"Grab your headknocker and get ready for some wet work in the murderhole."

A zombie novel, with nuclear apocalypse to boot. The zombies are pretty gross and well, they're zombies--they just keep coming. There is lots of head-bashing and limbs falling off and guts squirting everywhere. Many of the survivors are pretty bad as well: slavers, rapists, torturers, idiots. Things seem very bleak and hopeless, but this is the apocalypse after all. If it's not zombies that get you, it's radiation sickness. I myself would put a bullet in my brain.

So what sets this apart from the bazillions of other zombie novels? First, it has an unusual structure. It is a novel, but the chapters read like stories, each one describing a specific incident and told from a different point of view, although they are connected by characters and proceed along a linear timeline starting from Day 0.

Second, I thought the characterization was very well done for this type of novel. Each character seemed unique, nonstereotyped, flawed, and relatable. The varying perspectives kept the story fresh, and it was a fast and entertaining read. But still, zombies. I may have had enough of them. ( )

My first zombie book!!! Liked the characters; could definitly see some spin offs; missing some substance on minor plot lines; but loved the new words; "damily" and " a damnation of zombies" awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( )

This Dark Earth is a zombie novel. Yes, let's get that out there right away. And you know what's coming next too, right? "But it's not like other zombie novels!" Well, that's not true entirely, from a zombie standpoint it's pretty much like every other zombie novel, but what separates This Dark Earth from the horde is the writing, and the characterization. Both are beautiful! Sadly, I am not going to do this book justice in this review, so forgive me.

I've sat her typing, deleting, and retyping this paragraph for several minutes now, attempting to summarize the characters. I can't, at least not accurately. Lucy is a doctor who witnesses the outbreak as it happens at a hospital. She's fiercely analytical, but once the direness of the situation sets in her primary focus is getting to her family. Knock-Out is a trucker, a tough-guy exterior with a soft heart, who has a more emotional outlook on the events in the book. Gus is Lucy's son, who is just a 10-year-old boy at the start of the novel, but has a mind for survival and an uncanny way of coming up with ingenious solutions to apocalyptic problems.

The book naturally details the trials of surviving a zombie apocalypse, but it's so much more. It subtly exemplifies the devolution of humankind, even as they slowly reclaim technology piece by piece their way of life constantly spins backwards, which may sound true for most zombie novels, but the author's way of going about it is certainly unique, though I won't spoil any of it here.

My only complaint is that the book isn't longer. Yes, it's one of those. I desperately wish it was 400 pages. Or 700 pages. Maybe 1,000 pages. Seriously, I could have stayed with the characters for that long, and I must admit turning the final page was a huge letdown, simply because I knew I would no longer be spending my afternoons with the characters. He did a terrific job of getting me attached to them, and I just wish there was more. Pretty remarkable, for what could easily be mistaken as just another gory zombie book. ( )

A rather enjoyable zombie novel. Who doesn't enjoy a good zombie apocalypse every now and then? ( )

Not “just another zombie novel”

That was my worry, if I’m honest - like the Twi-hard copyists, there does seem to be a glut of zombie fiction out there at the moment. I’m not complaining and if it’s selling, good for them; whatever rubs your Buddha. And I’m not ruining the book for you by telling you this: there’s zombies in it it - lots and lots of zombies.

What I liked about John’s second book was that everything changes when the zombies arrive and yet, everything stays the same. Humans don’t change over night into a bunch of plucky Brits battling the Hun during the Blitz (and frankly, there were bad apples during the war, too) and helping each other survive. Okay, there will be some, but there’ll be the opportunists and exploiters who ooze out of the woodwork at the slightest provocation, working out the angles and the best way to make themselves kings amongst the debris of the former world.

I digress. Jacob’s second book centres around a young boy named Gus and his mother, Lucy, who’s a doctor. Gus is some kind of prodigy, with a brain seemingly uniquely adapted to coming up with ways to stay alive in a world where most of the population has turned into zombies. I’m also not giving away anything by saying he comes up with a unique idea for how to live without getting your brainz eaten by a zombie: build your new colony on a bridge. Or on the end of one. Seems like a good solution and John makes it work for him.

I enjoyed this book, in much the same way I enjoyed his last, Southern Gods - if you haven’t read it, go buy it now - I took it on holiday and devoured it in a very short time. I like his characters and the way he develops them through the events happening in the book. It’s a subtle alchemy which I would love to emulate in my own work.

Go on, stuck for something to read? Like well-written alternative fiction? Go buy his book now. ( )