A different zombie apocalypse

Dead Petals - An Apocalypse
by Eric Ortlund

The official blurb:

"Not just your garden-variety zombie apocalypse...

"It was a week ago when it happened. Exactly a week when I heard the stomping on the front porch. I remember it sounded like someone was drunk. I opened the door and it was my neighbor. She lunged at me."

Oz, a former professor driven to the brink of madness by a tragedy he cannot face, begins to notice that the people around him are acting strangely. They're eating each other. And they're scraping at his door.

Fleeing south, Oz and a motley crew of survivors begin to notice that this isn't the zombie apocalypse they'd seen in countless movies and books. These creatures seem somehow 'closer' to the Earth, yet, perversely, somehow deader, less human, than even zombies are meant to be. The creatures are transfixed by the Sun, and they transform, their faces peeling back in short tentacles until they uncannily resemble flowers. And these zombies can't be stopped. Hack off a limb or a head and it re-joins or just grows back, like the toughest plants.

The Dead have a global leader, a purpose - beyond that of just eating any remaining humans. And the seven survivors, led reluctantly by Oz, discover that they have a central role to play in the macabre new order of 'life' on Earth.

Dead Petals is a different species of zombie tale. Apocalypse, Rapture and the transformation of reality, all sprouting from the same seed."

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I received a free copy of this from www.netgalley.com in return for an honest review.

An interesting take on the zombie theme but I found it confusing and the story difficult to follow or really understand what was going on. It started off well but I quickly became confused and was scratching my head for most of the way through and I found it hard going. I wasn’t able to connect with any of the characters and found the dialogue a bit awkward, unnatural and, at times, all over the place.

I did however like the zombies - they weren’t the run of the mill, normal zombie and the way the author described them was excellent.

I can see a really good book in here but I just don’t think this was it.

I wouldn't class this as a "horror" but would put it in the supernatural or weird category.

My rating:  2 out of 5 stars