Ok, so I have a God awful commute every day to work. Going isn’t so bad, it’s the coming home which is a sweet 50 minutes, EVERY SINGLE DAY. The only thing that keeps me sane is audible.com. Otherwise, I would be a road rage bitch, 24/7.
About a year and a half ago I discovered a series called The Undead by R.R. Haywood. Now, if you love the apocalypse, well I’m not saying you LUV the apocalypse, you just love reading about how people deal with it, this series is for you. If you love the Walking Dead on AMC, these books are definitely for you!
The Story
The setting is England, today. Our main character, Howie, is a night manager at Tesco. His life is really uneventful and comfortable.
“What the hell is Tesco, Hot Mess?” You may be asking.
Don’t worry, I’ve done the work for you. I’ve checked it out and it looks like our Target. I’m not going to say it looks like Wal-Mart as Wal-Mart is its own special kind of hell that no one on this planet could replicate, but I digress.
Anyway, Howie is just your average Joe, leaving work and looking forward to a peaceful evening when all hell breaks loose. Suddenly, people are biting others, television eventually goes down and the phone dies. All of England is thrown into a new hell of survival.
Confused and desperate, Howie pairs up with the unlikely of characters including one of his employees from Tesco- Dave. Dave is a reserved, soft-spoken man who keeps to himself and stocks shelves everyday; essentially going unnoticed until now. Amongst the chaos, Howie walks in to Tesco to find Dave who is stacking bodies like he’s stacking boxes of Coca-cola. Dave is doing all of this with no emotion which shocks Howie. We will later come to find out that Dave is ex-military, a master killer and autistic. This dangerous combination is a huge part of why Howie remains alive.
The Characters
I have come to love all the characters of this book. Haywood does an amazing job of not only giving them their own personality but all of the characters work beautifully together. You don’t find yourself “feeling awkward” when you read their interaction. Best of all, Haywood does something that I have not seen in other apocalyptic books or shows, he injects humor at just the right time, especially with a wonderful character known as Cookie. Tell me the last time Rick cracked a joke. No? I didn’t think so.
Additionally, several books in, we find that the zombies aren’t all drooling, dumb cannibals. I don’t want to spoil anything but just know that some of the zombies evolve to have a thought process, thus allowing for an intricate story line that draws you in even more.
Honestly I think at this point if Haywood killed off any of the main characters, I would probably go Kathy Bates on his ass. Just kidding Haywood! This is just a way I show I am in love with the books!
Sorry for the gif you guys! I hate gifs in blog posts but needed to show all the youngins’ that read my blog, the Misery reference.
Audible.com Narrator
I am 17….count them….17 books in to this self-published, hit series. When I am finished before another audible comes out of The Undead, I am tempted to read, but let’s be real, I write…I don’t read. Plus I’m like a huge child because I love the narrator Haywood selected to read the books on audible.com- Joe Jameson. Every single character has a different voice and it’s all being acted in front of you and it’s AMAZING! You literally think, if Cookie existed, this is what he would sound like.
Now just a heads up, in case you listen in lieu of ordering on amazon.com, the series starts out being narrated by Dan Morgan who is equally as amazing as Joe Jameson. When they switched over to Joe, I was like, “who is this imposter on my favorite book series?” I was about to have an adult temper tantrum. This was like taking my real mom and replacing her with a different one (ok, maybe that’s a little drama) but it’s ALL GOOD! Once Joe started reading, I’ve never looked back. How does Haywood find these talented narrator’s?
Summary
As this is my first book review, I need to be semi-formal and add a summary. Maybe I’ll even throw on a semi-formal cocktail dress as I type this. But then I remember, this isn’t the Love Boat and I need to focus. To sum up, if want a book that keeps you turning every page and one that has action, humor and heart, you need to check out The Undead by R.R. Haywood!
P.S. Try audible for free! You even get 1 book for free, but I guarantee you that once you hear the first of The Undead, you’ll be addicted and frantically order the next!
I don’t generally do audiobooks (others read at a slower pace than I do, and I can multitask many things, but not a book for some reason) but these do sound like something I’ll have to try—I’ll just do the reading myself. Thanks for the recommendation!
You are more than welcomed! You know what I found with audible if you are ever in a position where you need an audible book? You can speed the narator by a bunch. And thanks for letting me know I only had the UK pricing on the Amazon link. I’m going to fix that now!
I have just been to Tesco?
I am you regarding the use of GIF’s totally off putting. Irritating and distracting!! Audio books are great for long road trips 🙂
Thank you and thank you!