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I admit the title got me on this one. And I still think the title is good, probably the best part of the book.
In the beginning this book promised a lot: mysteries & conspiracies, action & adventure, love and even a little sex (it is a YA novel after all).
In the end I was left unsatisfied and totally disappointed. None of the promise was fulfilled.
I don’t have a huge problem with zombie stories, though as a germ-phobe I always get distracted about where such epidemic zombie infections come from. I think that lately though, zombies are a bit overdone. I mean look at some recent movies: 28 Days Later, I am Legend, and even Shaun of the Dead. These are just some mainstream movies, I haven’t even delved into the “horror” movies. Basically the undead are everywhere.
Still this book could have capitalized on the current (and probably persistent) zombie-philia.
It didn’t.
I apologize dear reader(s), for being gone so long. My blogging has been stymied by other obligations. I have been reading like crazy, however. I promised to get back to y’all about that.
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I decided to devote some of new year to books that high school or junior high has ruined for millions. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are two of these. I must admit I was looking for the same lightning in a bottle as To Kill a Mockingbird. Alas it was not to be, though I can’t say I’m disapointed either.
Tom Sawyer has been accurately described as a children’s book about a boy. I would venture to guess that if it were written today it would not make the best seller lists. What it lacks in complexity, it doesn’t make up for in plot. There is a lot of action and adventure and not much substance. One wonders how one boy got into so many scrapes in such a small amount of pages! I must be getting older, because I wonder about Aunt Polly’s fitness as a guardian. Though her Mary seemed to turn out alright. All in all, it’s over too soon and not much of it sticks with you, besides the whitewashing scene. Though cultural prevalence probably has more to do with that than anything.
