The Dying Times (a zombie apocalypse novel)

Sigh, not a bit fan of an apocalyptic, end-of-the-world book, and The Dying Times is no different. The story of Nadene and her mother Pamela, and their crusade to remain alive during what could be deemed a zombie invasion. DT was not poorly written, and the story wasn't bad, just somewhere in the murky improbably space between too far-fetched to be relatable, but not enough to be lost in the story.

This book is like a low budget horror flick - bloody, gory, and just as cheesy. Bad makeup and costuming morph into grammatical errors that (sometimes) came across as character development but also muddied up the flow of the (somewhat predictable) story. Despite that, I found myself enthralled for the gore factor (in the exact same way that low-budget horror flicks draw me).

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for review.

The Dying Times is zombie fest of creepiness~!! 13 year old Nadene starts off her day as any other normal teenager...life is mundane and uneventful, that is, until her stomach starts to hurt, warning her of danger yet to come. After a fire breaks out at school, Nadene goes to stay at her best friends house, while her mother is at work. There she learns from the news broadcasts that germ-warfare missiles are heading from Africa to the USA. Again, her stomach hurts and she doesn't yet know that this "fore-telling" may save her life and the lives around her. After the missiles hit the east coast...Nadene and her mother, Pam, decide their best course of action is to get away from the area and fast. Deciding upon Texas, the two gather up show more some lost and frightened souls along the way.

With "Final Destination" like dreams, Nadene is often able to save the group from many ill-fated events thus taking her role as a leader among the adults. They begin to trust her "gut sense" and Nadene leads the group to their only means of a getaway...a helicopter...but it means traveling back the way they have come, thru the ever increasing hordes of zombies out for human flesh...some scenes are macabre and frightening and if you love zombies, you'll enjoy this book. I found once the zombies came into the picture, it was very hard to put the book down. I loved how Brian Kittrell uses some of the zombies in his scenes...and chuckled trying to imagine a few of them. The gore in the zombie scenes was just enough to visualize and left you wondering where they were going to turn up. I found the dialogue a little stiff at times and wished more effort was spent on the back characters by giving them a bit more life on the pages...I felt rushed in reading about them and wished I had a learned a little more. All in all, I found the book zomb~tastic and cannot wait to read more of this new series.

SYNOPSIS:
The Dying Times ~ Nadene's Story ~ is the first book in a new zombie survival series about post-apocalyptic world with flesh-eating undead zombies. show less

3.5 stars I enjoyed the story but the lack of professional editing did take away from the experience. PA genre is hard to break into with something original and also hard to write about such an epic event in short stories or novellas. I hope the tale continues and the pace picks up. Character development wasn't as deep as I would hope but than again this seems like the start of a series. Will definitely check out more from this author

Although I love the zombie/post apocalyptic genre, I did not enjoy this book. Though the characters had the potential to be interesting, they were left largely undeveloped. Throughout the book, there are inconsistencies, glaring errors and convenient plot devices. Though it pains me to give a writer a bad review, I cannot be less than honest.

The Dying Times was the best EOTW book I've read in a long time! I'm looking forward to the releases of the rest of the series. I'll be reading more by Brian Kittrell!