Warning: Zombie Controversy

A series of terrible things begin to happen when a scientist with a dark past resumes his genetic experiments in a small Maine town. The animals suddenly become aggressive for no apparent reason, attacking anyone within sight, including Rick’s wife. After slaughtering his diseased herd, Rick realizes to his horror that they have come back to life. Soon the farm is under siege by the deranged animals, and a small group of refugees who have assembled in the farmhouse must hunker down and defend themselves against the terrible onslaught of cannibals. The entire town soon becomes filled with the human flesh-eaters, threatening the farmhouse and the survivors within it. But they all have the same message before they reawaken: they are seeking the chosen ones. The onset of winter provides a temporary defense against the army of the dead, but with supplies running low, the survivors realize they must formulate a plan before the arrival of spring and the dreaded melt-off. And as the world outside them descends into total madness, a surprising leader emerges from the group who will hopefully lead them to safety. 

The Reawakening by Joseph Souza is the first book in The Living Dead Series. This novel really upset a lot of zombiephiles, as well as myself. When dead people start talking about an afterlife and "chosen ones," it stops being horror for me. As a matter of fact, The Reawakening seemed more like a sci-fi/fantasy story with just enough brutality thrown in to give it a horror flavor. I am not a fan of supernatural zombies. Granted, the cause of the undead rising in this book is a science experiment gone wrong, but the nature of the undead left me wondering if I was going to be able to finish the book. 

I also disliked the characters - the way they interacted with each other was deplorable, especially considering some of them are related. There was definitely no bonding of any kind within this group of survivors. Not to mention the effort it took to keep reading: a corpse rots faster than the pace of this story. However, after a while, I rather enjoyed the suffering of the characters (sick, I know), and I was just curious enough about their fates to finish the book.Despite my strong dislike of this story, I went ahead and read the second book in the series, Darpocalypse, and I found it to be a great improvement over the first book. It's definitely a unique approach to the whole zombie apocalypse scenario, so if you are looking for something different, this might be the series you were waiting for.

As always,
AstraDaemon