Friday, January 21, 2011

Down the Road by Bowie Ibarra Blog Tour

Down the RoadFrom Goodreads:

A bizarre plague of the walking dead. 
A nation desperate for survival. 
It could be the end of the world.
Around the globe, the dead are rising to devour the living. Hospitals are overrun, and martial law has been declared. The streets are in chaos. Society is disintegrating.
George Zaragosa is a young school teacher living in the shadow of his fiancée’s unsolved murder. Now he just wants to go home to his family. He has made the journey before, traveling from Austin to San Uvalde. It is usually a short drive. But he knows this time is going to be different.
Along the way, George must negotiate military roadblocks, FEMA camps, and street thugs, not to mention hordes of the living dead. He is determined to make it home, but only one thing is certain: his trip down the road will be a journey like no other.
 Pretty much this book starts out as most zombie stories. There is an unknown plague which animates the dead. A bite or scratch spreads the infection. In this story it is mostly told from George's POV. He sees what is coming and decides to try to reach his hometown where his mother and uncle still live. The government has taken over and put people in FEMA camps for "their own good". There is also a ban on living in private homes and owning weapons, even for safety. As things progress from bad to worse, many of the soldiers abandon posts and who is left are the corrupt and power hungry. FEMA camps become a war zone within itself where you not only have to worry about the guards, but the inmates as well.

As we follow George, we start to see the real monsters and they aren't the ones devouring the flesh of the living. As chaos reigns, gangs try to rule the weak. There are pockets of people sharing and holding out, but they too have to fight the rouge gangs and the government run FEMA soldiers as well. It is a story of true horror in a world we have already seen can happen. What is interesting is that we find that this book was written pre-Katrina and no one believed that anything FEMA run would be that incompetent. Now with this new edition, we find that what he had eerily predicted could come true if a zombie infestation would break out in the US. *shivers*

I give this book 3 stars. This is definitely an adult book. Not only is there violence but sex as well. If you like a good horror book and don't mind quite a bit of blood and guts then this book is for you! Just check your door before reading and make sure all windows are secure. Just in case. ;)

I received this book from the publisher, Pocket, and no compensation for my review was given.

8 comments:

  1. Hm. I'm not really a big zombie fan and blood and guts tend to make me a bit squeamish so I'm thinking this book probably isn't for me. I'm such a wimp when it comes to horror, it's just sad really:)

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  2. On the one level this appeals - I love the idea of the author exploring society as a whole re the gangs threatening the weak - and yet your mention of sex as well as violence kind of puts me off as a little I can cope with but too much and I lose interest in the story.

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  3. @Jenny I actually am a wimp too. I can handle monster movies to an extent... :) Yea... you may not like this one.

    @...Petty the violence is a huge part of the book. The sex, not so much. It is a short book, if that helps. :)

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  4. eee zombies! But ok I can read about zombies, just not watch them, honestly, nightmares every time. I am so lame

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  5. It started sounding eerily like Hurricane Katrina only with zombies but how surprising that it was published before that. Once again, the worst of human nature can be more terrifying than imaginary creatures.

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  6. I really must get more into the zombie genre (the one zombie book that I have read, "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" by Carrie Ryan, was amazing- highly recommend it)... Anyways, thanks for the honest review! I might just have to check this out! Have a great weekend!

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  7. Double *shivers*!!!

    These kinds of books scare me but also fascinate me in a fictional sense.

    I recently caught up and watched all The Walking Dead epis and wow. Engrossed and grossed out all in one!

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  8. Interesting. But I'm really not a zombie person. :) But thank you for the great review!

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