The Aussie Zombie

4 1/2 stars

I read The Unwashed Dead, the first book in the Zombie Armageddon series by Ian Woodhead last year, and I really enjoyed the setting and the grimy goriness of Mr. Woodhead's storytelling. So I was more than excited to start reading Walking With Zombies.

Set in the North of England, with regular-joe kind of characters, and some seriously gross zombie action, I was hooked into the story right from the beginning. As a short book (almost novella size), it's almost essential to jump straight into the fray, but Mr. Woodhead does it in a way that also gives the characters a chance to shine.

From mummys-boy Dominic, to the truly screwed up Talbot, and a slew of characters that fall victim to the undead horde in any number of creative ways, all the characters are realistic and easily distinguishable from each other. The dialogue rings completely true, and there's a real feeling of a gritty northern town. Although the story jumps between several characters, it works very well as a way of both introducing characters and showing exactly what is going down around the town.

Walking With Zombies is not a continuation of The Unwashed Dead, it is more of a parallel story, set mostly in and around the Stockholm Club, and has even more of the zombie craziness than the first book - along with some pretty unique ideas on infection and spread of the virus. Several pop-culture references made me smile, and some truly stomach-turning scenes made me wince.

I devoured this book within a couple of hours, and I can't wait to read the next one in the series.

Read more of my reviews at The Aussie Zombie