D is for Dead Highways by Richard Brown

Dead Highways

Amazon Summery:

There was no warning. 

In less than a week, the virus crossed the globe infecting the majority of the population. 

STAGE 1: Fatigue, loss of motor control, blurred-vision. 
STAGE 2: Coma. 

A lonely bookworm and stranger to outside adventure, Jimmy is one of the lucky ones immune to the infection. Together with a wild group of survivors, he must figure out how to move on in a world where most of the population lay dying in a coma. 

But that’s just the beginning. 

STAGE 3: With their memories erased, the infected wake and begin to migrate west in massive herds, seeking to kill any of the remaining immune along the way. But where are they going, and what is guiding them? Can Jimmy and his new friends stay alive long enough to discover the shocking truth that waits at the end of these dead highways? 

My Review:

So this is my first zombie review of the challenge this year. One of these years I'm going to try to make it so that each book in the review is zombie themed.....

Anyway back to the review. 

So as I was saying this is my first zombie book for the challenge this year.  I am glad to say that it was a good read. 

I've read so many zombie books at this point that I have to say I'm surprised I haven't gotten bored with them yet. Yes, I've read some bad ones, but fortunately I've also read some really great ones too. I have to say Dead Highways looks like the start to a good series. I've found that to have a good zombie book, whether it's in a series or not, you have to have more than just zombies thrown in the mix.  You also have to have a story that keeps the readers interest and characters that the reader actually care about. I think that Brown has done that. 

Let's start with the story. Brown has thrown an interesting twist in his with his zombies not actually being undead. Instead they are people who have been infected with a mysterious virus that has caused them to become empty shells of who they once were. They are somehow being drawn to an unknown location and at the same time they seem to be programmed to destroy all non-infected humans along the way.  *Spoiler alert* Of course the reasons for these two orders are not revealed in this book in the series. But Brown does a good job of giving just enough info to make the reader want to continue on in the series to find out what those reasons are. *End spoiler alert* 

Then there are the characters. The story is told from the point of view of Jimmy. He isn't your normal hero. His main "friends" consist of his grandmother, who he lives with, and Kevin, a local drug addict. The majority of the book introduces us to Jimmy and his life, or lack there of, and the start of the spread of the infection from his pov. It also details how he met Peaches, a local hooker, and how he ends  up with her and the rest of the group of survivors. 

I think the main reason I actually became so attached to Jimmy and the rest of the characters is because of how human they are. Even though we meet the rest of the characters through Jimmy their personalities still come through. The book isn't like some 1st person POV's where you only become acquainted with the main character and the supporting characters fade into the background. By the end of the book I really wanted to see what happened to all the characters. 

The ending is definitely a cliffie. Not only are there questions left unanswered, but the characters themselves are left in imminent danger. Not my favorite ending. But I'll forgive it since Brown already got me hooked with the rest of the story. 

Not only is this a series I want to continue, I'm also interested in reading other books from this author. He did a good job in taking things that normally turn me off to books and having me be able to either enjoy them, like the 1st person POV, or overlook them, like the cliffie ending. I definitely recommend picking this book up.  I'm giving this one 5 outta 5 stars and plan on getting the next book in the series to read as soon as I get the chance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. 

Click here to find out more and to visit the other blogs participating in the challenge.

I got this book from Amazon because it was on sale and decided to review it for this event. All opinions in this fair and honest review are my own.