Dead of Night

This is a solidly entertaining book with more heart and emotion than I thought it would have. On the eve of a superstorm, something weird has happened at the local mortuary of a rural county in Pennsylvania. The two officers sent to investigate find bodies missing and people who should be dead but are still moving. Meanwhile a local reporter gets tipped off to separate weird happenings at the local prison. The two events end up connected as the start of and the origin of the zombie apocalypse.

One of the things that made sense but was also a bit annoying was how long it took for the characters to admit the undead were zombies. In real-life, I'm sure it would take some time before zombies were seriously accepted even if they were biting show more you on the arm, but here it seemed to take even longer. Not even a semi-cliche "Zombies? Are you crazy? Those don't really exist." I did enjoy the investigative aspect taken by the reporter to find the origin of the zombies. While it might have been a bit cliche (I'm not going to say it so I don't spoil anything), it fit the story perfectly. The final thing I wanted to discuss was the main character, Dez Fox. I found her to fluctuate between being strong and barely holding on. She seemed to be dealing with the story events one moment and then nearly falling apart the next. I didn't feel that I was connecting to her throughout most of the story, but then the final sequences of the book happened. And I found them heart wrenching. I could feel the tears in my eyes. And this was mostly due to the raw emotion that Dez Fox was experiencing, her difficulty in accepting what was happening. I was feeling what she was feeling which meant I was more connected than I thought. I've already picked up and am reading the next book in the series: FALL OF NIGHT. show less

Jonathan Maberry did it again. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The story hums along like a freight train under full steam. I read it in two sittings. This is how a horror/adventure novel should be paced and Maberry is a pro.

More than just its technical merit, which is very important in and of itself since so many novels shake and rattle along under poor structure, Maberry takes us deeper. We get inside the heads of several of the zombies (and therefore all of them, really) and realize that the human spirit is still inside, chained to an urge that they do not understand and have no power to control. They are not your usual zombies; they are more accurately described as "infected" than undead. And that is so much worse.

When you get to show more the ending you will say along with me, please, this one deserves a sequel. I want to know more about what happens. show less

It a truly horrific scenario, a "mad scientist" prison doctor decides to get revenge on a serial killer by keeping his mind alive after death so he can experience his body decaying. However, when a distant relative claims the Homer Gibbons' body instead of it going to a potter's field. Gibbons launches a zombie apocalypse in rural Pennsylvania with his first after-death victim -- the mortician. The zombies he makes are mindless creatures; however, Gibbons has all his faculties and is bent on destroying the world. The B-movie nature of the plot doesn't detract from the fear, anticipation, and horror Maberry builds. The adage "Revenge destroys the victim and the seeker" has rarely been so aptly show as revenge is poised to destroy the world.

Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry is an intense, action-packed, creepy, hang on to the seats of your pants zombie story. It all takes place in a tiny town in sleepy Stebbins County, PA, and all takes place in more or less a day (though there are some flashback episodes). The story revolves around four strong, well-drawn, and interesting characters: Police Officer Desdemona Fox (Dez), smart, sexy, but with loads of abandonment issues stemming from her parents death when she was young; her partner TJ, strong, tough, and father-like; Billy Trout, Dez's ex, a newspaper reporter; and psychotic serial killer Homer Gibbon, who has just been killed on death row. The reason a dead killer can be the star of a novel is that the killer becomes a show more zombie. He wakes up inside a body bag in a mortuary in Dez and TJ's territory, and all hell breaks loose.

This novel works on a number of levels. Firstly, it is a darn good, creepy, zombie story with a plausible explanation. The zombies retain rational thought (though no control over their impulses), which makes for a fascinating and (dare I say?) sympathetic zombie. Understanding the zombie's grasp on humanity also helps the reader relate to the main characters, who are appalled to have to kill their neighbors, colleagues, and friends -- even if they are a danger. This makes a great human interest story, which is enhanced by the likeability of the characters. Dez is deeply flawed but personable, TJ is over-the-hill but still tough, and Billy is a reporter with a heart. Even Homer Gibbon, the serial killer, is given some depth and sympathy via conversations with his spinster Aunt. And I haven't even mentioned a number of vivid and interesting secondary characters. Dead of Night is also an action story - the cops hit the ground running and they never really stop. So the end result is that Mr Maberry has written a creepy thriller serial killer zombie action story full of character and a touch of romance.

Finally, I want to mention that the story is thought provoking. Faced with a virus that is 99% fatal, the politicians are forced to decide how to handle the outbreak. They are aware that quarantining the town may not be enough, because if even one person gets out then the rest of the world would be in danger. They have to make the awful decision between saving individuals in the town and safeguarding the world. This has got to be a first -- a novel that has caused me to feel sympathy for both zombies AND politicians! That alone is an indicator of what an excellent book it is. Well recommended. show less

Homer Gibbons is finally being killed after committing a boggling number of heinous murders and other assorted crimes. His body is secretly being transported to a small town in Pennsylvania called Stebbins where his estranged aunt lives. Unfortunately for Stebbins and the world, a prison doctor with a vendetta decides to infect him with a highly contagious parasite that should have caused Gibbons to say aware but immobile as he rots away for years. With this new development, Gibbons escapes and creates a wake of destruction and living death. Nobody understands what's happening until it's much too late. Cops Desdemona Fox and J.T. Hammond plus reporter Billy Trout get thrown into this mess and try to save as many people as they can. Can show more they stop this horrible plague from spreading throughout the world?

Jonathan Maberry is one of my favorite authors and he somehow became more awesome with Dead of Night. All of the parts of the novel work together to create a terror-filled zombie outbreak. The three main parts are the small town characters, the zombies and Homer Gibbons, and the government. The main small town characters are Dez and Billy Trout. Dez is by far my favorite. She's tough, makes lots of mistakes, and doesn't take any crap from anyone. Out of all the characters, she was most suited to mentally and emotionally dealing with this experience due to her background in the military. Her volatile nature plus her tough exterior (that covers her squishy vulnurability) makes her relatable and complex. She has abandonment and commitment issues and makes huge mistakes, but she does what's right when it counts. Billy Trout is at first glance a sleazy reporter who will do anything and exploit anyone for a story. Over the course of the novel, he's revealed to not be so bad. He willingly goes into danger mostly to save Dez (who doesn't really need saving) and transmit the truth to the public. Both of these characters experience the true horror of killing the people they see every day because they've turned into flesh eating monsters. Dez in particular feels the crushing emotion of having to kill the people she is normally sworn to protect. Too many stories gloss over this and make it seem easy, but it's hard and traumatizing. Maberry captures this horror well even in police officers and war veterans.

The zombies are pretty conventional: eat people, killed by destroying the brain, unsentient, and don't react to pain, but two things make them special: the fact that people are completely aware and the real life basis for the transmission. Each zombie has a normal person screaming inside, immobile and forced to see themselves attack and eat loved ones and neighbors. Lee Hartnup, the very first victim, acts as the representative for the zombified. His inner monologue and suffering is the only one we see of the zombies and it's horrifying. I've only seen this type of zombie once before in Hugh Howe's I, Zombie, which was a series of vignettes. This concept is just as effective in larger plot lines. The method of transmission is different than I've seen. The cause is a distorted kind of toxoplasmosis, which causes the host to spread the parasites at any cost. This mostly includes spitting, biting, really getting any bodily fluid on another person so the larva can be transmitted. Homer Gibbons, patient zero, is different than all the other zombies. He's a bit slow and ungainly, but he has control over his faculties when not taken over by hunger. His insanity and murderous nature make him the worst person possible to give the ability to create and manipulate the zombie apocalypse.

Dead of Night is one of the best zombie books I've read. The characters are amazing, the story is frightening, and I was addicted right from page one. If I had my way, I would have read the whole thing in a sitting, but things like work got in the way. I am eager to get my hands on the sequel because the ending is pretty explosive. I can't wait to see what happens! show less

If you put all cultural Zombie dogma together and made a box, we would all be mewling puppies inside said box with Maberry using a nail gun to give us breathing holes to avoid suffocation.

In the publication of ‘Dead of Night’, Jonathan Maberry succeeds again in providing a Zombie novel that is not crippled by generations of genre dogma. Others are also participating in the uncrippling of the genre, (D. Wellington, S.G. Browne, M. Brooks) helping drive a resurrection to a dying and over saturated plot crutch.

Quick Summary – A serial killer is put to death. The world breathes easier when they know he is gone, when witnesses have seen him pumped full of poison. They feel safer, with one less killer on death row. The citizens of show more Stebbins County find themselves feeling less than safe a day later though.

There are four main issues impairing their “feel good” feelings of goodness:

1- The poisons put into this killer were not what were approved by the State of Pennsylvania corrections.

2- His burial on prison grounds was bypassed by a previously unknown next of kin, meaning his body was moved to a local off site facility.

3- Homer Gibbons has gotten up off his slab and is walking around with his flesh decaying and an insatiable desire to stuff his face with anything that bleeds.

4- A massive storm cell is creeping to a halt over the area, winds are high, rain is heavy, and everyone is heading to emergency shelters, where they will be packed in like sardines till the weather crisis has passed.

Stebbins County Pennsylvania is thoroughly screwed.

Maberry, worked a number of atypical angles in his telling of the Stebbins County apocalypse. One example, the first character introduced is a recently bitten human, who’s consciousness is still active, even as his body is failing to respond to his commands. He can see, hear, smell, feel; He just cant stop the beast he is becoming. Maberry is not the first to write from the point of view of a Zombie, showing that intelligence exists, and how it is retained. But his choice of perspective and the details/history/science behind it was impeccable. This is no surprise as his novels typically have a load of solid “science” backing them. These are unfortunate folks locked in their own bodies as they do horrible things. Reading the zombie POV sections were particularly painful to this reader’s soul.

Dead of Night also failed to use the word zombie for nearly half the book. Characters such as Officer Dez Fox, her partner JT and others spend much of the book trying to figure out what the hell is happening. The novel itself follows a short time frame, as the infection spreads through a small community who never once think “zombies are real” because who in their right mind would jump to that conclusion in an emergency… This lack of the Zed word actually escalated the plot a fair amount. I found myself talking to the book, telling the characters that they were being stupid and to ‘smarten up, it is a goddamn zombie”. The characters never listened to me. They eventually figure it out themselves, but only after they follow a reasonable and realistic learning curve fraught with “this is just not possible” moments.

An excellent and gripping novel. Worth any cash you spend on it show less

"This is how the world ends." These words literally are the first chapter of the book. With a kickoff like that, I was literally hooked from the first page.

The novel starts out with two small town cops investigating a breaking and entering call at the local funeral home. The door is jimmied, an empty car is in the driveway and there is a sense of wrongness at the scene. Upon entering the preparation room, the two officers, JT and Dez, are confronted with the mutilated corpses of the funeral director, a housekeeper with a missing throat and an empty body bag. Things really take a turn for the worse when Officer Dez is attacked by the "dead" housekeeper. My friends, Stebbins has got itself a zombie problem.

Having just finished reading show more Brian Keene's "The Rising" I wasn't sure that I was ready for yet another zombie thrill ride. However, Maberry's zombies are a bit different. They are a result of a bio-weapon that is in fact a genetically engineered parasite that consumes the host, but keeps them in a near death state. The frightening element here is that the consciousness is still present, the host knows what is going on, but the hunger for flesh is insatiable and the parasite is in charge of the dinner menu.

For those of you have not had the opportunity to read Jonathan Maberry before you are missing out on a real treat. His writing style flows well, his characters are realistically flawed and his pacing his spot on. If you are in the mood for a seasonal scare, pick up Dead of Night and enjoy. show less