Bloodtype Online

     So I get to watch a lot of movies and of course review them for the site.  But you know I also enjoy a good book now and then, especially when it deals with my favorite subject.  So when I sat down to read Paffenroth’s take on a zombie uprising I was stoked and ready to go.  And after finishing I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. 

     The book starts off with a lone survivor trying to catch some sleep in a child’s tree house.  His name is Jonah and it is obvious that he is surviving on instincts alone.  We follow him as he finishes the zombie that has found his hiding place and then goes off in search for food.  But while searching for food he makes a mistake and it looks like his luck may of run out, until he is rescued by a group of survivors that has taken up residence in a museum.  Here we are introduced to a couple more important characters.  The leaders of the group are an ex-military man named Jack and a strange older man named Milton.  Jack is the sort of character that you would expect to see in a piece of zombie fiction.  He is organized, efficient, and a real survivor.  Milton on the other hand is pretty unique.  The book hints around that there is something special and different about him.  Without giving away any spoilers lets just say he has a unique power over the undead.  After meeting up with the survivors Jonah goes on scavenging for essentials, has a few close calls, and of course there is the expected attrition among the survivors.  Pretty standard fare for the zombie genre, with one exception that makes the book stand out.     

     Authors are creative people and like to put their own spin on stories and genres.  But as a fan of traditional Romero type zombies I feel like in many cases an otherwise enjoyable piece of zombie fiction gets screwed up.  Seriously when a zombie story goes “off the reservation” it can get bad really fast.  So when the Milton character is first introduced I cringed thinking that I was going to be disappointed in another zombie novel that started off so well.  But Paffenroth surprised me by making one simple decision.  Instead of allowing Milton to dominate the novel and become the entire storyline he was just another character.  His abilities, and again I’m being real careful to avoid spoilers here, become a secondary plot that affect the story, but doesn’t dominate it.  This allowed me to enjoy the basic zombie story without having the author try and “spice” it up or create his own explanation of the dead rising.  And at the same time author Paffenroth added a unique character to the story that is memorable and interesting.   

     I consider Dying to Live a wonderful addition to my collection of zombie fiction.  If you need a zombie fix and have watched all the movies then I say grab a book.  And if you are going to grab that zombie themed book then you can’t go wrong with Dying to Live.   

Rating - ***1/2

-John "El Juan" Shatzer