Girls Girls Girls

Bestselling books with ‘girl’ in the title

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, The Girl with all the Gifts, The Girl in the Red Coat, The Girl Who Lied – all been flying off the shelves, or rushing through the download ether. By the way, I have read them all and liked them.

So if you are an author at a loose end, not knowing what to write about, you should think about a young female lead (she doesn’t need to be a heroine, even though I would welcome it, she can be psychologically challenged or simply an alcoholic, even a child will do) and stick ‘girl’ somewhere in the title. And off into bestselling orbit, you should go. Oh, also make sure it is a page turner. The competition is stiff and you’ll be compared with the other ‘girl’ books.

Why do I go on about this on a dystopian blog you might wonder? Well, I wanted to present ‘The Girl with all the Gifts’ by M. R. Carey, one of the best zombie novels ever written. This is the ‘girl’ novel with the apocalyptic fix (you know what I mean), you really ought to read. It is utterly unique and stands head above shoulders in a genre that seems to attract the most talentless of writers.

More notable dystopian ‘girl’ books

And while we are on the subject of apocalyptic fiction featuring girls in the lead, the wonderful Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is another must-read book by an exceptionally gifted writer.

And it is not just me saying it. To prove it, Emily St. John Mandel has a handful of credentials to her name, among them: WINNER OF THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD 2015, as well as, New York Times Bestseller.

And last but not least, there is my favorite zombie book of all times: The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell. I have written a review a while back which you can read here.

If you have written a dystopian, apocalyptic or crime book with or without girl in the title and need a good book cover designer, Jacqueline Abromeit at goodcoverdesign.co.uk should be able to help.

March 3, 2017April 12, 2017

I Have Waited, And You Have Come

I Have Waited, And You Have Come by Martine McDonagh

Review:
Madness, obsession and bad weather. Now, what does that remind me of…? Never mind, this is great stuff. Rachel is alone in a stormy future, in a society that has gone back to somewhere between medieval and biblical times. Excellent writing – I loved it!

Dear me, my reviews are so short I should twitter. Only, nothing good ever came out of twitter…

March 3, 2017March 3, 2017

100 Days in Deadland

100 Days in Deadland by Rachel Aukes

Review:
A perfectly good zombie read. Not quite living up to my expectations – with Dante’s Inferno in the subtitle I kinda expected a lot more. Not sure what? But perhaps more than characters named Cash, Cutch, Griz, Tack, Jase and zombies called zeds. The relationship between Cash and Clutch runs along predictable routes and at times felt like chick lit with zombies. Still, at least it was aiming high, and I wasn’t disappointed by the story as a whole.

Some Amazon reviewers voiced surprise that a woman is doing zombies! I wonder where these folks have been? Underground in a bunker counting supplies? Wherever it was, I’d like to welcome them to this century. The book cover could be better…

March 2, 2017April 12, 2017

Feed

Feed by Mira Grant 

Review:
I was completely hooked from page one! Bloggers covering a presidential campaign did not sound all that riveting to me – even with zombies thrown in. Well, I stand corrected. While I would put it on the ‘young adult’ shelve, it still is exciting with interesting characters and extremely well written. I can totally believe now that bloggers are the bee’s knees in a post-apocalyptic world…

ps I am not sure why I didn’t eagerly grab volume 2 and 3 of The Newsflash Trilogy? Perhaps because I am an old adult, or perhaps I was just getting a little tired of that series malarky?

March 2, 2017March 2, 2017

Red Hill by Jamie McGuire 

Red Hill by Jamie McGuire

Review
You know how in almost every zombie novel there is always a destination of promise – here it is what it says on the tin: Red Hill. It is from the school of: ‘a zombie outbreak is the best thing that could have happened’ to its protagonists. It brings out the best in them and they find love on the way. And while it is somewhat predictable at times, Jamie McGuire is an accomplished writer who knows her craft – just as you would expect from a New York Times Bestselling Author. Surprisingly it is not part one of a series. I liked it!

March 2, 2017

Devoured

Devoured (The Hunger Book 1) by Jason Brand

I couldn’t really warm to Lance, the self-pitying anti-hero, with his endlessly hurting feet coming into his own once Pittsburgh is swarming with Zombies-like creatures. Somehow he survives so he can lust after Cass (don’t call me Cassie), the punky, extra fit, double axe sword swinging blonde who saves him around halfway into the book.

If you are really poor and young enough so you don’t mind wasting your time – go for it. It’s free, plods along speedily enough and is not without humour. Not as funny as the author likes to thinks it is, but hey, life is full of flat jokes… On the plus side are the settings which were described so effortlessly that I can still see them in my mind – from hospital to alleyway, restaurant, drugs-den etc.… And the cover is great too!