REVIEW: Population Zero by Wrath James White

I grew up reading Richard Laymon and Jack Ketchum, so it was a neat little surprise to find a new author to add to that lofty list of hardcore, no-fear horror writers. Population Zero was my first brush with Wrath James White's writing, and I have to say...I really enjoyed it (and I'm a little hard to please when it comes to horror). I read it straight through, no stops, and promptly went to Amazon and added a bunch of his other books to my Kindle. So thanks, Wrath, for making sure I eat nothing but Ramen for the next few weeks.

Population Zero is not a bit sympathetic to the welfare class. The main character believes that they're literally "worthless eaters" and that they're destroying the earth with their nonstop breeding and manipulation of the system. So he gets the idea that maybe he can do something about it by suggesting that one welfare mother get herself 'fixed' in exchange for extra food stamps and other privileges. When that works, he goes further...and further...and the next thing you know he's Googling 'how to do a vasectomy.'

This book isn't for the faint of heart. It's graphic and gross and disgusting and cringe-worthy, and--in my opinion--absolutely worth the cover price. Every now and then, 'subtle' just doesn't do it for me. Let others have their quiet horror...I'll take visceral terror every time.

Recommended...but only for those who have the stomach for it.

REVIEW: The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor

Like every zombie-crazed fanatic out there, I'm a huge fan of The Walking Dead--comic, TV show, webisodes, etc. If it's got "Walking Dead" on it, I'm there. So when I saw that Robert Kirkman was writing a novel about the ever-so-evil character of The Governor, well...I had to get my hands on it. And fast. And I did.

NetGalley, a neat little reviewer's dream, allowed me to read it before the publication date, but due to some unfortunate medical situations, I didn't get to read/write a review until later. That said, the book was well worth the wait. In fact, I'll probably have to read it again because I sped through it so fast.

The story is your basic "uh-oh, zombies!" type of situation: the dead are coming back and they're hungry, and in the meanwhile, civilization is going straight to hell. The main characters include the man who will become "The Governor," his brother, a little girl, and some friends who are doomed to become zombie fodder as they struggle to get out of a bad situation and find a safe place. That's pretty much all the plot you really need in a zombie novel, as long as the characters are interesting and the "close calls" are nice and juicy (and by juicy, I mean bloody). Rise of the Governor has this in spades, and on top of all that, it has a nifty little twist at the end that I did NOT see coming. I always appreciate that in a book.

The writing team of Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga (not to be confused with Sheldon Cooper's 'Bazinga!', btw) seems to work well together. There's a smooth narrative that should be familiar to fans of the comic. My only quibble--and it's a small one--is the use of the present tense throughout the book. For some reason, it distracted me at first. I got over it.

This book is meant to be the first of a trilogy, and I'm looking forward to what will come next. Somebody whisper in Kirkman's ear that he needs to flesh out the Daryl character from the show. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeze!

My own first negative review

I've been a writer for a loooong time, and I've been a published writer for about six or seven years now. I've had some criticisms and some raves, and I realize that's what comes with writing for public consumption: some people are going to like it, and some aren't. That's just life.

I've also reviewed quite a few books in my time, and the thing I've always tried to keep in mind--even with my negative reviews--is that there's a real person on the other side of the review. The writer. Maybe it's because I'm a writer myself, but I understand the hard work and effort that goes into writing something, even if I don't personally like it. And so I try to highlight what's good without performing a hack job on the book. Somebody out there is going to like it. That somebody just isn't me.

Which leads me to the subject of this post: my own first negative review. I guess I've been pretty fortunate over the years that it's taken this long for someone to really not like my writing. Years ago, I might have been crushed by the comments. Today...not so much. I've reached that perfect point of not giving two hot damns about it.

Here's the review in question: Sunflowers's review of The Giving Season. If you keep reading the rest of Ms. Sunflowers reviews you'll see that she really doesn't like anything. In fact, I can't help but wonder why she keeps reading romances if she hates so many of them. I get the feeling that our Ms. Sunflowers might just be a failed writer herself. Envy is an awful thing.

Why am I posting about this? Just to let anyone who reads this blog know that I'm going to be extremely fair about my reviews of books. Unless I absolutely hate the book, I'm going to find something good about it, because I know that everyone has different tastes. Even if I hate the book, I'm going to appreciate the work that went into it. I've had my share of rejections--and I still get them. Being published doesn't mean that it's smooth sailing from there on out.

So read Ms. Sunflowers's review. Enjoy it. Read her others and see if you don't notice a pattern (other than her seeming inability to spell "bitch" correctly). It's her right to criticize, and my right to respond.

And for the record...the positive reviews on the Amazon site are not "shills." Where in the hell would I get the money to PAY people to review my book?

Welcome, Book Nerds!

So you're probably asking yourself, "What the hell does that title mean, anyway?"

When I was in grade school, I used to bring books with me to read during the day. Not kid books, either. I'm talking novelizations of the "Halloween" and "Omen" movies, or whatever horror novels I could talk my mom into letting me read*. It never failed that every time I'd sit down to read, some kid would come up to me and say, "How can you read that? There's no pictures!" in an aghast, awe-struck voice.

So from my very early days, I was a book nerd. I liked to read. And I read a lot. Mostly horror. I didn't mess around with that girly Nancy Drew or Trixie Belden crap. I dabbled in the Little House in the Big Woods series, but only because it was during a summer library program and the librarian expected a 10 year old girl to read about other 10 year old girls, not teenagers like "Carrie." Didn't matter, though...I'd read Carrie years before.

Nowadays, I go all over the genres. True Crime. Horror. Romance. Non-fiction. Whatever. If it sounds good to me, I'll read it. I'm no snob. Actually, I guess I might be, because I cannot abide "literary fiction." Nope. Sorry. Had enough of that during my Bachelor degree days. So if you're expecting reviews of NY Times Bestsellers here, you might want to look elsewhere. I'll admit it...I'm lowbrow and I love it. No pretensions. I like what I like, and that's just the way it is.

So I hope somebody out in cyberland finds this little blog and feels like a friend is telling them what books they just HAVE to read next. Enjoy.

*Full disclosure: I also took copies of Famous Monsters and Mad magazines to school too. As you can probably guess, I wasn't the most popular of girls.