Sci-Fi Monkeys Review - Morbid Hearts
SciFi Monkeys, May 19, 2017 (Seattle based):
Tricked! Bamboozled! Hoodwinked!
My editor at SciFi Monkeys pulled a fast one on me at the very end of Seattle Crypticon 2017, he slapped a book called Morbid Hearts down on my table as we were breaking down and told me he wanted me to review it. Without even really looking at it I agreed and it wasn’t until a few hours later that I discovered just what manner of book he had given me.
It was yet another zombie book! Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!
The universe (and my editor) seems to be conspiring to keep me active in the genre for some unknown reason.I keep swearing that I am done with the genre and all things zombie just keep coming at me.
But mine is not to reason why and all that crap, he is the editor and I am just a poor ink stained wretch writing reviews for him. When he says jump, I say how many damn bananas high sir. That being said I settled into my favorite reading chair with the book, my editor voodoo doll and several long sharp pins. Did you feel that one Ronnie?
On to the book then.
Morbid Hearts is the first book in the Dead Hearts series by Susanne L. Lambdin published by Theogony books. It is told mostly through the eyes of the main character, a seventeen year old girl named Cadence Sinclair who is a survivor of a zombie outbreak. The story starts some eleven months after a zombie virus has devastated the world. Cadence and groups of her teenage friends help protect and do supply runs for a survivor camp at Pike’s Peak in Colorado.
The first third of Morbid Hearts is a straight forward, mostly by the numbers good solid post apoc zombie story. It doesn’t really break any new ground for the genre and leans heavily on the traditional tropes to move the story along. I was beginning to find it a little too familiar and predictable and was bracing myself to plod through the rest of it just to finish it so I could write the review.
Then the talented author took the plot, dipped it in plot twists, breaded it lightly with weirdness and tossed the whole thing into the crazy deep fryer. The resulting literary entrée was much more spicy and satisfying
I eagerly read the rest of the book and was completely entertained by it. I don’t wish to spoil it for anyone of course so I will not reveal the exact forms that the twists and turns take. Trust me they are worth discovering for yourself.
Morbid Hearts is unusual zombie tale that I will give a solid four bananas. The Dead Heart series will include four more books, don’t tell anyone but I will probably read the damn things.
