Hollowmen by Amanda Hocking (CBR-IV #32)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #32/52
Published: 2011
Pages: 194
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian/Zombie



***May contain spoilers to previous books in the series**


In the sequel to Hollowland, we fast forward six months from where the previous novel ended. Remy has spent the last six months being prodded and tested by doctors due to her immunity to the zombie virus. She gets a chance to escape when the building is breached by a zombie hoard and heads out in search of her brother, yet again.


I liked this book as well, although I think it had a few more flaws than the previous one. For one, I don't understand why Remy was experimented on so viciously. I know they were trying to find a cure for the virus, but I have a hard time believing that such a well equipped military quarantine didn't have any anesthesia or anything to use on her during surgeries. They did explain that they were saving their stock of painkillers since it was all they had, but I still don't understand why they couldn't have used some on the poor girl. 


Also, the characters weren't as well written. I liked Lazlo and Blue and Harlow in Hollowland. I can tell you a little about their characters. In Hollowmen, I barely remember any of the supporting characters besides one of the evil doctors who escapes with them (and don't get me started on Remy's feeling sorry and apologizing TO HIM eventually). The few military men and women who she traveled with all sort of blurred together. When Remy started forming a relationship with one of them, I was surprised because I thought he was a middle aged guy for some reason. 


I did like the realism that was present again. Remy doesn't magically meet up with everyone she lost. She doesn't find her long lost love. She starts a new relationship because that's what anyone would do in such a hopeless situation. There is no happy ending. 

Hollowland by Amanda Hocking (CBR-IV #31)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #31/52
Published: 2010
Pages: 291
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian/Zombie



Several years ago, a zombie virus swept across America. Some survivors managed to live in isolated military quarantines for a while. Now, the zombies are getting smarter and broke into the quarantine where 19-year-old Remy King has been living. Before they were taken over, her younger brother was evacuated to another quarantine somewhere up north. Remy manages to escape and goes after her brother.


I actually really liked this book. There was a lot of action and good pacing. Some characters were a little cliche at times (tough as nails main female character for one), but still likable. I liked that there was a tiny bit of romance, but it didn't take center stage over the story. I think that made the story a little more realistic compared to a lot of YA dystopian novels. Of course there would be romantic relationships during in a post-apocalyptic world -- especially when you have a small group of young people in such intense situations. However, the relationships in this book weren't overly sappy and actually felt like they were almost due to a lack of options and being in a high stress environment (which is completely feasible in this type of situation). 


One thing that sort of bugged me was the zombies. They weren't really what most people consider "zombies". They weren't reanimated dead. They were just really sick with the virus. They were also much faster and sometimes smarter than typical zombies. It didn't really effect the story, but it just sort of bugged me. 


Overall, I enjoyed reading Hollowland. It had just what I look for in my dystopian fiction: lots of action, interesting characters, and low on the romance.

Eerie by Blake & Jordan Crouch (CBR-IV #30)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #30/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 284
Genre: Horror


At first, I thought maybe this was father/son writing team, but after reading the interview with the authors at the end of the book I found out that Jordan Crouch is Blake Crouch's little brother. Interesting. I like Blake Crouch, so I figured I'd give this book a shot.


The book had a really good synopsis: It starts out with a horrible car wreck with a brother and sister and their dad. The dad is severely brain damaged and the kids are left parentless since their mother had died not to long before the accident. 


Flash forward thirty years and now the little boy (Grant) is detective with the Seattle Police. He hasn't seen his little sister, Paige, in years -- ever since he tried to conduct an intervention to get her away from drugs and prostitution. One day he gets a lead on Paige's whereabouts. She's now a high-end prostitue in the area. Pretending to be a new client, Grant ends up at Paige's house.

When he reunited with his sister, he thinks she is still on drugs because she looks awful -- too thin with bags under her eyes. However, Paige has a different problem. There is something living under her bed that won't let her leave the house. If she tries to leave, she gets violently ill. And now that Grant has been inside the house, he is trapped to.

Then...everything just goes downhill. The plot gets boring after a while (they can't leave the house! What is that thing under the bed?). Literally half the book is them just being trapped in the house with nothing really happening. Mostly, I just wanted to know that the heck that thing under Paige's bed was. Until I found out that is.

Which bring me to the ending. The AWFUL ending. I'm STILL not sure what happened. I won't spoil it, but I was really disappointed. It's was definitely one of the most WTF endings to a book I have ever read -- and not in a good way. It was a complete letdown.

I think this would have been a better short story or novella than an actual novel. The plot was intriguing, but it really needs a better ending. 

The Cellar by Richard Laymon (CBR-IV #29)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #29/52
Published: 1980
Pages: 309
Genre: Horror


I'd heard good things about this book. So much so, that it seems to almost be a "classic" in the horror novel genre. Richard Laymon is pretty well known as a horror novelist as well, so I figured this would be a good place to start with my first Laymon book. I can now safely say that I probably will not be reading anymore Laymon books. 


This book was awful. Between the unlikeable characters and the unnecessary, stomach-churning depictions of child rape, I just couldn't believe how many people recommended this book. I was expecting a scary creature in the cellar type book. Well, there was a creature in the cellar (or sometimes in the attic, or the bedrooms, so I'm not quite sure why it wasn't just called "The House" or something). I'm still not quite sure what the heck this "creature" was. Was he an alien? A mutant human? Half animal? Science experiment gone wrong? I have no clue. It would have been nice to have some sort of background on this thing. 


But the creature only is half of the plot. The other half is about a woman and her 12-year-old daughter who are on the run from her ex-husband who was just released from prison. He was in prison for raping his daughter and now the reader is being punished by having to read a bunch of graphic scenes of him child-raping his way up the California coast to find his ex-wife and daughter. Ugh. I know it's a horror novel and horror novels don't always have likable characters, but my God, it would have been horrifying enough to allude to the child abuse instead of telling us every detail. 


These two plots are linked because the mom who is on the run ends up sleeping with some guy who is trying to kill the creature in the cellar of "Beast House". Oh yeah, Beast House is the house where the creature lives that the owners conduct tours of due to to all the murders that have happened there. I think Laymon was trying to write two different stories and came up with the most nonsensical way to link the two plots. There is no character development between the mom and her new lover (I can't even remember their names!). They just start sleeping with each other and when they are having sex THEY LEAVE HER DAUGHTER WITH THE GUY'S ADULT MALE FRIEND. Yes, she leaves her daughter WHO WAS RAPED BY HER FATHER with a strange, older male. Great parenting, lady. 


Anyways, I would not really recommend this book unless you're a sick person who needs some new pedophilia material, and even then it's probably not worth wading through the rest of the book for that. 

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr (CBR-IV #28)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #28/52
Published: 2007
Pages: 192
Genre: Young Adult

Three years ago, Deanna was caught having sex in the backseat of a car by her dad. She was 13, the guy was her older brother's 17-year-old friend. Needless to say, her life quickly changed for the worse afterwards. Various stories of the incident went around her school calling her a slut, or desperate and pathetic. 

Three years later, Deanna's dad is still barely speaking to her and her brother is living in the basement with his girlfriend and their infant. Deanna's in love with her best friend who is dating her other friend. She gets a summer job at a run-down pizza place just to find out that Tommy (the guy she slept with) also works there. So, yeah, this isn't some fluffy YA book. There's no romance, just heartbreak. 

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I like books with flawed characters. In my opinion, it's much harder to write a character like that than it is to write a bland or "perfect" main character. I would definitely recommend this book to teens as well as adults who are looking for a less fluffy YA book.

Blindness by Jose Saramago (CBR-IV #27)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #27/52
Published: 1995
Pages: 286
Genre: Dystopian

Blindness is an interesting novel. It starts out with a man who is suddenly struck blind while at a traffic light. A man helps him home (and steals his car), but he also is struck blind later. The original blind man goes to an eye doctor who can't make sense if it either. Then the eye doctor is struck blind. Everyone who is in contact with someone who is already blind is also struck by this odd "white blindess" where all they can see is bright white. 

The quick spread of the blindess causes the government to panic and try to quarantine everyone who is already blind. The "original" group of blind people are among the ones thrown in an old hospital (I think...maybe an asylum?) and sort of left to fend for themselves except for some sporadic and meager food deliveries. The military is outside the gates and shoots anyone who gets too close.

The book is a little hard to read if you have trouble with "train of thought" type writing. There aren't a lot of paragraphs and you have to just kind of figure out yourself when someone starts and stops speaking. There are also no formal names. People are known as "the girl with the dark glasses" and "the doctor's wife". It sort of gives you a sense of disorientation like the blind people, so in a way it works with this novel. 

Overall, I thought it was a good book. I liked the plot and it ended up being different than I thought it would be. There was no "hero". This was as gritty and as dirty as you can get in a dystopian novel. I found it to be fairly realistic as to how society would probably deal with this sort of crisis. No magical cure, no evil government secrets, etc. (can you tell I've read to many YA dystopian books?), just...grim reality. 

The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan (CBR-IV #26)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #26/52
Published: 1978
Pages: 160
Genre: Fiction


This was a weird book. Very weird. It follows three siblings after the death of both of their parents in a short time span. They actually put their dead mother in a trunk in the basement and fill it with concrete. I told you it was weird. They figure they can all stay together if no one knows their mother is dead.


However, it was well-written and gave a pretty clear picture of this family, especially considering how short it was. If you're not easily disturbed (and like weird), it's worth a quick read. 

Corridor by Robin Parrish (CBR-IV #25)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #25/52
Published: 2011
Pages: ? (ebook)
Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction

I realized I read this book a few months ago and forgot to write my review, so I apologize if it's a little short and/or vague. I do remember that I LOVED this book though. It follows a teenager named Troy who wakes up to find himself in a contraption called The Corridor. 

He has no idea where he is or how he got there, but he is guided by girl's voice who doesn't know much more than he does. Her job is to get him to keep going forward to the different rooms. Each room is a different color has has a different obstacle Troy needs to overcome in order to move to the next room. For instance, the red room's obstacle is fire. The scenes of Troy going through the obstacles in the rooms were really great, but....

...as much as I loved the premise and the majority of the book, I really didn't like the ending. It was kind of a letdown and I was hoping for something more intriguing. However, I still think the rest of the book was worth reading even with the subpar ending. Just make up your own better ending and enjoy the rest of the book.

Swan Song by Robert McCammon (CBR-IV #24)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #24/52
Published: 1987
Pages: 956
Genre: Horror/Post-Apocalyptic

Swan Song has been on my to-read list ever since I heard it being compared to Stephen King's The Stand. I read The Stand in high school and loved it, so I wanted to see how Swan Song measured up. It does have some similarities to The Stand: both novels take place after an apocalyptic event (although Swan Song is a nuclear war instead of a disease) and follow several different groups of people (the "good guys" and the "bad guys") until the final good vs. evil battle at the end. But other than that (and the length), it's a totally different story.

The characters were great and well-written. There's a little girl named Swan is has been cared for by a former wrestler named Josh since the death of her mother. Then a crazy New York bag lady who escapes from the city after the bombs. Then there's Colonel Macklin and his sidekick Roland a.k.a. the bad guys. The story rotates between these different groups of characters until they all come together at the end of the novel.

Overall, I really enjoyed the novel but probably wouldn't read it over and over again like I could The Stand. Definitely worth a one-time read for any fans of long, post-apocalyptic novels in the same vein as The Stand or The Passage.