Working Stiff

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

Bryn Davis was honorably discharged from the military after 4 years in Iraq and now seeks employment with funeral home. It may not be glamorous, but the work is steady and she's good it. Then she discovers her boss might be a drug dealer after hours. Turns out that he is reviving people from the dead with a drug called Returne and then charging those people exorbitant fees to continue the treatment that keeps them alive. Bryn tries to escape, but her boss kills her. She's then revived by Pharmadene, the pharmaceutical company that created the drug, to find out where the leak in their company is. Unfortunately, if she doesn't complete her task, they see no value in keeping her alive. Can Bryn figure it out in time? Will they even keep show more her alive if she completes the task?

I found this book in a used bookstore and thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did because Bryn is an amazing character. She faces impossible situations and works through them. She's strong, yet human and still feels emotion. I can't help put root for her even though her situation is pretty bleak. I did wish her military training would have been utilized more because she was quite passive at times when I was infuriated and wanted to punch other characters in the face. The zombies are pretty much like people on borrowed time. If they are not administered Returne, they will slowly and painfully decompose while alive over the course of about 5 days. They are very resilient and can withstand a lot of damage, especially if more Returne is administered.

I had a few problems with the book. There were so many squicky issues and villains that it was a pretty bleak read. Here are our villains: the funeral director who extorts grieving families, the gross mortician who sexually harasses and tortures women, and Pharmadene the company who puts their own profits over lives. The good guys are few and far between. I don't mind depressing books, but this is marketed as an urban fantasy romance that doesn't really deliver on that. The romance is lacking as well. The situation is so bleak with all these bad guys and the lead character, despite being pretty awesome, has next to no autonomy. I literally would not have been surprised if she decided to kill herself.

Working Stiff is well written, but had a lot of problems. I might try to continue the series, but I hope it gets less super depressing. show less

I was really looking forward to this book. I’d read quite a few pre-release reviews that were very positive and the description is totally up my alley. On release day, I rushed out and picked up a copy. That was a mistake because I hated this book.

I try to always find something positive about a book I disliked and generally it is not that hard, but I have to say that it is a struggle for me to come up with anything positive about this book. The best I can do is say that the premise of a drug company creating a drug that resurrects people is entertaining and fairly original. But that’s all I’ve got.

So, what didn’t I like? Bryn, for starters. She was just not a likeable character. She was very rigid and uninteresting. She wasn’t show more a particularly strong character. She seemed to be falling to pieces every few pages, and I just don’t enjoy that. Along with Bryn, the supporting characters were not great. They were flat and very stereotypical.

The plot was convoluted. It’s paranormal; it’s corporate espionage; it’s zombies; it’s organized crime…it’s crap is what it is. It was a hodgepodge of ridiculousness. And the ridiculous plot just drug on and on and on.

I have a general rule that I do not judge an entire series by the first book in that series. If I did that, I wouldn’t be reading some of my absolute favorite series today. However, I am going to break that rule for this book. It was so bad and I see no redeeming qualities in this book that would warrant me spending my time on it.

If you feel compelled to read this book, get it from the library. I would strong advise just skipping it altogether. show less

Interesting premise, interesting choice of characters, and clever plotting. Somehow, the novel ended up...well, a little dull. I love Rachel Caine's novels, and maybe I came into this one expecting a little too much. I felt that there was very little sense of control, or order, throughout the story, and while the plot twists were surprising, there was a lack of direction or focus. I also felt that I never really saw much character development, especially in regards to Bryn or Patrick. So although the book was fast paced and potentially engaging, the blandness of the characters and the disordered plot left me dissatisfied.

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