David Martin Stack

I really enjoyed this book. The chapter titles likely make an awesome soundtrack, based on the songs and bands I'm familiar with. The Posterband website, which features a DJ Dead Air jukebox, has many fine songs on it to listen to, possibly while reading the book. The firm roots of its Louisville setting create a searchable world, complete with the fabulous old Mizzoni's where I too enjoyed rolled oyster sandwiches as a child with my family. Some of these places are no longer around, which is sad. Ear X-Tacy recently went out of business, but before doing so, they helped him promote the book, which was really nice. I like how it seems that certain things are happening, but they end up being a trick near the beginning; this really worked to build suspense. When it turns out certain things did happen, I felt just as surprised and maybe appropriately confused as the characters.

The downfall of this book, which I hope is corrected for further editions or simply just entries in this series, is the grammar. I have seen many dropped words, extra commas, and mistyped words ("lighting" instead of "light," although I'm not sure if that particular error was made). With careful editing, this mistake would be easy to avoid, and readers may be more pleased.

All in all, this was a really good read. When my daughter is a bit older, I will definitely let her read it; right now it's just a matter of her being responsible with the book more than any issues I might have with the profanity. In today's culture, I don't think it's beyond the realm of appropriateness for teen reads to have profanity as long as the readers are mature. I'm really looking forward to future entries in the series.

Something super-interesting is that I actually met the author in August at the Kentucky State Fair where he was promoting the book. I hadn't heard of the book before, but the battle of the bands and the zombie dance troupe was really great. Mr. Stack is very personable and accommodating. He was kind to my family and signed and dedicated a copy of the book to us. He told me about the Zombie Walk, which I had heard about but wasn't familiar with, which was right around the corner; we went and had a blast.… (altro)