9.5 / 10
From the blurb: It should be game over for Nora Dearly when she is ambushed and dragged off into the night by the living dead. But this crack unit of teen zombies are the good guys, sent to protect Nora from the real monsters roaming the country and zeroing in on cities to swell their ranks.
Can Nora find a way to kill off the evil undead once and for all?
Can she trust her protectors to resist their hunger for human flesh?
And can she stop herself falling for the noble, sweet, surprisingly attractive, definitely-no-longer-breathing Bram..?
I loved this book! A friend of mine's been pestering me to read it but it's kept disappearing under the stacks of other books I've yet to read. And when I finally got around to starting it, I couldn't put it down. I couldn't bear to only give it only 9 / 10, but it wasn't perfect in my opinion, so I tacked on a cheeky .5. Hope you don't mind!
The first 30 pages or so seemed to drag a little because there were a lot of information dumps to introduce the futuristic steampunk world (there's a point, I didn't realise before reading it that it was set in 2196!). However, the action quickly picked up when zombies started attacking, as it should. At times the multiple points of view got a little draining - I could understand the need for it, but I didn't enjoy reading Wolfe's sections. I think it would also have been more effective to not know what he was thinking or doing, to have him be a bit of a mystery.
The zombie lore wasn't anything particularly new, but it was refreshing in its traditionalism.
Between the wars and natural disasters, people wanted to revert to something familiar but new. They chose the Victorian age, because it's highly romanticised. I loved seeing women in big dresses and parasols! It's a little saddening that feminism has been happily relinquished in this vision of the world. But that makes it so much easier to love the women of this book - Nora and Pamela struggle against the way they were raised to be strong, Chas is unconventional and fierce, Dr. Chase is full of brains and kindness. The other characters are just as brilliant. There's snarky Tom, funny Coalhouse and adorable Renfield (I kind of love Renfield, I'll admit it). Dr. Samedi gets the greatest entrance.
For me, though, Bram really stole the show. He's tender and sweet, easily hurt, caring but distant. He's not full of angst, though; he just gets on with whatever needs doing and doesn't take time to wallow. Such a gentleman, too! Watching the relationship bloom between him and Nora was beautiful. I found myself rooting for them from very early on. Bram is definitely the most worthy book crush I've seen in a long time.
My biggest (though almost only) problem with this book is the ending. It very suddenly seems rushed, and all at once a whole set of new plot points and problems are opened up. It felt very leading, as though suddenly it had been decided there would be a sequel but there was no real plot to fill it. Also, Habel seemed a little frightened of breaking her readers' hearts. There was always a sense of, "This will probably turn out okay. There will probably be a happy ending." Call me morbid, but I would have loved a few more bloody and horriyfing deaths thrown in there.
This is one of my favourite books in a long while. It was beautiful, emotional and violent. I'm really looking forward to the next book and can't wait to see Nora and Bram again - but I'd love a touch more torment!
Teaser quote: 'Mark my words,' Tom said, unswayed. 'In an hour she wakes up, slams back a fifth of somethin', and asks for a uniform.'
If you enjoyed this book, try 'Warm Bodies' by Isaac Marion for the zombies, 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth for the touching romance, or 'Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories' by Gavin J. Grant for... well, the steampunk. Duh.
'Dearly, Beloved' is due to be released in January 2013.
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