Book Tour: Review and Giveaway: Taking on the Dead by Annie Walls

Life for Kansas was perfect until the day the world changed.

She has been hiding out for four years in solitude. It's the only way to survive. The only way not to draw the living dead. Helping a small group of people, she learns the new world might not be what she assumes. Venturing out of her refuge and comfort zone, she meets Rudy, who helps her find a greater purpose. She realizes that the world has moved on without her. Only it's not what she expects. Her knowledge of the living dead grows and only makes her more curious as humanity continues to hang on by a thread. While on her search for answers she finds comfort in new friendships and love, but her past seems as if it will haunt her forever. 

Kansas takes it upon herself to help other survivors, which would be easy if the famished were the only obstacles.

In a trilogy plot thick with twists and turns, this adult dark fantasy is emotional as much as it is horrifyingly gripping.

*Not intended for a young audience. Mature content.*

A world full of zombies would be difficult to live in. A world full of crazy people in a world full of zombies is even harder. There's no government, no real law, nothing to keep people from revealing their true selves ~ in both good and bad ways. You've got your religious cults that kidnap women, your monarchist-style mad scientists that think they can destroy and run the world, and then you have Kansas and the rat pack.

Kansas City Sunshine Moore is a complete badass. She's my new favorite heroine. Her strength and resilience in a world gone to crap never ceases to astound me throughout this book. She survives losing everyone she's ever loved, cooking her own food, slashing zombies, and creating a safe haven for herself. She's afraid, but she doesn't let her fear control her ~ nor does she allow solitude to drive her mad. Even when she loses everything all over again, she keeps her head high and focuses on her next move. What I love most about her, though, is that deep down, she still holds on to her heart even as its ripped in two time and time again.

Of course, that would have absolutely nothing to do with Rudy, a goliath of a gorgeous man who's kindness and brute strength saves her life time and time again. Or, for that matter, Mac ~ who I don't trust by the way ~ a curly-headed, supposedly decent guy with a fetish for white t-shirts. Kansas finds herself confused and torn between them in a not-so-classic love triangle. And that's just the small stuff. Kansas has a lot more to worry about than who she'd like to give her heart to. Her youth and "fertility" make her a high-demand target, and she runs, kicks, curses, and slashes through hell to survive.

Kansas is lucky, in a way, even through all the atrocious sights she's seen and violations she's experienced. She has her group of scheming boys and she has her gal pal Glinda. Kansas may find herself in a community where the dead are treated as works of art (freakish, I know), but she's free to make her own choices and build a life for herself. Not many people in this new famished-infested world ever get a chance to do that, much less dream about it.

What I really loved about this book was that there was no holding back. Annie Walls doesn't hide the gore or the appalling actions humans take when a world is stripped of reputation and law. Everything the people do or experience is something I could imagine truly happening if humanity as we know it came to an end. People would have no qualms about taking what they want, forcing their beliefs on someone else, or breeding people like cattle. It's crazy, brutal, and completely horrific ~ but it's believable, and that's what makes it so damn good.

Would highly recommend to those who:

• Don't have a weak stomach
• Have zombie love
• Admire a kick-ass heroine

Can't wait for the second book to be released, Controlling the Dead! Super excited about this series :) 

Don't forget to enter the giveaway below!!!

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Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~

Tuesday Prelude

Yay, I finally have time to get down, dirty, and deep and share one of my favorite elements of my current read.. This week's Tuesday Prelude revolves around Annie Walls' Taking on the Dead....

Life for Kansas was perfect until the day the world changed.

She has been hiding out for four years in solitude. It's the only way to survive. The only way not to draw the living dead. Helping a small group of people, she learns the new world might not be what she assumes. Venturing out of her refuge and comfort zone, she meets Rudy, who helps her find a greater purpose. She realizes that the world has moved on without her. Only it's not what she expects. Her knowledge of the living dead grows and only makes her more curious as humanity continues to hang on by a thread. While on her search for answers she finds comfort in new friendships and love, but her past seems as if it will haunt her forever. 

Kansas takes it upon herself to help other survivors, which would be easy if the famished were the only obstacles.

In a trilogy plot thick with twists and turns, this adult dark fantasy is emotional as much as it is horrifyingly gripping.

*Not intended for a young audience. Mature content.*

Imagine going on a date with the love of your life.. you get frisky in the parking lot, wear that after-glow to the cotton candy stand, and head on toward the ferris wheel... but in mid-stride, you hear an unbelievable scream.. at first you think it's a part of the show or that you're hearing and seeing things.. but no, that mailman really is taking a bite out of that brunette, getting a mouthful of flesh and blood... WTF? That's what happens to Kansas, and it's not long before she is alone ~ four years alone ~ in a world where zombies are more trustworthy than the rare survivors left...

Kansas is a complete badass... I wanna grow dreads just so I can pretend to have even a smidgeon of the total badassness she exudes... Yeah, I said dreads... didn't you notice that on the cover? She is one tough broad with some major brains and guts, doing whatever it takes to survive..

The big question is: who should she find trustworthy? The number is runnin' pretty low on decent people...

Here are some thoughts from Kansas's mind:

"Some people say you can't change overnight. I'm sure this is true. Most of the time. In my case, I changed within seconds."

"We passed several wrecks, heard many helicopters and sirens, and probably saw a few zombies, but were too wrapped up in ourselves to notice. I blame it on being in love, but I swear to myself now if I saw a person walking down the street covered in blood or eating someone, I would have paid attention. Maybe."

"My memories are good ones, but they can bring on physical pain. Grief is a strange thing when you don't let yourself move on, especially when you don't deserve it."

"Waking up without dreaming of faces I once knew and loved as zombies starts my day off right."

"For the first time in four years, someone knows things about me. I don't really know how I feel about this. A strange thing, because being alone makes a person very self aware."

"I want to trust him, but a part of me is skeptical. Exteriors aren't what they seem, never have been."

Tough world to live in... but she does it with grace...


Happy Reading Everyone :)


~ Keely ~

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which we book lovers showcase new books received that have put an even bigger bend in our shelves...

This week's haul:

::kindle love::

Life for Kansas was perfect until the day the world changed.
She has been hiding out for four years in solitude. It's the only way to survive. The only way not to draw the living dead. Helping a small group of people, she learns the new world might not be what she assumes. Venturing out of her refuge and comfort zone, she meets Rudy, who helps her find a greater purpose. She realizes that the world has moved on without her. Only it's not what she expects. Her knowledge of the living dead grows and only makes her more curious as humanity continues to hang on by a thread. While on her search for answers she finds comfort in new friendships and love, but her past seems as if it will haunt her forever. 
Kansas takes it upon herself to help other survivors, which would be easy if the famished were the only obstacles.
In a trilogy plot thick with twists and turns, this adult dark fantasy is emotional as much as it is horrifyingly gripping.

*Not intended for a young audience. Mature content.*

::hardcover::

And their doom comes swiftly.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

And I know I've posted it before, but I just can't help myself... Here's the trailer for Ten... *creeeeepy*

Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~

Review ~ World War Z by Max Brooks

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time.World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War. 

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”

Review

Who isn't on a zombie kick these days? I'm one of those obsessional thinkers who can't get enough and am secretly planning her course of action just in case moaning zombies take over the earth.

World War Z was recommended to me by my awesome cousin, so I just had to give it a shot. I'd never heard of it before, but An Oral History of the Zombie War? I was all over it.

This book was different from those I normally read. In the format of interviewer-interviewee, the book holds accounts of the zombie war and the efforts to "clean up" from several points of view. It feels real when you're reading it, and you're tempted to refer back to your history books just to make sure your teachers weren't holding out on you.

Brooks did his homework, combining real people and events with fiction. The jargon was pretty heavy (thank goodness for endnotes), but that's what made the content more tangible. Military guys aren't going to talk in way so us mundane civilians can understand ~ they're going to speak in the language they live everyday, and Brooks used this reality to create an image of history so distinct that it feels as if it really happened.

I won't say this is an easy read. You have to pay attention and focus on the chronology of events as Brooks jumps from one interview to another. It's interesting to see the horror unfold from the points of view of so many different people, civilian and military alike, from all over the world. There isn't one main character, and it's more of a historical documentary than a fictional novel, but the storyline is there among the broken souls and wretched emotions of those involved in the beginning of the zombie war to the eventual "end" and clean up.

Kobo Highlights

I don't know if great times make great men, but I know they can kill them.

The monsters that rose from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts.

The more work you do, the more money you make, the more peons you hire to free you up to make more money. That's the way the world works. But one day it doesn't.

Freedom isn't just something you have for the sake of having, you have to want something else first and then want the freedom to fight for it.

Happy Reading Everyone :)


~ Keely ~