Not Flesh nor Feathers

Eden Moore can see and speak with the dead, which is a good thing, because Chattanooga is not only being flooded, but is also under attack by zombies. But the zombies have nothing to tell her, so she must seek information from ghosts, both a well known, fancy-historic-hotel residing ghost and the new ghosts of skater kids and homeless people who the zombies have killed. At the same time, Eden is seeking information about the curse her many greats-grandfather put on her and is about to have a visit by the half-brother who tried to kill her not long ago. Confused yet? Don’t be- it actually all makes perfect sense.

I didn’t discover until I finished this book that it’s the third in a trilogy, but not only does it stand alone nicely, show more it doesn’t have any of those long “and this is what happened before” passages that can slow down other series books. I’m happy that there are two other books with this character I can look for; I’m unhappy that it’s a trilogy and not an open ended series. Cherie Priest has given Southern gothic a modern twist, putting it in a big city and giving it a heroine who is anything but languid.

Tightly plotted with pretty much non-stop action, I stayed up until the wee hours to finish this book. I was actually grateful to be ill, so that I could read the book without interruption! One of the best horror novels I’ve read in quite some time. show less

I'm not really big into zombies, so my rating should be taken as even more of a compliment. These aren't your run-of-the-mill zombies, though, and Priest tends more towards the suspense than the ew side of the horror spectrum. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the end, but I suspect that's personal bias rather than a failing of the book. (That's all I'm going to say even though I warned for spoilers.)

This is the second novel of Priest's that I've read. It's not the second in her series, but it's the only other one I could get from the library. The book is excellent, it's both scary without getting out of control and interestingly descriptive without driving me crazy (I like action, what can I say?). I haven't read a lot of zombie books (a few graphic novels), but this is a great one. Her reasoning behind the zombies is different, but sound and it works perfectly, both in the context of this book as a lone read and in the series as a whole. Her writing style fits the characters perfectly and her setting fits the novel just as smartly. Throughly enjoyable read, and I'll be heading the bookstore soon to pick up her other books.

The third Eden Moore book (possibly the last). Eden is finally moving out of her aunt and uncle's house, but due to rain, the construction on the new apartment building she's moving to keeps running into problems. And the river keeps rising. The building is, of course, quite close to the river. And as the river rises, people start to disappear. And there are reports of dead people walking near the river. Not ghosts, dead people (and those would be zombies, wouldn't they? :-) ). Being they're dead people, and being asked by all sorts of people to check it out, not to mention her future apartment's being in jeopardy, Eden decides to find out what's going on. Naturally, it's unpleasant.

I read this book in June, which was one of the wettest show more Junes in NY/NJ in years. I think we had 4 days without rain. So the atmosphere really added to the creepiness of this one. As usual for Cherie Priest novels, I found it excellent. show less

Cherie Priest has certainly ensconced herself in my library as a must-read. Whatever she publishes, I'll buy, provided I can get my grubby little hands on it. I loved this book, loved the previous books, and will wish upon a star that one day, I'll get more Eden Moore stories. The best way to make that happen is if YOU, dear readers, check out Priest's books too. Not Flesh Nor Feathers can easily be read as a stand-alone, and if this book grabs you (as well it should), you must drop everything the moment you finish and get the other two. Or start with the other two, whatever works. Priest has an enjoyable, fun first-person POV to really sink your teeth into, she offers diverse characters (Eden herself is biracial, a very crucial point show more in the first book, Four and Twenty Blackbirds), and interesting stories grounded in a bit of real southern folklore and mythology. It's all very good stuff. These books aren't urban fantasy nor are they paranormal romance (as mentioned earlier, there's 1% romance in this particular book, and that's it for the entire trilogy). They're a supernatural horror that's written with finesse and a protagonist who doesn't give up without answers. They're spooky, chilling, and have got ghosts, murders, and other monsters. What more could you want?

For a full review, which may or may not include spoilers, please click here: http://calico-reaction.livejournal.com/48876.html show less

In this book, people are starting to disappear if they get too close to the Tennessee River, and the river is starting to flood so it’s reaching closer and closer to where all the people are. Unlike the first two books in the trilogy, which were primarily ghost stories, this book turns into a full-fledged zombie story with zombies sloshing through flooded downtown Chattanooga. I think this is the first zombie book I’ve ever read, so I couldn’t begin to say whether it’s derivative or original, but I enjoyed it.

Actually, as far as the meat of this story went, I thought it was the best of the three stories in the series. It kept me guessing and anxious to keep reading and see what would happen next. It had some very mild creepiness show more at about the same level as the first book, but nothing major. Eden’s life is about as unstructured and aimless as ever, especially considering she seems to be at least 25, has no job, and is still living with her adoptive parents, but she does seem to have a few nebulous plans for the future this time around and even has plans to move out on her own.

My main complaint about this book was the ending. The main story was wrapped up and explained reasonably well, but the ending seemed abrupt. There’s no discussion of how the general population is handling recent events, no follow up with the other supporting characters in the story to see how they’re doing, and no real sense of closure for Eden. There’s a plot thread regarding Eden that has run through all three of the books, and is brought up many times and seems to be a major source of consternation for Eden, but it too is left without any closure at the end. Since I felt like the previous two books were wrapped up pretty well and with more detail, I had higher hopes that the final book in the series would be wrapped up more nicely. There’s a Q&A on the author’s Goodreads page indicating that she “didn’t have any more adventures planned – and the last two books sold very poorly”, so there probably won’t be any more books in this series.

But, as with the other two books, I enjoyed reading this and I had trouble putting it down. I don’t have any more books by Cherie Priest on my To-Be-Read list, but I would definitely be willing to give some of her other stuff a try sometime in the distant future. show less

This is the third, and as-of-this-writing, last book in Cherie Priest's Eden Moore series. I really like these, and hope that Priest comes back to revisit Eden one of these days!

Eden's a regular young Southern woman who just happens to be able to see ghosts - and has a bit of a voodoo legacy from her evil great-grandfather. As this story opens, Eden's trying to get her life together a bit and act like an adult - she's just agreed to buy a condo at the new development they're building down by the river.

But then people start warning her: strange thing are going on down by the water's edge. Homeless people and punk kids have been disappearing. The cops don't care about a bunch of transients who probably just picked up and left town... but show more something sinister seems to be going on.

And gradually, absolutely no one can ignore what's going on, as things escalate into a FEMA-level disaster, with insane flooding, evacuations, and ZOMBIES!

Eden has to figure out what historical event caused this plague of the undead, and to try to lay their souls (and paranormally animated bodies) to rest. show less