A "Book Review Campaign Manger for best-selling author Gayle Katz" emailed me from my blog to see if I was interested in reading a free book. A Zombie book? Sure, why not. I've read a ton.
A couple months later I got around to reading said book: Closed Campus (Jane Zombie Chronicles).
As I read a great deal of SPAs (Self-Published Authors), I was looking forward to enjoying a decent tale of brain-eating, chaos, and destruction. But man. This book needs some major love. Usually that translates to "needs a real editor." But actually, the editing isn't bad. It is the story and how it was presented that needs love.
The dialogue is pretty stiff and vanilla. The story and some of the action sequences are borderline preposterous - even for a zombie book. There is a 'great reveal;' the motive behind the madness, but it comes more toward the middle of the book with little-to-no actual build up. And that too is so bizarre - but it is more akin to a short plot point that if the reader skimmed those two pages, they may miss it completely.
Jane, in one day - before zombies - almost gets a me-too hashtag by two different dudes, then is attracted to one guy then another and it feels like love. Weird.
For a college radio station, all the employees, sans Jane, seem to be clueless on the layout of the campus in the small town. Outside of the rather 'plausible' motive and successful viral unleash in this book, I did find an interesting take having Patient Zero (for lack of better label and for not giving it away) having control over the hordes. Sorta like a zombie-vampire den.
Who knows, maybe the story, characters, dialogue, plot, creative license, suspense, action, and whatever I'm not listing -- will get better as the series and author matures. For me personally, it really did feel like a high-school short-story was expanded on a bit then published.
1.5 of 5 Stars. ARC provided by author.
From the Publisher:
Shy co-ed Jane looks forward to her isolated night shifts at the school radio station. It's the only place she can escape the bullies and quiet her anxiety. When rumors spread of a viral epidemic ripping through the wintery campus, she’s happy to be safe in the snug studio. But after communications go down and the infected break into the station, her peace turns into panic.
Fearing for her life, Jane’s only path of escape runs through the dark, snow-covered campus. But it may be too late to escape the gaping jaws of the walking dead. Does Jane have the grit to fight off the zombies and outrun the apocalypse, or will flesh-eating terrors teach her a deadly final lesson?
Closed Campus is the first installment in the Jane Zombie Chronicles, a series of young adult horror books. If you like feisty female heroines, spine-chilling undead, and pulse-pounding action, then you'll love Gayle Katz's post-apocalyptic novel.