Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Up A Tree (A Book Review)

Yes, it's true. Another book review!

Imagine waking up to your best friend trying to eat you and that overnight almost the whole world has turned into Zombies. Now, imagine having to take care of your little sister who then gets taken by Aliens; which are the cause for the Zombies. This is the story of Kendall Roberts and their adventures through a zombie apocalypse, space travel, and a new world.

At an estimated 51 pages long, Up a Tree is not a novel. But it's just a tad too long for a short story. I would, personally, classify it as a novella. But novella carries a connotation that a novella can't be good. After all, if it were good, why isn't it a novel.

Ah. But I digress. Up a Tree is written by Sara D whose blog you can find following that link. It is the first in a series, though I don't know how long that series will be as she has not disclosed that information anywhere I have been able to find. (EDIT: I was wrong, it says on the Amazon page that U[ a Tree is the first of three.) I assume they will be all roughly the same length, and am personally waiting for the next one.

Now, onto my thoughts about the book.

It's written in a style that is very easy to finish, and could be described as... childish in ways. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though, as the first person narrator is only a teenager herself. However, what cannot be contributed to the age of the narrator, are the errors I found while reading. They were little things. "Isle" instead of "Aisle", "he's" instead of "his". Things like that that wouldn't be caught by a spell checker. Obviously it needed a more thorough editing.

The story started out brilliantly. A small glimpse into "now", and then a recap of how the protagonist (Kendall) came to be in the situation. (She provides a sneak peak of the first couple pages on her blog, and you can also read the snippet on Amazon.com as well.) It's done quite well and serves to make the reader curious.

While the action happens quickly, we're given a buffer of an almost normal day before we get to the zombies. That first day, we're shown Kendall's best friend, her ex-best friend-turned-enemy, her younger sister, and a glimpse into her home life as well. It makes one care about the character and what happens to her.

Now, a little less detail to avoid spoilers. The middle was well done. The action was tight, and the pacing phenomenal. One more character was introduced, Eric, who seems a tad stereotypical when it comes to zombie-anything. He's the gun-toting hard-ass. But he cooks. Who would have guessed? He's a nice guy for the most part, and he may be more well rounded than he appears on paper, but we're not told enough about him to make that distinction.

It ends with such a huge, but brilliantly done, cliff hanger. I want to know more, especially about these aliens.

Overall I give it *** stars.

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