's can't write (as far as I know) so having them tell their story didn't make any sense, in the context Haywood laid out for the reader.
I overlooked that quirk because the story told from the plagues POV really did add a nice element to a tried and tested zombie plot.
Personally I wouldn't have had Howie tell the reader he planned to switch at all or used the frequent implausible chapter titles "Extract from Howie's diary." Giving a chapter a number or brief name is enough, and the reader would easily pick up on the fact that the POV has changed.
Details that didn't upset my enjoyment I should add for reasons I'll get to in a bit.
Repetition: Within the first few pages I almost deleted the book from my kindle. When Howie is at home and the zombies are at his front door, he spends a lot of time saying stuff like: "I next go into the lounge" and "I go back to..." and "I run into the..." and "I look around" and "I grab things." And so on. I understand it's going to be a traumatic experience for any sane person to be plagued by zombies but that sort of repetition is very exhausting.
This calmed down after about 10 pages or so. Thankfully. The other form of repetition is the hacking/slashing/whacking/chopping/dicing and slicing action. Zombies are everywhere. It's gross, dirty, horrific work to chop down what used to be human beings, but it felt as if Haywood enjoyed writing every little detail often rather than giving thought to how much was necessary to move the story forward.
Tenses: I don't recall specifics but I'm sure I came across plenty of contradictions in the use of tenses. Like the POV switching the tenses get muddled up in places with present tense and past tense combined. Enough to make me wince at times but again not enough to put me off turning the page.
Dialogue:Some of the dialogue is pretty damn good. The characters come across very well with dialogue alone without the need to add: "...said Howie" after speech. The weird thing I noticed is that Haywood has a knack for writing a lot of dialogue without paying enough attention to how people actually speak.
For example, one character might say "He is dead..." instead of "He's dead..." because it's their personality trait. But when every character speaks like this it doesn't read right. More so in tense, action scenes. In a life or death situation I'd be caught off guard, and likely killed by zombies if I noticed everyone around me said things like: "They have killed him" and "We have got to get out here" and "You do not understand."
Writing is about constantly learning, so I apologise for bashing Haywood over this little thing, but it's an important little thing that often made dialogue stand out as awkward rather than flow like we talk banter with our friends/family etc. Paying attention to dialogue can make a huge difference to a reader feeling a book was okay and easily forgettable rather than fantastic and memorable.
Thankfully there are loads of good points that still make this a memorable one for me.
What's GOOD about The Undead: The First Seven Days:
Get over the bad stuff and it's a cracking story! Initially Haywood wrote it in 7 individual parts so I'm very grateful to have read the entire thing in one go. And I'll be grabbing the next set very soon, I think the story currently goes to day 10 at the time of writing this review.
Howie and Dave: A brilliant partnership and friendship grows between these two. Howie, a supermarket manager and Dave, an ex-special forces guy. Their interactions alone drive the story along, the way they grow to need, respect and protect one another. Their dialogue ranges from witty and smirk raising to sombre and tearful in places.
Their journey is the main highlight for me. There were times when I feared for them, and that doesn't happen very often when I'm reading a book - Dark Tower by Stephen King, the bit with Eddie Dean, if you're a fan, you'll know what I'm talking about - that was tearful and scary.
I found plenty of subtle facets to their friendship that kept me turning page after page until well after my bedtime alarm had gone off.
The Recruits: Slight negative one here - I found the new army recruits (TA I think, perhaps)ability to learn and master weapons and combat techniques a little too easy. That aside there are plenty of interesting characters to get your teeth into, just the right amount of description too. Occasionally I'd find myself flipping back a few pages when a name is mentioned, thinking "er, who's this guy who's just died?" because a few of them don't have much if anything to say.
The banter between them is well paced and flows beautifully (for the most part.) Lots of quick retorts, put-downs etc that build characters in the imagination machine inside your noodle. Aside from the easy ability to master army stuff, the journey of the recruits coming from wet-behind-the-ears lads to an organised and hardened team is thoroughly enjoyable. The impact of this is felt close to the end of the story.
The Plague: The idea of telling parts of a zombie story from the POV of the virus is a stroke of excellence. I don't recall coming across that concept before, though I dare say it's been done before, but then hasn't everything? The plague's journey is every bit as enjoyable and essential as each of the other characters.
It's refreshing to see this side of a zombie story, how a plague thinks, how it uses humans as hosts, how it learns and evolves, creating a hive mind spread across the globe. A nice twist I wasn't expecting, though as mentioned before told in clunky manner.
At times I felt guilty for quietly rooting for the plague because it too wanted to survive. Just once I wanted to see it win, though to be fair that would make for a pessimistic plot twist. However, I suspect not entirely a bad one if done well.
Scale: Zombie apocalypse plots are rooted in a global event of human downfall. Anyone who's read World War Z or seen the movie trailer (yeah, I know, but I'm still going to see it anyway) will expect epic scenes of thousands or millions of undead swarming or shuffling after those few survivors.
Haywood starts small with a handful of creatures in a quiet suburban street. He ups the pace by a few degrees at a time, moving to a supermarket bloodbath, to a country village, city, army barracks, London and more. The size of the zombie hordes increases at a good rate though I was very aware that Howie and his army also increased their skills and abilities to deal with the ever increasing numbers. I felt this was somewhat unrealistic but the alternative was to kill the main characters off quick because they're not Rambo clones but normal people. And that's not a recipe for successful heroic last stands and pitched battles is it?
Last Stand: It goes without saying that many zombie plots need a last stand. Whether that's against a small or large horde. Without giving too much away this one had me reading fast and furious. I'm not joking when I looked at my clock to find it was 3am, groaned because I had to be up at 6 and then kept on reading.
In the end I had to put it down but only after promising myself I'd finish it the moment I got home the next evening. The only gripe I had was the obviousness of a last stand pretty much in the first 20 pages or so, mentioned in a radio broadcast that Howie hears in the car. After that it's obvious that last stand is coming.
In one way that's sort of bad because you know it's going to happen and more or less where. It puts a dull sheen on the "oh man, what the hell's going to happen next?" feeling. On the other hand it sure was something to look forward to and watch to see which character wasn't going to make it there.
Final Thoughts:
Putting aside the bad points, this was a hugely enjoyable read. It's a long one too with lots of action and struggle to get your apocalyptic taste buds into.
I could go on about the good points, but I'll leave it there to preserve the fun for potential readers. I paid £2.98 for The Undead: The First Seven Days - a book Amazon states as having 799 pages. I consider that very good value for money.
What I did notice is that Haywood seems to have matured as a writer during the process of creating this story. The latter parts, days 4 onwards, are considerably better written than the early parts. I like that. Haywood clearly enjoyed writing this story, enough to continue after day 7.
I think if I met him I'd shake his hand and say: "Well done, fella, you had a story to tell and told it very well. Keep writing and I'll keep reading."
And isn't that the essence of a good story teller? The ability to hook the reader and keep them wanting more. I know I do.
October 7, 2014
Despite being a huge fan of classic old zombie movies and thoroughly enjoying The Walking Dead comic and TV series I've never felt compelled to try out zombie fiction. Due to the tremendous amount of five star reviews I thought I'd give this a go.
It's terrible. I've no idea what the intended age range is, I'd probably have loved it in my mid teens, but as a forty something adult I'm looking for a lot more plot. Well, any plot would be nice. I've given up on it a quarter of the way through, the story really hasn't progressed anywhere, endless scenes of the main (and pretty much only) character moving from one zombie action scene to another. At one point half a page is given over to a descriptive passage of him taking a shit. When another character is finally introduced, and I hope for some meaningful interaction, he's virtually mute.
The writing style is perfunctory at best, often juvenile. Nothing happens, just repetitive action scenes. I hate to write such a negative review but this was truly dreadful.
It's terrible. I've no idea what the intended age range is, I'd probably have loved it in my mid teens, but as a forty something adult I'm looking for a lot more plot. Well, any plot would be nice. I've given up on it a quarter of the way through, the story really hasn't progressed anywhere, endless scenes of the main (and pretty much only) character moving from one zombie action scene to another. At one point half a page is given over to a descriptive passage of him taking a shit. When another character is finally introduced, and I hope for some meaningful interaction, he's virtually mute.
The writing style is perfunctory at best, often juvenile. Nothing happens, just repetitive action scenes. I hate to write such a negative review but this was truly dreadful.
March 2, 2023
Read as part of my 2023 Short Month, Long Book challenge.
Every February I scour my TBR list and pull books that are 500 pages or more to focus on for the month. At 802 pages this is one of the largest books I have ever read for this challenge.
According to Amazon, this is the "number one award-winning and best-selling UK zombie horror series." I had not heard of it, but once I had and with that glowing recommendation from Amazon and the people of the United Kingdom, I felt I had to read it. Overall this was a great read. It is actually 7 books, one for each of the first seven days of the outbreak, combined into one omnibus edition, and KU has all seven of the first books available.
My only complaint about the storyline was that it pulled a "28 Days Later" plot twist that I despised in the movie and doubly despised in the book. I'm not going to say anymore. If you are a fan of the Zombie genre and have been intrigued by this review, check the books out.
Every February I scour my TBR list and pull books that are 500 pages or more to focus on for the month. At 802 pages this is one of the largest books I have ever read for this challenge.
According to Amazon, this is the "number one award-winning and best-selling UK zombie horror series." I had not heard of it, but once I had and with that glowing recommendation from Amazon and the people of the United Kingdom, I felt I had to read it. Overall this was a great read. It is actually 7 books, one for each of the first seven days of the outbreak, combined into one omnibus edition, and KU has all seven of the first books available.
My only complaint about the storyline was that it pulled a "28 Days Later" plot twist that I despised in the movie and doubly despised in the book. I'm not going to say anymore. If you are a fan of the Zombie genre and have been intrigued by this review, check the books out.
April 28, 2020
Superb story
Best post apocalyptic zombie book that I have ever read. Protagonists that are flawed but driven, beautifully told story from start to finish.
Best post apocalyptic zombie book that I have ever read. Protagonists that are flawed but driven, beautifully told story from start to finish.
January 23, 2025
DNF at 21%
I get on a zombie book kick occasionally, so I'm always on the lookout for the next good series to try. This book had decent reviews on Goodreads, so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, it was a big disappointment.
My biggest issue is the characterization. Especially the main character who reads more like the author's self-insert than a fully realized character. Hence a lot of rather disturbing or plain icky actions and opinions that Howie gives voice to. Like his glee at seeing rich and athletic party-goers as zombies, because he hated their type when they were alive... because they were well-groomed, athletic, and self-assured. While he is a loser who spends his free time eating junk food, drinking beer, and never even lifting a finger to take care of his health. Yeah, not a good light to paint your protagonist in.
But more icky is the representation of women in this book. When they are mentioned at all, they are not people, they are objects for Howie to judge based on their attractiveness or grossness. Like the undead stripper with fake boobs that the protagonist gropes "because he never saw fake boobs before". Really, Mr. Author? Is that supposed to be funny? It's creepy, that's what it is. Or the episode with the undead farmer's wife which Howie makes fun of because she is so fat.
Other women that appear in this story (at least up to day 3, which is as far as I made it) are either damsels or just plot points. All they do is scream and panic, and generally make the life of our protagonist more complicated than it already is. I read that his sister at least has some humanity in her, but I haven't read that far, and I doubt I will.
Howie also has plot armor so thick it might as well be ballistic-resistant Kevlar. He does so many stupid things that should have had him bitten and killed ten times over, yet he seems to escape without even a scratch time and time again.
By the beginning of day 3, I found myself skimming the pages to just get the highlights and move on to the next step in the story, but even then I was getting more and more annoyed with the protagonist. So I am out, and off to look for a better zombie book to satisfy my craving for brains.
I get on a zombie book kick occasionally, so I'm always on the lookout for the next good series to try. This book had decent reviews on Goodreads, so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, it was a big disappointment.
My biggest issue is the characterization. Especially the main character who reads more like the author's self-insert than a fully realized character. Hence a lot of rather disturbing or plain icky actions and opinions that Howie gives voice to. Like his glee at seeing rich and athletic party-goers as zombies, because he hated their type when they were alive... because they were well-groomed, athletic, and self-assured. While he is a loser who spends his free time eating junk food, drinking beer, and never even lifting a finger to take care of his health. Yeah, not a good light to paint your protagonist in.
But more icky is the representation of women in this book. When they are mentioned at all, they are not people, they are objects for Howie to judge based on their attractiveness or grossness. Like the undead stripper with fake boobs that the protagonist gropes "because he never saw fake boobs before". Really, Mr. Author? Is that supposed to be funny? It's creepy, that's what it is. Or the episode with the undead farmer's wife which Howie makes fun of because she is so fat.
Other women that appear in this story (at least up to day 3, which is as far as I made it) are either damsels or just plot points. All they do is scream and panic, and generally make the life of our protagonist more complicated than it already is. I read that his sister at least has some humanity in her, but I haven't read that far, and I doubt I will.
Howie also has plot armor so thick it might as well be ballistic-resistant Kevlar. He does so many stupid things that should have had him bitten and killed ten times over, yet he seems to escape without even a scratch time and time again.
By the beginning of day 3, I found myself skimming the pages to just get the highlights and move on to the next step in the story, but even then I was getting more and more annoyed with the protagonist. So I am out, and off to look for a better zombie book to satisfy my craving for brains.
January 27, 2016
It isn't often I give a book a five star rating, but this was so genuinely fun to read that I couldn't help myself.
This is a collection of the first seven books in an ongoing serial, which I didn't realize when I bought the book. I was happy about it, though - YAY! to reading it all at once.
By far, the most amazing part of this book is the relationship between Howie and Dave. Utterly believable but utterly unique at the same time.
A close second is Howie's evolution through the book, which isn't so much evolution as refinement. It was quite a departure, and a welcome one, from the usual "rough and ready" alpha male action hero that you usually find in a zombie tale.
Then there's the supporting cast. What a great group of folks - whether they were good or bad, they were all interesting and individual.
This is pretty non-stop action - usually that bores me, but in this case it was gripping and I had a hard time putting it down.
Recommended. Now to get my hot little hands on the rest of them.
This is a collection of the first seven books in an ongoing serial, which I didn't realize when I bought the book. I was happy about it, though - YAY! to reading it all at once.
By far, the most amazing part of this book is the relationship between Howie and Dave. Utterly believable but utterly unique at the same time.
A close second is Howie's evolution through the book, which isn't so much evolution as refinement. It was quite a departure, and a welcome one, from the usual "rough and ready" alpha male action hero that you usually find in a zombie tale.
Then there's the supporting cast. What a great group of folks - whether they were good or bad, they were all interesting and individual.
This is pretty non-stop action - usually that bores me, but in this case it was gripping and I had a hard time putting it down.
Recommended. Now to get my hot little hands on the rest of them.
July 30, 2016
More like a 3.5...
So I keep reading that Haywood is an 'amateur writer', something which I never quite get my head around as by now he's got about 20 published books. I'll come back to that.
Basically this is a zombie outbreak story which is told in a pretty straight-forward, no-frills way. Nothing too arty or weird; just following one person's story and focusing a lot on the fighting and battles - It reads like a zombie B Movie. I happen to really like zombie stories though, particularly the outbreak itself and how the first few days pan out, which is kinda this book's thing.
What it does well is that it's quite compelling - you want to keep reading and find out what happens. There are a couple of intricacies to this particular brand of zombies which are interesting, and the story does develop to have a proper antagonist, rather than just Howie Vs Zombies. It's also quite funny, with a sort of Shaun of the Dead type humour.
What lets it down is the writing. I said he's an 'amateur' and I guess you can see that. Each day/chapter of the book gets much longer, as if you could see his growing confidence as he built his world, but for me this came to a head on Day 7 which was absolutely enormous compared to all the other chapters. This last chapter was probably about 1/3 just summarising and repeating the last 6 days, and it became a slog to read, with huge sections that I felt I could've just skipped and not missed anything. I get that the series was originally released episodically, but reading it in a compilation like this it was all fresh in my memory. The dialogue is also pretty poor. It's very practical and the characters mainly concern themselves with the plan for what to do next, but some things jarred, like when Howie is reunited with people he knows and they don't take a minute to discuss what happened to people they know, or how they are doing. There's a LOT of gay jokes which is passed off as banter between characters, which seems a bit unnecessary, but passable, but then it gets to a stage where a certain character (no spoilers) starts using a lot of insults like "you like sucking cock you big faggot" and it just feels absolutely crass and ridiculous, both just as a piece of dialogue, but also in terms of who's saying it and its place in the story.
Overall it is entertaining, and I am interested to read day 8 onward, but it's really straight-forward, which at times helps move the story along and ground it so that it doesn't get too arty or wanky, but at times really hurts its credibility.
So I keep reading that Haywood is an 'amateur writer', something which I never quite get my head around as by now he's got about 20 published books. I'll come back to that.
Basically this is a zombie outbreak story which is told in a pretty straight-forward, no-frills way. Nothing too arty or weird; just following one person's story and focusing a lot on the fighting and battles - It reads like a zombie B Movie. I happen to really like zombie stories though, particularly the outbreak itself and how the first few days pan out, which is kinda this book's thing.
What it does well is that it's quite compelling - you want to keep reading and find out what happens. There are a couple of intricacies to this particular brand of zombies which are interesting, and the story does develop to have a proper antagonist, rather than just Howie Vs Zombies. It's also quite funny, with a sort of Shaun of the Dead type humour.
What lets it down is the writing. I said he's an 'amateur' and I guess you can see that. Each day/chapter of the book gets much longer, as if you could see his growing confidence as he built his world, but for me this came to a head on Day 7 which was absolutely enormous compared to all the other chapters. This last chapter was probably about 1/3 just summarising and repeating the last 6 days, and it became a slog to read, with huge sections that I felt I could've just skipped and not missed anything. I get that the series was originally released episodically, but reading it in a compilation like this it was all fresh in my memory. The dialogue is also pretty poor. It's very practical and the characters mainly concern themselves with the plan for what to do next, but some things jarred, like when Howie is reunited with people he knows and they don't take a minute to discuss what happened to people they know, or how they are doing. There's a LOT of gay jokes which is passed off as banter between characters, which seems a bit unnecessary, but passable, but then it gets to a stage where a certain character (no spoilers) starts using a lot of insults like "you like sucking cock you big faggot" and it just feels absolutely crass and ridiculous, both just as a piece of dialogue, but also in terms of who's saying it and its place in the story.
Overall it is entertaining, and I am interested to read day 8 onward, but it's really straight-forward, which at times helps move the story along and ground it so that it doesn't get too arty or wanky, but at times really hurts its credibility.
January 21, 2024
4/5 *
It’s a bit of a mess and cliched, repetitive, sexist, sweary, cringy at times, and nowhere near a literary classic. But it’s also fast-paced and great fun if you just ignore or laugh at all the negative points and put aside any great expectations! 😉 I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it’s one of the most entertaining zombie series I’ve read.
It’s a bit of a mess and cliched, repetitive, sexist, sweary, cringy at times, and nowhere near a literary classic. But it’s also fast-paced and great fun if you just ignore or laugh at all the negative points and put aside any great expectations! 😉 I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it’s one of the most entertaining zombie series I’ve read.
October 30, 2022
Don't read this
February 4, 2016
the virus has a mind of its own... thats just retarded
December 13, 2024
So this isn't directly a Zombie book and more of of a power fantasy with a Zombie backdrop.
Let's get the good stuff out of the way:
Zombierats and -cats. Plotline dropped around the fifty% mark.
Having a Virus pov. Also dropped around 75% ish.
Dave.Till around end day five. Having a high function, special forces trained person on the spectrum as your favorite character is something new. Dave is not the main character. Which says all about the other characters who are nearly all unlikeable or very very bland.
And then the bad stuff:
Howie after 50 of the book where he suddenly becomes everyones favorite person and leader, even if there are poeple who where actually in the army, and know more about tactics and weapons than this retail shift manager. His ideas are awesome and his orders have to be followed.
The Lads aka the ten young men who had there first day of training in the army and become a fluidly working troop after four hours of weapons training from Dave and some fights that they shouldn't have been in because someone should told Howie 'wtf let's turn around'.
Two characters are having an ongoing homophobic 'joke' every time they on page. And the possible one gay man is shown as behaving feminine.
The women that have a bigger (not that much) talking role are Howies sister, Howies love interest and the not womanly police sergeant (she doesn't wear make up! I know even in a Zombie apocalypse women should look after their beauty or something).
It even gets worse on that front.
The blood baths that haven't infected anyone till the plot needs it then one drop of spit was enough.
Seriously they don't even try to evade the Zombies, it's melee your way trough thousands without any form of armor or something to protect their faces. Nothing!
In the beginning with small Zombie packs you can overlook it but later, they should all be shambling!
Also there are some descriptions of physical feats that are not regularly possible, jumping with two steps run-up over other people. Jumping from roofs without hurting themselves, building traps, digging holes with spikes and other stuff in a day.
And the worse:
Political views that get bashed over your head.
Sometimes the author seems to notice that maybe he shouldn't show/write it like that and trys reasoning. I.e. A big battle is going to go down, children and theit mothers get evacuated, there are still enough single women around and Howies sister plus some other of the named female characters ask where there are places that needs fighters. And Howie tells them (those five women that matter to him) to evacuate with the children because if they stay they will pointlessly die and are not needed but with the children they might make a difference and they go because Howie, everybody loves Howie! So not patronising, simply dismissing their opinion and choice in that matter. I hate the depiction of women in this.
The pathos riddled speeches and inner monologes from Howie. They are really bad in the vain of the zombies are evil and we are good and we will die fighting and die free and that fight is what humans of old have gone trough the become us and that's the right way to live.
Howie to a big group of people trying to rouse them to fight. 'I want to show them zombies that we will not hide and we will not run and we will not stand still. We will fight. We will take as many of them down as we can. We may lose, but to the last man we will fight back. They are infected. They are evil. They do not have the right to walk among us or take our air. They have taken everything from us but this place, this place here is ours, and they will not take it from us without a fight. These men (me: aka the Lads) in front of you have stood on the line and survived. On this occasion, we got beaten back, but many times before, we took ground from them, not only surviving but winning!
And that is only one of the examples of something like this troughout the last half.
And then to make matters worse Howie found God and the power of love in the last battle, I wish I was joking.
Some people seem to like this authors writing he is on day 33 with three novelas but I am out, this hurts my brain. The idiot Howie is yoloing this shit and dragging everybody around him for the ride! Not me!
Let's get the good stuff out of the way:
Zombierats and -cats. Plotline dropped around the fifty% mark.
Having a Virus pov. Also dropped around 75% ish.
Dave.Till around end day five. Having a high function, special forces trained person on the spectrum as your favorite character is something new. Dave is not the main character. Which says all about the other characters who are nearly all unlikeable or very very bland.
And then the bad stuff:
Howie after 50 of the book where he suddenly becomes everyones favorite person and leader, even if there are poeple who where actually in the army, and know more about tactics and weapons than this retail shift manager. His ideas are awesome and his orders have to be followed.
The Lads aka the ten young men who had there first day of training in the army and become a fluidly working troop after four hours of weapons training from Dave and some fights that they shouldn't have been in because someone should told Howie 'wtf let's turn around'.
Two characters are having an ongoing homophobic 'joke' every time they on page. And the possible one gay man is shown as behaving feminine.
The women that have a bigger (not that much) talking role are Howies sister, Howies love interest and the not womanly police sergeant (she doesn't wear make up! I know even in a Zombie apocalypse women should look after their beauty or something).
It even gets worse on that front.
The blood baths that haven't infected anyone till the plot needs it then one drop of spit was enough.
Seriously they don't even try to evade the Zombies, it's melee your way trough thousands without any form of armor or something to protect their faces. Nothing!
In the beginning with small Zombie packs you can overlook it but later, they should all be shambling!
Also there are some descriptions of physical feats that are not regularly possible, jumping with two steps run-up over other people. Jumping from roofs without hurting themselves, building traps, digging holes with spikes and other stuff in a day.
And the worse:
Political views that get bashed over your head.
Sometimes the author seems to notice that maybe he shouldn't show/write it like that and trys reasoning. I.e. A big battle is going to go down, children and theit mothers get evacuated, there are still enough single women around and Howies sister plus some other of the named female characters ask where there are places that needs fighters. And Howie tells them (those five women that matter to him) to evacuate with the children because if they stay they will pointlessly die and are not needed but with the children they might make a difference and they go because Howie, everybody loves Howie! So not patronising, simply dismissing their opinion and choice in that matter. I hate the depiction of women in this.
The pathos riddled speeches and inner monologes from Howie. They are really bad in the vain of the zombies are evil and we are good and we will die fighting and die free and that fight is what humans of old have gone trough the become us and that's the right way to live.
Howie to a big group of people trying to rouse them to fight. 'I want to show them zombies that we will not hide and we will not run and we will not stand still. We will fight. We will take as many of them down as we can. We may lose, but to the last man we will fight back. They are infected. They are evil. They do not have the right to walk among us or take our air. They have taken everything from us but this place, this place here is ours, and they will not take it from us without a fight. These men (me: aka the Lads) in front of you have stood on the line and survived. On this occasion, we got beaten back, but many times before, we took ground from them, not only surviving but winning!
And that is only one of the examples of something like this troughout the last half.
And then to make matters worse Howie found God and the power of love in the last battle, I wish I was joking.
Some people seem to like this authors writing he is on day 33 with three novelas but I am out, this hurts my brain. The idiot Howie is yoloing this shit and dragging everybody around him for the ride! Not me!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 23, 2018
I haven’t read any zombie novels for a while, this is because I started to think they all were much of a sameness and just not interesting enough, well until I came across this novel...
The Undead: The First Seven Days is a compilation of seven published parts, originally serialised but now collected together in one big novel, so you can read it all in one go.
First of all this is a British zombie novel, something that always gets a thumbs up from me, it’s not that I’m against American zombie, but it’s nice when you find one based at home, it adds to the realism.
Set over a week, the novel describes the beginnings of a zombie apocalypse happening in a small town south of London in the UK. Howie the main character works in a supermarket and we see the breakdown of society through his eyes and what starts out to be some pretty random and brutal mass bitings in public begins a worldwide apocalypse.
The characters in the novel are ordinary people like you and me and that for me is what makes the novel more real, scary and down to Earth, you can actually imagine this happening on your door step.
The book ratchets up a level midway as we go on a rescue mission into zombie infested central London and then onto a refuge in an 18th century napoleonic fort on the south coast, there for a magnificent showdown between zombie and humans.
If you like zombie fiction, you’re in for a treat with this one. Highly recommended!
The Undead: The First Seven Days is a compilation of seven published parts, originally serialised but now collected together in one big novel, so you can read it all in one go.
First of all this is a British zombie novel, something that always gets a thumbs up from me, it’s not that I’m against American zombie, but it’s nice when you find one based at home, it adds to the realism.
Set over a week, the novel describes the beginnings of a zombie apocalypse happening in a small town south of London in the UK. Howie the main character works in a supermarket and we see the breakdown of society through his eyes and what starts out to be some pretty random and brutal mass bitings in public begins a worldwide apocalypse.
The characters in the novel are ordinary people like you and me and that for me is what makes the novel more real, scary and down to Earth, you can actually imagine this happening on your door step.
The book ratchets up a level midway as we go on a rescue mission into zombie infested central London and then onto a refuge in an 18th century napoleonic fort on the south coast, there for a magnificent showdown between zombie and humans.
If you like zombie fiction, you’re in for a treat with this one. Highly recommended!
December 8, 2020
I love books and movies with zombies, undead, empties, walkers or whatever you want to call them. This book has an unique take on them. They are controlled by an infection that wants mankind infected or just gone. This is a character driven story that will have you go through the whole range of emotions. Great battles with losses that really hurt. I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves the zombie/horror genres.
February 3, 2023
Very obviously an amateur author, but in part what made this book 5 stars. Sometimes waffly, other times slightly incoherent but that’s what made this book so easy to fall into. You can enjoy the book without effort
A surprisingly gripping story line given it’s been done so many times before, personable characters and relatable background. Would recommend if you want a non-fiction for your mind to escape
A surprisingly gripping story line given it’s been done so many times before, personable characters and relatable background. Would recommend if you want a non-fiction for your mind to escape
May 24, 2020
At first I was at a loss as to how this dreadful thing got so many rave reviews, then I remembered we live in a world with Donald Trump, anti vaxxers and flat Earthers...
Where to even begin. It's 100 pages of story crammed into 800 odd pages. It's so long, and so repetitive, and the number of typos (in the Kindle edition at least) was apalling. Our HERO (as we are repeatedly told he is) says the word 'mate' several times a page which just started to make my teeth itch about a third of the way in.
RR Haywood clearly does not rate women or gay men very much (that or I suspect he's never met either). The first 'main' female character comes several days in where we find her dancing about naked, standing around in a wet T shirt then literally falling into the laps of some burly men. This comes after a) a woman who looks 'severe, as she's not even wearing any makeup!' b) a zombie woman ridiculed in a long passage for being fat c) a zombie pole dancer with massive fake boobs, and d) and zombie woman who tries to suffocate our hero with her boobs. BOOBS. And as for the constant grinding 'banter' about being gay, ah, LADS. The BANTS. When we do meet an actual gay man we are left without a doubt that this is the case as he minces, is effeminate, and appears to need to flirt outrageously with all the LADS. Because gays, innit.
Apart from those issues, the whole thing is woeful. The dialogue is utterly unbelievable, not once but twice we are treated to unecessary descriptive passages of our man 'Mr' Howie going for a dump, the 'heroes' of the tale are utterly unlikeable bullies with Messiah complexes, the LADS sycophantic bullies with violence complexes, and the story itself makes no sense at all.
Really, really bad. If you're into post apocalyptic survival fiction try the After It Happened series, or the Wool trilogy, or Station Eleven, or the Walking Dead. But not this.
Edit - only just realised that RR Haywood also wrote the Worldship Humility, which I absolutely loved and is unrecognisable in writing style to this (SO much better!). I'm astonished that it's the same author - I can only assume that Haywood has matured and honed their craft /got an editor in latter years!
Where to even begin. It's 100 pages of story crammed into 800 odd pages. It's so long, and so repetitive, and the number of typos (in the Kindle edition at least) was apalling. Our HERO (as we are repeatedly told he is) says the word 'mate' several times a page which just started to make my teeth itch about a third of the way in.
RR Haywood clearly does not rate women or gay men very much (that or I suspect he's never met either). The first 'main' female character comes several days in where we find her dancing about naked, standing around in a wet T shirt then literally falling into the laps of some burly men. This comes after a) a woman who looks 'severe, as she's not even wearing any makeup!' b) a zombie woman ridiculed in a long passage for being fat c) a zombie pole dancer with massive fake boobs, and d) and zombie woman who tries to suffocate our hero with her boobs. BOOBS. And as for the constant grinding 'banter' about being gay, ah, LADS. The BANTS. When we do meet an actual gay man we are left without a doubt that this is the case as he minces, is effeminate, and appears to need to flirt outrageously with all the LADS. Because gays, innit.
Apart from those issues, the whole thing is woeful. The dialogue is utterly unbelievable, not once but twice we are treated to unecessary descriptive passages of our man 'Mr' Howie going for a dump, the 'heroes' of the tale are utterly unlikeable bullies with Messiah complexes, the LADS sycophantic bullies with violence complexes, and the story itself makes no sense at all.
Really, really bad. If you're into post apocalyptic survival fiction try the After It Happened series, or the Wool trilogy, or Station Eleven, or the Walking Dead. But not this.
Edit - only just realised that RR Haywood also wrote the Worldship Humility, which I absolutely loved and is unrecognisable in writing style to this (SO much better!). I'm astonished that it's the same author - I can only assume that Haywood has matured and honed their craft /got an editor in latter years!
August 13, 2015
When I start reading a book, I expect to have a wonderful time all the way through it. If it's a zombie novel, I obviously expect lots of zombies and tension. As rare as it might be, this book turned out to be all that it promised; very fast-paced, entertaining and funny, It is definitely not high literature for elevated souls, but it's written in a very convincing way with sometimes repetitive dialogues that bring more reality to the plot.
There was just one point I didn't quite understand which was Howie's journal. It made me think Howie would turn into a hibrid or a mutant and would be able to experience the same situations from different perspectives. Despite the fact that the approach from the virus's standpoint was very clever, it was done in a way that didn't make sense to me.
All in all, I can't help recommending this book to anyone who can appreciate without prejudices this kind of literature, because for me, it's been one of the best books I've ever read.
There was just one point I didn't quite understand which was Howie's journal. It made me think Howie would turn into a hibrid or a mutant and would be able to experience the same situations from different perspectives. Despite the fact that the approach from the virus's standpoint was very clever, it was done in a way that didn't make sense to me.
All in all, I can't help recommending this book to anyone who can appreciate without prejudices this kind of literature, because for me, it's been one of the best books I've ever read.
March 8, 2019
This is awful, a truly awful book. The fact that it has so many grammatical errors and spelling mistakes shows that it hasn’t ever seen an editor.
However, if it had seen an editor they would have cut the book down by at least 40%. It goes on for so long..so so long.... and yet has so little to say.
One dull action piece after another with no tension and written in a 3rd person style that makes you feel like you are reading a bad teenagers diary.
I love apocalyptic/zombie novels which have a gritty tale, but this was just boring.
I really can’t work out where all the great reviews come from.
However, if it had seen an editor they would have cut the book down by at least 40%. It goes on for so long..so so long.... and yet has so little to say.
One dull action piece after another with no tension and written in a 3rd person style that makes you feel like you are reading a bad teenagers diary.
I love apocalyptic/zombie novels which have a gritty tale, but this was just boring.
I really can’t work out where all the great reviews come from.
June 2, 2014
Be prepared to loose time!
Get settled and start ordering the next seven books or - how lovely to compile the series for us - the next weeks worth of the teams adventures.
Each book can be read on it's own but to really get to grips with the depth of the characters it is best to get them in order.
LOVE them all :-)
Get settled and start ordering the next seven books or - how lovely to compile the series for us - the next weeks worth of the teams adventures.
Each book can be read on it's own but to really get to grips with the depth of the characters it is best to get them in order.
LOVE them all :-)
June 3, 2014
Brilliant epic zombie story. Very well written with great humour and wonderful characters. Highly recommend to any zombie or post apocalypse fan.
December 9, 2025
Brilliant Books Spoilt by the Need of a Thorough Edit and Proofread
3.5 stars ⭐️
After the first few pages I almost stopped reading. Mistakes in every line and clumsy sentence structures and/or outright errors ripped me from the read time and again. Not to mention the ridiculous misspelling over and over. However, as I’d bought the whole series too long ago to get my money back, I chose to push on.
Gradually, I managed to ignore the worst of the writing and came to enjoy the humour and—later—the brilliant banter between well-drawn characters. The words created a scene in my mind which allowed me to walk and fight and laugh along with each character.
With a proper edit and proofread this would be a gem of a collection of the first seven days. I can only hope the writing improves in the next volumes.
As it stands, the sheer amount of appalling mistakes and passivity would, ordinarily, have me rate at 1 star. Happily, the characterisations and world building and amazing realness more than outweigh all the prose horrors, and I find myself giving a solid 3.5 stars, which I round up to 4 for rating purposes.
This means I loved the storyline and characters enough to have read over 800 pages in a short time and even managed to ignore—eventually, and after great efforts—the many many errors and came to enjoy the narrative regardless.
I look forward to reading the next seven-day collection in the series.
3.5 stars ⭐️
After the first few pages I almost stopped reading. Mistakes in every line and clumsy sentence structures and/or outright errors ripped me from the read time and again. Not to mention the ridiculous misspelling over and over. However, as I’d bought the whole series too long ago to get my money back, I chose to push on.
Gradually, I managed to ignore the worst of the writing and came to enjoy the humour and—later—the brilliant banter between well-drawn characters. The words created a scene in my mind which allowed me to walk and fight and laugh along with each character.
With a proper edit and proofread this would be a gem of a collection of the first seven days. I can only hope the writing improves in the next volumes.
As it stands, the sheer amount of appalling mistakes and passivity would, ordinarily, have me rate at 1 star. Happily, the characterisations and world building and amazing realness more than outweigh all the prose horrors, and I find myself giving a solid 3.5 stars, which I round up to 4 for rating purposes.
This means I loved the storyline and characters enough to have read over 800 pages in a short time and even managed to ignore—eventually, and after great efforts—the many many errors and came to enjoy the narrative regardless.
I look forward to reading the next seven-day collection in the series.
April 17, 2025
Such a good series - I enjoyed this so very much. We follow our hero (Howie), a night manager at a Tesco as he deals with the changing world when people start turning into zombies.
This tale is a real thrill and I've read and re-read it so many times. I just want everyone else to read it and love it as much as I do.
This tale is a real thrill and I've read and re-read it so many times. I just want everyone else to read it and love it as much as I do.
June 21, 2020
It was hard graft reading this. Started off with promise, but I quickly found that the writing seemed juvenile.
Stopped reading at 10% when the main character started to feel a zombies breasts cos he'd "never felt implants before".
Seriously?!
And who are these people giving it 5* reviews. And most of them women. Something ain't right there.
Stopped reading at 10% when the main character started to feel a zombies breasts cos he'd "never felt implants before".
Seriously?!
And who are these people giving it 5* reviews. And most of them women. Something ain't right there.
October 31, 2021
Not my usual thing, and certainly no great literary work, but quite enjoyed this bit of zombie apocalypse fun.
October 15, 2023
Blah… half the time I felt lost. In one chapter they would be one place in the next the characters whole be somewhere else. Poorly written.
October 15, 2024
Just wow, edge of the seat reading here, so intense. I must say, I hate Darin, Darin is the zombie version of our Karen’s. Kill Darin Karin…..yes mr Howie!
August 23, 2025
A fun, easy read with a driving plot that keeps you hooked. I enjoyed the authors use of colloquial British dialect which seems to be the most criticised aspect of this book.
At points it is clear that the series is self published with small grammatical errors and spelling mistakes however nothing big enough to put me off. You can definitely see RR Haywood’s skills develop throughout the first seven days.
I also find the one day equals one book style really fun, it adds a great pacing to the novels. I did find some of the fight scenes slightly over the top and there is a sense of plot armour for the main characters but that aside I think this series is a fun and engaging read and I will definitely continue on.
At points it is clear that the series is self published with small grammatical errors and spelling mistakes however nothing big enough to put me off. You can definitely see RR Haywood’s skills develop throughout the first seven days.
I also find the one day equals one book style really fun, it adds a great pacing to the novels. I did find some of the fight scenes slightly over the top and there is a sense of plot armour for the main characters but that aside I think this series is a fun and engaging read and I will definitely continue on.
March 25, 2017
"I felt the fury and rage building" ... "I looked at his face and saw the fury" ... "We attacked as one" ... "They moved as one"... bla bla bla. The author used those same lines at least 50 times in the book. There are also chapters that are just huge blocks of text with no paragraph breaks. The writing in this series is absolutely dreadful. The plot was weak, the characterization was juvenile, the dialogue was embarrassingly bad. I just really did not like this book.
I'm not sure what's up with all of the raving 5 star reviews. If I'm being generous I could say that the over-all story is "ok" but it would have worked better as a comic book series or a graphic novel. As a book, or a series of books it's really quite poor. The Undead by R.R. Haywood is nothing but one boring action scene after another with a bunch of filler in between. I personally didn't like the authors version of zombies in this series but I did appreciate that he went into a different direction and tried to do something unique with "The Infection."
Overall I give the author credit because his writing clearly improved as the series went on but he definitely needs a real editor. Also, separating each book into a different day might be a good marketing strategy but if he wanted to go that direction then he should have stuck with the shorter novellas that he started out using. The longer books that he started writing later on were so boring and consisted of so much filler that I started skipping 20-30 pages at a time just to get to the end.
I'm not sure what's up with all of the raving 5 star reviews. If I'm being generous I could say that the over-all story is "ok" but it would have worked better as a comic book series or a graphic novel. As a book, or a series of books it's really quite poor. The Undead by R.R. Haywood is nothing but one boring action scene after another with a bunch of filler in between. I personally didn't like the authors version of zombies in this series but I did appreciate that he went into a different direction and tried to do something unique with "The Infection."
Overall I give the author credit because his writing clearly improved as the series went on but he definitely needs a real editor. Also, separating each book into a different day might be a good marketing strategy but if he wanted to go that direction then he should have stuck with the shorter novellas that he started out using. The longer books that he started writing later on were so boring and consisted of so much filler that I started skipping 20-30 pages at a time just to get to the end.
October 27, 2015
I haven't read the print books, I actually listened to the audio versions available thru Audible.com. I was looking for something to feed my TWD fix.
These books are alot of fun. Set in England, the MC is Howie, formerly a grocery store manager, with his band of sidekicks, beginning w/ Dave.
Howie and Dave are awesome, with the books set in a day to day format, showing Howie learning to be a badass hero. In the first days, fighting his way to London with a mission to save his sister Sarah.
Fighting off Zombie horde's all over the English Country side. Dave is one of my favorite characters, a quiet, quirky former special forces soldier who is a one man killing machine with a fierce protective streak for "Mister Howie" and t rest of their group.
The narrator Dan Morgan does an excellent job. Highly recommend this series of Zombie stories.
These books are alot of fun. Set in England, the MC is Howie, formerly a grocery store manager, with his band of sidekicks, beginning w/ Dave.
Howie and Dave are awesome, with the books set in a day to day format, showing Howie learning to be a badass hero. In the first days, fighting his way to London with a mission to save his sister Sarah.
Fighting off Zombie horde's all over the English Country side. Dave is one of my favorite characters, a quiet, quirky former special forces soldier who is a one man killing machine with a fierce protective streak for "Mister Howie" and t rest of their group.
The narrator Dan Morgan does an excellent job. Highly recommend this series of Zombie stories.
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