Ben White (1)

Ben White's "The Undying Apathy of Imogen Shroud" begins with an angsty, vaguely gothy, 17 year old girl suffering from a bout of depression due to a romantic betrayal (her girlfriend turned out to have used her to get a boyfriend.) She lives at home with her mother (a possible couch potato with a bad leg) and her 12 year old brother, Zach. She ventures out only to make her mother's minimum of leaving the house once a week, returning library books and visiting her grandfather, who is growing show more senile in a geriatric centre. One day her mother volunteers her to act as chaperon for Zach on a trip to the convention centre for a comic convention (her mother also specifies a trip to the job centre, a suggestion which is largely ignored.) Imogen and Zach get to the convention centre, tour the con a bit, then things go ... wrong. And then there were zombies. The book shifts from teen angst to survivalist terror as it follows Imogen's attempt to survive.

White handles the interaction between siblings well; Imogen's mixture of irritation, teasing, name-calling, and possessive-caring attitude and Zach's adoration, whinging, inability to shut up, and childish priorities are all very believable, though I felt that his actions could be read as younger than 12 at times. Descriptions of locations, costumes, zombies are all excellent; you can visualise it clearly, though the convention centre is confusing in its layout (and this comes across both in description and character comments) - I couldn't map it out in my head. Fight scenes, too, are chaotic, but it leaves the appropriate impression in the reader's mind - an experience of the chaos of a fight. Gore is ... well... gore; zombies being 1) undead and rotting 2) corpse eaters and 3) not known for hygiene or table manners, this was never going to be pretty. That said, the author keeps things just this side of nauseating.

Now for the less delightful: there was a definite repetitive feel to the zombie attacks, so much so that I wound up skimming the longer attack sections, picking up on major changes or impacts. The formatting and font (please note: I read this converted on Calibre) felt designed to assault - hurling giant blocks of dense text. While that increased my awareness of the strain the characters were under, and it definitely grips and doesn't let go, it also made the reading experience part of the zombie's assault. Not sure I can really criticise that exactly, but I feel it worth mentioning. The characters need more depth - they feel cartoony; 2 dimensional rather than fleshed out or real. A lot of questions unanswered (significance of the monorail scene, particularly the weird rhythm Imogen hears; everything about the convention centre's weirdness; the question of the leg, etc.) though hopefully some sort of sequel will expound on these.

Overall: 4 or 4.5 stars. I'm still oscillating - I almost decided on a 5 star rating, but the repetitiveness of the fight scenes really got to me. I really liked this enough to give it 5 stars, but the problems I've listed do make an impact on both the story's value. That said, it's a pretty fun ride if you enjoy the zombie genre.

Review copy supplied by the author as part of LibraryThing's Member Giveaway Program. show less

It has been a long time since a book kept me up at night. But Kindles make impulse-buys so easy, and what started as research ended after midnight when my eyes rebelled and I had to stop. Some background: I have recently self-published my first novel, Wearing the Cape, on Amazon for the Kindle. WtC is a superhero story, and it’s had a few buyers so far and some good reviews, but Amazon has that Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought function so you can see what other readers with your show more interests are also enjoying. There are not a lot of superhero stories out there, so my Also Bought bar isn’t very long, and one of the entries is Charlotte Powers: Power Down. Yesterday night I decided I wanted to see how another author had translated superheroes (indigenous to comic-books, a very visual medium) into literature. To be honest, I didn’t expect much from it–the product description made it sound, well, “fluffy.“

Boy was I wrong, and my mistake cost me half a night’s sleep. Power Down is a YA novel, and Charlotte Powers is a plucky 15-year old wannabe superhero. The only problem is the Age of Heroes seems to have passed; her parents fought all the big fights before she was born, and, villains vanquished, they live in a secluded base on an island somewhere. There they train, and monitor the world, but don’t interfere in “normal” problems. This isn’t good enough for Charlotte, who wants to Use Her Powers For Good, and use them Now. After what is probably the hundredth argument, her parents decide that, at the very least, it’s time to get her off the island and into the world; she can get socialized and build a public Clark Kent type identity. So they send her off to live with an uncle and go to public school. This, of course, is where it all goes horribly, horribly wrong.

I read Charlotte Powers: Power Down in two sittings separated by too little sleep. Although I’d have to label it YA, adults will enjoy it. (I’m an adult. I enjoyed it. The conclusion follows logically.) Ben White has great respect for the superhero genre; in Power Down he plays it straight–the humor comes from Charlotte’s reactions and thoughts, not from the plot (which turns out to be deadly-serious). There is pathos along with the humor, and a great deal of wisdom. As my tired eyes can attest, it’s a page-turner, and now that I’m done, I really, really hope the nature of the title means it’s only a first installment. And I’m going looking for more Ben White books. show less

The Undying Apathy of Imogen Shroud
By Ben White

Fast paced, funny, and at times completely horrific. I found myself staying up all night to finish this little gem. Imogen, wrapped in a deep depression after a failed romance, slogs through life just trying to meet her mother's demand that she leave the house once a week. Being seventeen and tortured by the attentions of her hero worshipping younger brother, Imogen finds herself forced to endure the company of the undersized eleven year old show more Zack on a trek across town to a comic con. Once there, all hell breaks loose as an unnatural disaster hits and the dead rise!

Mr. White has created some truly engaging characters and another type of zombie! One of my favorite lines has to do with these are not Romero’s zombies and is it ever true! I found myself alternating between being horrified and tense for Imogen, and laughing out loud at some of the survivors and situations she meets on her quest to remain alive. While many of the standard tropes are used in the story the spin they undergo is hilarious. There are so many more story points I’d like to bring up, but I don't want to spoil this experience for other readers. I will just say that I hadn’t enjoyed so much merriment reading in a very long time.

Isn’t it nice to find a new work and author to follow? I plan on reading as much of Mr. White’s work as I can lay my hands on. show less

Imogen Shroud is a 17 year old dragged down by life, her days existing of hiding away in her room, reading and generally staring into space. I didn’t know how to feel about Imogen to begin with – she was an intriguing character, but not exactly likeable. However, as the book progressed, I grew to like her more and more – her tenacity, her black sense of humour and loyalty to her family endeared Imogen to me, and by the end she was one of my favourite book characters of this year.

The show more writing is fluid and descriptive, the action is fast-paced, and even the goriness of the fight scenes is written concisely, giving a polished yet breathless feel to the book, but probably the best writing is that of the characters – they are all individual and unique, and as a reader I couldn’t help but feel for all of them.

There were a couple of places where I felt a little bogged down in the book, when certain parts seemed almost carbon copies of the preceding scenes, but the story turned again and drew me back in completely.

The story of the infection is told by a biologist, but he is a rambler and I found it a little hard to concentrate on exactly what he was trying to say – without wanting to give away any spoilers, there are some unique theories on how the zombies came to be and how to avoid being infected. This may cause a little shudder through some zombie purists, but personally I liked the fact that it wasn’t the ‘normal’ zombie situation.

All in all I really liked The Undying Apathy of Imogen Shroud. It’s well written, the characters are great and the action is non-stop, but this book also has a heart (in the most unlikely of places!) show less