The Happy Booker's Vampire/Zombie Acrostic Challenge

The Happy Booker  has issued a poetry challenge to go with a giveaway and I just have to accept it. Mock my acrostic at your own peril!

The challenge is to take the title of one of your favorite vampire and/or zombie novels and write an acrostic poem about it. Here's mine for Warm Bodies.

Without breath or life
A lost soul
Roaming aimlessly
Moaning, groaning

Brains sustain him
Opening doors into memories
Dreams of the living
In them is a girl
Everything changes as
Still hearts learn to beat

               Lieder Madchen

Book Review: The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

The Eternity Cure
by Julie Kagawa

Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Science Fiction / Dystopian / Post-apocalyptic / Romance

Ages: 14 and up

This is the second book in the Blood of Eden series, sequel to The Immortal Rules.

I received an e-copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Reviewer's Note: This is the third Julie Kagawa novel I have read and reviewed in the past 24 hours. I started in the very wee hours of the morning with The Lost Prince (reviewing it about 5 seconds after reading the last page) then picking up with The Immortal Rules in the afternoon (I was interrupted by a plumbing crisis so the review didn't get published until a couple hours after I finished reading) and, to top of my lovely marathon, I just finished reading The Eternity Cure.

P.S. I'm listening to Fall Out Boy as I write this, which is strangely fitting.

Description:

In Allison Sekemoto's world, there is one rule left:

Blood calls to blood

She has done the unthinkable: died so that she might continue to live. Cast out of Eden and separated from the boy she dared to love, Allie will follow the call of blood to save her creator, Kanin, from the psychotic vampire Sarren. But when the trail leads to Allie's birthplace in New Covington, what Allie finds there will change the world forever—and possibly end human and vampire existence.

There's a new plague on the rise, a strain of the Red Lung virus that wiped out most of humanity generations ago—and this strain is deadly to humans and vampires alike. The only hope for a cure lies in the secrets Kanin carries, if Allie can get to him in time.

Allison thought that immortality was forever. But now, with eternity itself hanging in the balance, the lines between human and monster will blur even further, and Allie must face another choice she could never have imagined having to make.

My Thoughts:

It has been four months since Allie left Eden and Zeke. She is now fully adjusted to being a vampire and has become more comfortable in her skin. She's more dangerous, harder-edged, but her humanity is still intact. Well, as intact as possible. As much a survivor as ever, she teams up with her untrustworthy blood-brother in her quest to rescue Kanin..

The characters in this story are just so good. Even Jackal, murderous, untrustworthy bloodsucker that he is, is strangely entertaining. Sarren is the creepiest villain I have met in a long time and every word he says gives me shivers. If there is ever a movie, he should be played by Bill Nighy because he has the perfect voice for it. Zeke is so lovably loyal and self-sacrificing that I spent a lot of time cheering him on. My faint inclination for Kanin as a love interest faded the instant Allie was referred to as his 'daughter'. Oh well, I can still have a crush on him if I want. I'd read a whole book about Kanin.

Story-wise, I didn't like The Eternity Cure as much as The Immortal Rules until the end. Oh. My. Gosh. That ending...how will I survive waiting for the next one? It was brilliant, but completely evil. This is a great sequel, and I have a feeling Book 3 will be magnificent.

Rating System: Profanity, Sexuality and Violence
1 (mild) through 10 (extreme).

Profanity:
I rate it a 5.10 for one use of the f-word and some mid-level swearing and name-calling.

Sexuality:
I give it a 2.10 for brief sexual innuendos and threats.

Violence:
I rate it a 7.10 for fighting, murder, torture and vast quantities of blood.

                            Lieder Madchen

Book Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules
by Julie Kagawa

Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Science Fiction / Post-apocalyptic / Dystopian

Ages: 14 and up

I received an e-galley of this book through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Description:

To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.

Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what–and who–is worth dying for…again.

Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins.

My Thoughts:

This book takes some old ideas and squishes them together in new ways to make a delightfully original story. It is a vampire/zombie apocalypse adventure with more than a few hints of samurai legends. I love it. It's dark and dramatic and powerfully written. Plus it has vampires fighting zombies. Beat that! Well, they're called 'rabids' in the book, but they're basically zombies.

Allie is one tough lady. Having spent her entire life hating vampires, she suddenly is one. Under the tutelage of Kanin, a mysterious, solitary vampire with many secrets, she starts to learn how to be a monster without becoming a monster. He teaches her how to use her new abilities to survive and defend herself and gifts her with a katana. (A vampire slaying zombies with a katana - like I said, beat that!) This interlude does not last long, however, and Allison is forced to set out into the world on her own. It is there that she discovers a wandering group of humans - and Zeke.

I really like Zeke (full name Ezekiel Crosse). He still has hope in a world that offers none. He's a born leader; protective, selfless and brave. He's also falling fast for Allie - or the human he thinks she is. Despite how much I like him as a love interest, I have this kind of half-hope that Kanin will turn out to be...but I doubt it. Maybe. We'll see. He's pretty entrenched in the mentor role for now.

All-in-all, I loved this book. Great characters, wonderful story, serious and fun at the same time...what's not to like? I would highly recommend The Immortal Rules.

Rating System: Profanity, Sexuality and Violence
1 (mild) through 10 (extreme).

Profanity:
I rate it a 4.10 for some mid-level swearing and name-calling.

Sexuality:
I give it a 3.10 for some innuendos and brief threats.

Violence:
I rate it a 7.10 for fights, murder, gore, torture and vast quantities of blood.

                                          Lieder Madchen

Book Review: The Weepers: The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker

Book Review: The Weepers: The Other Life
by Susanne Winnacker

Genre: Young Adult / Post-apocalyptic / Zombies / Science Fiction

Ages: 14 and up

I received an advance e-copy through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Description:

Sherry has lived with her family in a bunker for more than three years. Her grandfather's body has been in the freezer for the last six months, her parents are at each other's throats and two minutes ago, they ran out of food. Sherry and her father must leave the safety of the bunker.

What they find is an empty Los Angeles, destroyed by bombs and haunted by Weepers - savage humans infected with a rabies virus. While searching for food, Sherry's father disappears and Sherry is saved by Joshua, a hunter. He takes her to Safe-haven, a vineyard where a handful of survivors are picking up the pieces of their other lives, before the virus changed everything. Sherry must find a way to help her family, stay alive, and decide whether Joshua is their savior or greatest danger as his desire for vengeance threatens them all.

This debut novel is a page-turner that is not easy to forget.

My Thoughts:

This book was...okay. It's pretty much a classic zombie survival novel; the main characters spend most of their time fleeing from or fighting the zombie-like 'Weepers', who are people infected with a particularly violent form of rabies. The world has gone to heck in a hand-basket to say the least.

The main characters are pretty good; Sherry is the sheltered (she lived in a bomb shelter for over three years) but tough heroine and Joshua is a fighter, a survivor used to taking care of himself and others. The minor characters are decent, but they don't grab you.

Much of the story was very predictable, you could see what was coming around every corner and it never made you jump with surprise. A good zombie story ought to make you jump. It was kind of a cross between the movies Blast from the Past and I am Legend. Not particularly original.

There was nothing I really disliked about this book, just nothing that made me love it, either. It's pretty short, so it's okay for a rainy day if you like the genre, but other than that I wouldn't really recommend it.

Rating System: Profanity, Sexuality and Violence
1 (mild) through 10 (extreme).

Profanity:
I rate it a 4.10 for mid-level swearing.

Sexuality:
I give it a 1.10 for very mild hints, some kissing and a past crush.

Violence:
I give it a 6.10 for death and some goriness.

     
                               Lieder Madchen

Book Review #52 Dreadfully Ever After

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After
by Steve Hockensmith

Genre: Mash-Up / Zombie / Regency / Romance / Jane Austen
Ages: 14 and up

Elizabeth Darcy is unsatisfied with married life. She loves her husband deeply, but she misses the joy of slaying Unmentionables. She misses the excitement and danger and the near-death experiences. All of these things are just around the corner, just not the way she wants.

When Darcy is bitten by a Dreadful, Elizabeth has no choice but to turn to Lady Catherine for aid. With the dubious help of a mysterious ninja and two of her sillier sisters, she sets out to steal a secret cure that the government has been working on.

This book is horrid, terrible, insane, ridiculous and Dreadful with a capital D. It was truly quite awful and I enjoyed every word. True, it is also disgusting and disturbed, but that is part of the fun. I am sure Jane Austen would be horrified if she could read this book. The shades of Pemberley are most thoroughly polluted.

I enjoyed the original Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but I did not like Dawn of the Dreadfuls much at all, so I was not sure what to expect from this one. I needn't have worried, it made me alternately laugh and gasp at the impudence of the author.

Poor Darcy had a lot to deal with in this one. A gaping bite wound, a sudden love of raw meat, crazy relatives, and lots and lots of the undead. I liked the scene when he first attempted to get out of bed after being bitten, fainting between every article of clothing.

I loved Kitty and Nezu. The fact that Nezu was a ninja made him a fun and different character. It was fun to see inside the minds and conversations of ninjas when before they had always been silent and expendable. Kitty was just as silly as she ever was, but she had a certain amount of depth to her that made her character more interesting. The two of them were complete opposites, and it was fun watching how they seemed to instinctively understand each other in ways no one else ever had.

Mary was brilliant, still preachy and annoying, but brilliant. She saw straight to the heart of the problem immediately and set out to do something about it. (Rather more effectively than even Elizabeth.) She has many adventures with a limbless man who is hauled around in a box, any guesses as to who that is?

I recommend this book to readers who like a bit of silliness in their lives and don't take classics too seriously.

Content Ratings:

 I give this a 1.10 in language for brief, mild language.

This book gets a 2.10 in sexuality for some mild references and innuendos, as well as a half-hearted attempt at seduction.

I give this a 7.10 for lots and lots of violence. I did not give it a higher number because the violence is not particularly realistic.