Working Stiff

Bryn Davis left the army and became a funeral director. The idea of helping people with their dead appealed to her. It's people she sometimes has problems with. The job with Fairview Mortuary isn't bad until she discovers that her bosses have a sideline and that sideline is a killer.
Dying is a big enough problem, the corporation who developed the drug are a much bigger problem. She has to work out how to stay alive and how to keep the corporation from getting too much power.

Bryn was a believable character and I liked Patrick and Reily. I also really liked that Reily was married and his marriage was stable, instead of the usual two men dilemma prevalent in paranormal fiction at the moment.

I enjoyed this one, it's a different twist on show more the story. Another zombie story that I didn't hate this year... I'm looking forward to more about this series. show less

Working Stiff
4.5 Stars

I'm not really a fan of Zombies but Caine's version is unique and compelling. The plot is excellent with numerous unpredictable twists and turns and the heroine comes across as very real despite her circumstances.

The books deals with some interesting concepts, such as the idea of death as a business and the types of people involved in the funeral industry. It also offers a criticism of the cold, corporate entity willing to do anything for the bottom line and a government more interested in a cover up than justice.

Bryn is a likable heroine, which is important as the entire story is told from her 3rd person limited point of view. She is intelligent and resourceful although the inconsistency between her military show more training and the fact that she is constantly getting beaten up and knocked unconscious is often very jarring.

The love interest isn't immediately obvious and I will keep his identity a secret so as not to ruin the effect. However, once their attraction becomes clear, Bryn's relationship with the mysterious and enigmatic hero builds slowly but surely, and is quite satisfying overall (once you get past the slightly icky necrophilia issue).

The secondary characters, from the revolting morgue attendant to the high powered, cold hearted business executive to the obsessive-compulsive paranoid genius and is cute sidekick, are all well developed and contribute to the fascinating world Caine has introduced.

In sum, my first foray into Rachel Caine's writing has been a unadulterated success and I look forward to continuing both this series and looking into some of her others. show less

Initially, I thought I'd found in "Working Stiff" a new Urban Fantasy series to carry me through this year. The twist on the zombie trope was original, the ex-soldier, aspiring Funeral Director female lead seemed promising and the dead were handled in a way that seemed factual and emotionally distant without becoming weird.

The plot continued to twist and turn and our heroine found herself in peril in many places and from many people. Things should have been good, Then everything started to sag. The story dragged. Routine romantic elements were added that developed neither the plot nor the characters. New characters, important to moving the plot along, popped up rapidly and with little explanation. None of the characters really developed show more beyond the pen-sketch level.

The book had the potential to be very dark, The main character is confronted with the very real prospect of slowly rotting to death. The process is described in some detail. The people making the threats are deeply unpleasant. Yet the novel kept drifting in a current of light banter and hate-him/love-him superficial romance.

I persisted to the end because the novel always felt like it was on the edge of realising its potential. Then I realised that I reading an extended pilot episode, intended to set up a season of novels, which meant the denouement, while plausible, didn't grant me any i sense of resolution.

Overall, this felt like a sponge that has failed to rise, a little too doughy and undercooked to be satisfying. At the moment, even though the set-up for the series is intriguing, I'm not inclined to add the next two Revalist books to my TBR pile. show less

So far I have largely avoided the trend for all things zombie and perhaps that's why I overlooked the imminent release of Working Stiff, the first in a brand new series named Revivalist by Rachel Caine. I was a huge fan of her Weather Warden series so when I ran across the description of this novel I put aside my natural aversion to shambling mindless brain eaters and added it to my TBR. I figured that Caine might be the author to change my mind and convince me zombies had a place on my reading list.
Bryn is ex military and starting her civilian life as a funeral director. I like what we learn about her, she is smart, considered and strong but Bryn's first day does not go well. A teenage girl mourning her father commits suicide in the show more bathroom, the morgue attendant attempts to molest her, a gunman is roaming the halls and then she is murdered by her boss when she stumbles upon his nasty secret, an illicit trade in a drug called Returne that reanimates a deceased person and can keep them alive indefinitely as long as they continue to inject it. Hoping that Bryn can answer some questions, Patrick McCallister authorises the use of Returne to revive her and Bryn discovers she is now a pawn in the corrupt machinery of Pharmadene, the developer of the drug.
The actual idea of this drug is almost too horrifying to contemplate, and Caine instigates some twists that make it a particularly terrifying prospect. Unless Bryn receives her daily dose, for example, her body will begin to deteriorate while her mind will remain intact. Caine's description of the process isn't too graphic but my imagination shudders at the idea of slipping skin and leaking fluids. Really though, it's the emotional implications of Bryn's new status which gives her character an edge. Caine is quite brutal in exposing the issues Bryn now has to struggle with including the loss of her identity and ability to make life choices. Bryn is constantly under pressure, and the result is a raw, gritty intensity that provides depth to her character.
McCallister is the rich, mysterious, Alpha hero with all the appeal that implies but the developing romance is slightly awkward, after all Bryn is technically dead and McCallister is an ordinary human. If you can get past the connotation of necrophilia, then the partnership is actually fairly standard for the genre. Patrick is a little too dominant for my tastes but Caine does hint at emotional depths that I am sure will be revealed as the series progresses.
To be honest, zombies still creep me out but Rachel Caine has convinced me that Working Stiff is the start of an entertaining and exciting new series. This is a fast paced, action packed story with a strong premise and interesting characters and I am sure its going to quickly find a fan base amongst urban fantasy readers looking for something a little different. I'm looking forward to the next one already. show less

Ex-soldier Bryn Davis is starting her new job as a funeral director when she has a very bad case of "wrong place at the wrong time." Killed, then revived by a corporate agent and his company's miracle drug, Bryn gets to stay alive, via daily injection of this drug, as long as she's useful to them. Bryn's zombification is almost an afterthought, something that she thinks about and that can be used against her, but for the most part the talents she had as a soldier are the talents she uses to save the day and keep herself alive.

This was one of those extremely gripping and chilling conspiracy thrillers with excellent characters, pace and world-building. Why then 4 stars and not higher? you would ask.

To put it simply, I'm squeamish. I love zombie novels, but my perfect zombie is someone who I can kill away as a mindless monster. You know, like in Zombieland?

Bryn, the main character, dies on her first day at a new job as a funeral director simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her boss is selling this new powerful drug from a medical corporation Pharmadene, which literally can revive the dead to the same age and perfect condition when they died.He does it under the table, and the corporation investigates him to find the leak - his supplier. All show more clients are recently dead who agreed to pay extortionate sums of money just to keep living.

Bryn stumbles onto one such transaction and in a struggle of a corporation security team bust she is killed and revived for an interrogation. The catch is she has to prove her worth to keep on getting injections of Revive once a day and keep on living. If you miss just one dose you body starts decomposing... but the subjects can't die easily unless they are dismembered or incinerated...

You remember that black comedy with Bruce Willis, Death Becomes Her?

This book is very much like it.

Only there is not an ounce of paranormal, and Bryn's situation is truly horrific. At one point the sadistic corporation vice-president decides that she doesn't need her anymore and wants her to die naturally while she records the process, and you go through all the pains of decomposition with Bryn...

I truly felt for her and admired her sheer will to keep plodding along no matter what.

However in all this the attraction of McCallister, her overseer, to Bryn was making me feel slightly queasy.

All in all, this is intense and gripping story which I hope to God will never happen in real life. There is much more to it than I mentioned and I really recommend it. It just wasn't exactly right for my constitution, which doesn't mean you'll feel the same way. show less

This book surprised me from page one, Bryn's careful, quiet personality is so winning and fierce I was captivated. I love that she has a life and a job history prior to working at the funeral home, it made her all the more human and interesting. As much as I was interested in Bryn as an individual, the world in which she moved was captivating. So many familiar themes of immortality, loss and vulnerability were woven into this most delicate balancing act of rebirth. This book felt so much more like vampirism from a foot-soldier's perspective than a zombie story, Bryn's continued existence relies on an organization that is rotten to it's core. Anyone who has ever wondered if they could survive the collapse of society without prescriptions show more will relate to this book, Bryn has a daily death sentence hovering over her... and yet, even as she lives, she's caught in the perfect stasis that is immortality. No going forward and fear of falling back into darkness.

Bryn and her world were so interesting to me, it was easy for the friendships and love interest to get lost in the shuffle. They were there, they were sweet and sexy and dangerous by turns, but I was more fascinated watching Bryn adapt to the changes in her life than anything else. As I put down this first book, I'm still emotionally invested enough to worry about these characters even when they're "out of the room," I can't wait to pick up book two.

Full review to follow.

Sexual content: Kissing; references to sex, necrophilia, and sexual assault. show less