Allison Hewitt Is Trapped

100 years have passed since the initial Outbreak back in 2009. With society slowly rebuilding, a small University press is assembling a collection of biographical essays to outline the hardships and successes occurring once the Outbreak was brought under control. To this end, Professor Michael Stockton, Jr., believes the story he uncovered may be of interest to the editor of the collection and sends him one blogger's account of the first months of people trying to survive in a world suddenly turned upside down by the dead who've somehow reanimated.

The posts begin with Allison Hewitt trapped in a Brooks & Peabody shop on the night of September 15, 2009, when the infected first attacked the store. She and a few employees barricade show more themselves in a back room, and after a few days, Allison manages to find a signal connecting her laptop to the military's emergency wireless network. She begins a record of the events of the past days and what life is like, being stuck in the back room, not knowing what's happening to the rest of the world. A sudden disaster changes people, and Allison retells these changes and the relationships of the group as they try to find a way out of the shop before their meager food rations run out.

She finds other survivors out there, thanks to the comments on her posts, filled with words of encouragement as well as bits and pieces of news. And through her chronicle of events, of the other survivors she meets, and the constant threat of the undead lurking in the background, she creates a snapshot of the new world as it adjusts and evolves.

What I like about "Allison Hewitt Is Trapped" is the focus on the relationships and group dynamics, how people react when forced into difficult situations, even falling in love with someone unexpected. The undead still exist, keeping everyone on their guard, and they make their presence known in many a gruesome way, but the struggle to be alive comes first and foremost. Maybe it's a preference of mine. All the blood and guts and gore can get boring after a while, so allowing it to take a backseat or even to cause a delay in posting allows for the characters and the story to take shape. I've read epistolary novels before -- "The Color Purple", "e", even "Griffin and Sabine" -- but this is the first told solely through blog posts, and it worked for me, adding tertiary characters acting my thoughts out or creating tension when, as I mentioned before, no posts appear for days and the concern in her readers' comments made me continue on to find out what happened.

"Allison Hewitt Is Trapped" is a fine novel of the undead, and being a blogger myself, I enjoy the idea of using that medium to tell a complete story. Definitely worth a read. show less

Being trapped in a book store when the Zombie Apocalypse hits - now that is where I would want to be when the crusty creepers finally make their appearance. Immediately this book pinged my radar as a 'must' read.

What made it even more appealing is that Allison blogs all of her encounters. That this is actually how the story is told - via her posting the events on the blog should grab all you blogging junkies by the nose. In the beginning blogging is what she does to get it all out of her head but ultimately turns into her reaching out to the other people in the world who've managed to stay 'connected'.

Allison moves through each series of events making bonds and breaking them *KaPoW* style. She is learning about that ugly monster that show more lives inside us all and how much it loves a little shiny red ax. (Imagine Tabitha at this point doing a high kick like some comicbook hero wannabe complete with sound effects!)

This book is light on the gore for those that don't like their zombie books to be a brain munching gut fest - but what it lacks in gore it makes up in snarky humor. It even has a dash of romance. This gem had me laughing out loud! Allison is definitely a gal after my own heart. I could only hope I would kick as much zombie tookis if the time were to come. There is really something that endears me about a heroine that would risk possible infection and death just for a read, any read.

Favorite part of this book? - 'let's go fly a kite...." Read it to find out - because I rate this book absolute Rocksauce! show less

Allison Hewitt is trapped. Specifically, she's trapped in the bookstore where she works by the start of the zombie apocalypse. But, hey, at least she's able to blog about the experience!

Objectively, I can't call this one particularly good. It's full of not-quite-right, suspension-of-disbelief-breaking details, starting with the whole idea of the hero being able to blog right through the apocalypse. The writing often attempts to wax philosophical or poetic and just comes across as overdone or silly, instead. The characters seldom react in ways that feel believably human. And it adds absolutely nothing new to the zombie genre. The one semi-original wrinkle is the blog format, but if the back cover hadn't helpfully informed me that the show more story in fact started out as a blog, I'd be wondering why on earth the author bothered, since it doesn't do much of anything interesting with the format. (And if you've got a craving for a story featuring bloggers and zombies, trust me, you don't want this one, you want Mira Grant's Feed trilogy, instead.)

All that having been said, though, and despite being highly aware of all those flaws the entire time I was reading, I still found it reasonably entertaining, in a stop-thinking-and-keep-turning-pages kind of way. Mostly I think that's because I am, for reasons I do not understand, ridiculously easy to please when it comes to zombie stories. But the bookish angle also helped; Allison actually gets out of the bookstore fairly quickly, but the literary references continue throughout the novel, most notably in the chapter titles. And there's a scene, early on, where she comes very, very close to getting eaten because she's desperately trying to grab some books when she's supposed to be grabbing food. It's actually a bit of an eye-rolly moment, and I like to think that, unlike Allison, I would not be remotely stupid enough to put down my weapon and walk away from it while flailing around for books. But, well, that aside, I think there's an extremely good chance that's exactly how I would die in a zombie apocalypse. And that flicker of fellow-feeling took me a surprisingly long way. show less

When the zombie apocalypse first begins, Allison Hewitt is at work. Trapped with a couple of coworkers and shoppers in a bookstore, she starts a blog. Many years later, when the heroes of the outbreak and it's aftermath are being studied, Allison and her blog are looked at for their possible inclusion in the history books. Allison Hewitt is Trapped is the the blog and comments in their entirety.

The thing I loved most about Allison Hewitt is trapped is the tiny, but realistic details. What do you do when trapped in a room without bathrooms? What happens when you finally get access to bathrooms, but without electricity you can't flush the toilet? Zombie stories always focus on the carnage and chaos, which Allison Hewitt is Trapped does show more well, but often forget about the small inconveniences along the way.

Allison is a great character, strong and able to think on her feet, but still possessing the capacity to make truly stupid decisions based on emotion. Stranded, safe but surrounded by zombies, she does what most of us raised on the internet would do - she tries to reach out to others online through a blog.

The premise of being able to access the military's wireless internet is farfetched (like that thing isn't going to be password protected), but it's necessary for the plot to work and doesn't distract from the story at all. In most instances, Allison blogs like a blogger. This seems like an unnecessary statement, but most books written claiming to be blogs are written like a novel and just formatted to look blog-like. She responds to comments, mentions her readers, and gives real-time advice, making the experience feel more authentic.

Allison Hewitt is Trapped is quite the adventure. It's thrilling, yet emotional. It's not extreme in its gore and manages to keep an air of humor throughout the experience. Allison Hewitt is trapped is a not to be missed zombie novel. show less

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Allison Hewitt Is Trapped when I picked it up from bookcloseouts.ca. The blurb sounded great and the price was right so I gave it a shot. As it turns out, this book is excellent and I’m so happy I bought it!

Allison Hewitt Is Trapped is written as a series of blog entries, complete with comments. Sometimes books that are styled this way end up being weird but it’s a style that really works for this story, mostly because Madeleine Roux is a fantastic writer and Allison and the other characters really come off the page.

I love Allison. She’s probably one of my favourite new characters of 2011. She’s a regular person who finds herself in the middle of an apocalypse and it’s her Every Woman show more qualities that make it easy to identify with her. Plus, I worked in a bookstore for a brief time and her descriptions of some of her colleagues and customers killed me.

Allison is in an impossible situation and she tries her very best to survive. In the process, she bonds with some of her coworkers and discovered a hereto unknown prowess with an axe. She also takes to blogging, which gives her a bit of perspective and puts her in touch with other survivors via her trusty comments section. The comments really added a little extra something to the book since they give us a few side stories.

On the journey from the bookstore to possible safety, Allison and company have quite an adventure. There are some lows but also a surprising number of positive experiences, as Allison meets a slew of interesting characters and develops relationships with people she would never otherwise meet. I don’t want to say too much about them since part of a great zombie apocalypse is never knowing who survives and where they go but I will say that it’s a well written quest that forces Allison to make decisions and decide what she can and cannot live with in this scary new world.

Madeleine Roux’s website says that this story started off as an experimental fiction blog and I think that the experiment was incredibly successful. Allison Hewitt Is Trapped can’t be put down once you start so you better start it early in the day. I did not do this and I paid for it the next day at school. But it was completely worth it!! The sequel, Sadie Walker Is Stranded, is slated for release on the 31st. I’m going to make sure that I read it on the weekend, in case it’s as addictive as its predecessor.

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You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2011/11/review-allison-hewitt-is-trapped-a-zombie-n...

Grad student Allison Hewitt is holed up with five co-workers at the bookstore that she works in part time while attending school. Why are they sequestered in the break room of the bookstore,you may ask? Well,zombies are milling about outside and work is where they happened to be when whatever caused the outbreak hit. The group is scared,stinky,and hoping for rescue,but Allison is beginning to think rescue may not come anytime soon. All she can think about is her mom,who has cancer,and hope she’s somewhere safe. Her one link to the outside world is her laptop and her blog. Allison uses blogging to tell her story,and from show more the get-go,she’s someone I’d want on my side. Strong,responsible,and snarky,eventually she becomes the de-facto leader of this little group,and the series of events that follow are nothing short of terrifying. Their food supply is running out,and soon they’ll need to leave the store. Armed with her trusty ax and her wits,Allison will need everything at her disposal to keep herself,and her little group safe.

Like I said,I’ve been through quite a few zombie books lately,and looking at the cover for Allison Hewitt,you’d think this might be a light,funny read. Not so!! The book opens with a letter to a Dr. Burroughs,dated August 3,2108,asking that Allison Hewitt be included in a possible book detailing the heroic contributions of women during the zombie outbreak,then goes back to 2009,when Allison’s story occurs. There is quite a bit of humor,Allison’s snarky observations of her colleagues and others are fantastic and there were passages that made me laugh out loud,however,Allison’s story is a terrifying one,and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to finish it! Allison’s blog entries are punctuated with comments from people across the world that come to depend on her posts to give them hope,not to mention her story is just plain riveting. I kept imagining Allison as some shining warrior goddess wielding an ax instead of a sword. She’s not without her flaws,but her resilience and bravery in the face of such horrors is phenomenal. There are plenty of zombie battle scenes (with heads being lopped off left and right) to please horror fans,and Allison swings her ax with pragmatism and grim determination. One memorable scene in the bookstore,when she and Ted (who eventually becomes a very good friend) venture out for food,is of Allison foolishly dropping the bag of loot to grab as many books as she can before getting back to safety. It’s things like that that really made me fall in love with her. I can totally see myself doing something like that,even in the midst of a zombie attack. The writing is crisp,the pace is flawless,and I was absolutely glued to the pages throughout. There were a few tiny plot issues,but nothing that I couldn’t overlook and certainly nothing that marred its overall awesomeness. In the search for her mom,Allison will encounter zombies (plenty of them,hordes of them),zombie squirrels,and a cult of crazy widows bent on cleansing the sinners and continuing the human race,even if they have to kill to do it. She also finds some amazing allies and friends,and even love. At turns laugh-out-loud funny,exciting,and sometimes heartbreaking,Allison Hewitt is Trapped is a MUST READ for horror and urban fantasy fans,and of course all you zombie lovers out there. Not to be missed! show less

What a demolition derby of a story this is -- smashing through defenses and evoking myriad emotions as varied as humor, horror, shock, sadness, & joy. The great power in this story is the utter believability of it; Allison Hewitt is not a superwoman, has never fired a gun, and is completely unprepared for the plague when it strikes. She is a book store employee, self-admittedly unfit and unlikely to survive. She could be anyone. Or everyone. Though she is unsuited for survival, she is tough and courageous and lucky. She rises to the occasion as most people undoubtedly hope they would in the case of an apocalyptic event.

The format of the book contributes to it immediacy; it is told in diary format as Allison blogs about the events show more unfolding around her. She blogs as a cry for help initially, and later as a coping mechanism and way to stay connected. Every blogged event packs a punch and leaves the reader wondering whether Allison will survive. This reader stayed up all night to find out.

Allison Hewitt is Trapped has become one of my favorite all time post-apocalyptic novels. Great fun and utterly sobering, all at the same time. Highly recommended. show less