Book Review: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

Pros: light romance, interesting use of zombies

Cons: tries to be all genres, slow paced

For Parents: some violence

Nora Dearly is kidnapped the day after she arrives home from school for the holidays and learns that her deceased father was killed by a plague that reanimates the dead, leaving some of them able to think and act like living humans.  She slowly falls in love with one of the soldiers who brought her to the military camp in order to protect her from those who would do her harm.

This book tries to be several genres, not really excelling at any of them.  It takes place in 2195 and uses some advanced technology (like tablets for writing, email and watching TV), but not much else.  I was often at a loss as to what tech was supposed to be advanced and what was lost and not recovered after the war.  The world has greatly changed due to global warming and a nuclear war, making it somewhat post-apocalyptic.  But again, society has rebuilt enough that it didn't have a post-apocalyptic feel to it.  The Americans who pushed out the Central and South Americans and formed New Victoria, live an idealized Victorian lifestyle, with high morals and a strict social hierarchy.  Their enemies, the 'Punks' have steam powered derigibals, making it steampunk.  But it was a bit confusing which, if any, side the author was praising.  At times she showed the follies of the New Victorians, at others they were definitely more civilized than the punks.  Then there are the zombies and the plague that created them, making it horror, and a popular horror trope at that.  While there were two types of zombies - those that reanimated with memories and those that came back as ravening monsters - the zombies were only really scary at the end of the book when the plague spread.  Finally, let's not forget the romantic plot line between Nora and Bram.  This developed slowly, and naturally, but the complications of dating a zombie were never properly faced (nor was Bram's impending expiry date).

I found the pacing slow and while the ideas were interesting, enjoyed the action surrounding Pamela's storyline more than the romance and revelations surrounding Nora. 

I also found myself confused by the constantly changing viewpoint for the first person narrative.  The author made it clear who was speaking, but I fell into the habit of assuming it was Nora's POV and had to constantly correct myself.  Captain Wolfe's POV scenes seemed superfluous, and while I understood wanting to show both Bram and Nora's thoughts via POV, there were times when the POV changed when it didn't seem necessary.

I know teen books need to get the adults out of the way in order to give the teen protagonists a chance to shine, but that doesn't mean all the adults need to be morons.  Nora's aunt is a real piece of work, and Pamela's parents are surprisingly clueless and made to look evil in some ways, even though they're honestly trying to do what's best for their daughter.

I can understand why this is popular, but wouldn't recommend it as a first foray into YA lit.

















***Spoilers ***

There seemed to be a bizarre anti-live male sentiment running through the book.  Captain Wolfe, Isambard, Doctor Elpinoy, Averne and Michael Allister all started out as, or became, cretinous characters.  Isambard only becomes a better 'man' once he dies and is reborn as a zombie.  The dead men on the other hand, Dr. Dearly, Bram, Tom, Renfield, etc. are all likable, if not perfect characters.

Random House Kids Preview

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the fall kids book preview at the Random House offices in Toronto.  They've got some great things coming out and I managed to get reading copies for a few books I'm really stoked about.

James Dashner's third book, The Death Cure, is finally out!  This series is getting better and better, and I'm hoping this book explains more about the organization that's been putting these teenagers through hell.  Here's the synopsis for the first book in the series, The Maze Runner.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

 Next up is a book I heard about a month or so ago, Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel.  It's a post-apocalyptic steampunk novel with... wait for it... a human/zombie romance.

Love can never die.

Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.

I'm not sure if this Juliet Immortal, by Stacey Jay, is quite my thing, but I do like Romeo and Juliet.

The most tragic love story in history . . .

Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love.

And now for something completely different.  I don't have a kid, and I'm not sure kids would like this, though it is a children's picture book.  It's Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back.  A rather deadpan faced bear is looking for his hat, asking the other forest animals if they've seen it.  It's got a surprisingly funny ending - at least, if you like black humour.  I could see myself reading this to my nieces and nephews, laughing my head off at the ending and them wondering what's so funny.  Look through it the next time you're at a bookstore.