Dearly, Departed by Lia HabelPublication Date: October 18th, 2011
Publisher: Del Ray
Page Count: 470 pages
Format: E-ARC
Source: Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group
Rating:
Love can never die.I have to admit, I've never been a big fan of zombie books, but Dearly, Departed has definitely changed my mind! At first I was a little weirded out by the idea of a romance between a human and a zombie, but Habel did a great job conveying the relationship between Bram and Nora, and after a while I forgot about Bram being a zombie at all! Habel's writing is elegant and descriptive, and the images she paints are just horrifying! I loved it!!! One of the larger issues I have is the fact that it's written between 5 alternating perspectives, which just seems like overkill to me. I would have liked to have only 2 or 3.
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 absolutely loved Nora, she's such a strong female character, and she's always ready to jump into the thick of things. She's a total bad ass, and I love how accepting she is of all the zombies after she gets to know them. Her relationship with Bram is kind of strange, I mean... he's dead.. but they're just so cute I ended up forgetting about the weirdness. Nora's friend Pamela was incredibly annoying at first; all she seemed to care about was boys, status, and her wardrobe. I figured she was the typical, shallow and selfish YA bff, but once the zombies started attacking the city she completely changed! She was fighting and destroying the zombies as well as Nora would have!
The story itself is really original. The idea of zombies reanimating, only to be completely normal and not bloodthirsty monsters is incredible! The descriptions of some of the "nice" zombies were still pretty brutal. Missing limbs, torn jaws, burnt skin - it was pretty gruesome! I even remember reading some parts out to my friends at work, the images were so descriptive I could actually see them in my mind! Habel's writing is definitely amazing, and I would love to read anything by her!
Overall, this book was a kick-ass-romantic-zombie-horror story... yes, all of those things rolled into one! I definitely enjoyed the story, although the multiple perspectives got a little old, I think it would have been better if the story was just written between Nora and Bram, but I got over it. I recommend this one to anyone who loves a good romance, an apocalyptic zombie story, or an action packed adventure! Dearly, Departed did not disappoint!
* I received an e-copy of this book for review purposes. All ideas and opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.
