Down the Road: A Zombie Horror Story is Bowie Ibarra's first novel and is a respectable effort. The book follows George Zaragoza, a teacher, as he tries to make his way home through a zombie infested wasteland. Along the way he has to fight through zombies, FEMA road blocks, and other survivors. While the story keeps you interested and the book is well paced, it just lacks the moxie that some of the better zombie novels have.

I'll start with the good in the book, which makes up most of it. First, Down the Road explores the possible role of FEMA in apocalyptic situation. It seems that FEMA in Down Road was heavily influenced by the reaction to Katrina. It also feeds into the heavy conspiracy theories that several of the characters have. I also like that the Ibarra never really gets into trying explain what caused the outbreak as generally it just bogs down the story and in many cases strains your suspension of disbelief. Instead Ibarra uses the characters speculation on what may have happened.

Down the Road does several other things right. The action scenes are very well described and I, at times, could feel my heart rate rising. Now that is an indicator that the scenes are framed well. Another thing that I enjoyed was the description of how small towns and civilians reacted to the outbreak. I think that Ibarra portrays the small town "call the men to duty" defense down properly. There are also some very nice twists to the story that will throw you for loop, and maybe one of the best endings I have read in a zombie novel.

Now the things that I didn't like so much. The first thing that jumps to mind is that the zombies, while Romero style, had no personality. In most zombie novels the zombies have some defining moment. Like in Kim Paffenroth's Dying to Live there are several and in Z.A Recht's Plague of the Dead when there is an outbreak at sea. Down the Road just never has that one moment where the true terror of a zombie plague shows through.

I'm not against sex and romance in zombie horror, but the sex scenes in Down the Road did not seem to serve any other purpose in the story than just to have a sex scene. These scenes did not in anyway move the story forward or contribute anything meaningful to it either. The only thing it does show is how people hump like bunnies when faced with certain death. Nothing new there.

Ibarra's writing style, while not bad, was not inspiring either. At times the story just seemed to jump from one thing directly to the next leaving the reader questioning why. I point the finger at the first sex scene as an example. Overall, though, for a first novel the writing is pretty good.

So, where do I stand on Down the Road? Well, it's an entertaining read with an interesting main character and does introduce some new elements to the zombie genre but lacks the character of some of the better zombie books. However, if you are a zombie fan this a good read and should not disappoint too many. ( )

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