Brew by Bill Braddock

Synopsis:  A small college town turns into a murderous den of destruction one night after a massive football game.  We follow a slew of colorful characters from the start of the devastation to the end.  A "green" conservative group of radicals decides to spike the local brewery with a homemade chemical concoction that will turn the drinkers poop green.  What this group does not know is that the chemist is a mad man with a revenge plot against pretty much everyone and modifies the compound to turn everyone into zombies instead.  The next 24 hours turns into a survival story of epic proportions.  Enjoy the ride.

My review:  I loved this book.  Let me preface that this book is disturbing and disgusting and fantastic.  I did not know before getting into this book that it was about zombies, well flesh eating, sex-crazed, pain inflicting, 24 hour temporary zombies to be exact.  Once again a zombie book where the word zombie is not used once.  Great writing throughout.  Great character building.  I also loved that this author was willing to kill off some main characters, well almost all of them to be exact.  Some of the scenes were so well written I can still picture them in my head.  This is the first book written by Bill Braddock, and I hope for more books sooner rather than later.  One thing I will note, as mentioned slightly above, is that this book is not for the faint of heart and  is not for everyone.  I love reading books that push the limits of what we think is acceptable, and this book does not disappoint.  Enjoy if you dare.

My rating: 7
Pages: 273
Author website: http://www.billbraddock.com/p/home.html

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick (Ashes Trilogy Book # 1)

Synopsis:  After what we assume is an EMP attack of some kind, Alex while out camping in the woods needs to try and figure out what the hell happened and how to get back to safety.  After the EMP it seems that most people have dropped dead and the younger ones seem to have "Changed" into some kind of strange flesh eating creatures.  She meets up with Tom while trying to take care of eight year old Ellie, both of whom she has run into in the woods.  She must protect them while finding protection from Tom, an army Vet on home on leave from Afghanistan.  Alex, recently diagnosed with a brain tumor seems to be okay along with some others after the EMP, she has not turned yet.  She is separated from both Tom and Ellie but taken in by a group of survivors in a town called Rule.  While she is not quite sure of who to trust she is also battling with feelings for Tom and now for one of the survivors in camp named Chris.  She is not sure why she has been Spared and others have been Changed but the story continues into book two and we shall see where the story takes us from there.

My review: This book is hard to rate at this point because it is only one third of the story.  By the end of the trilogy I might raise the rating simply because I know the full story.  The word zombie is not used in the book at all but these Changed people are clearly some kind of zombie.  I am very interested to see why some people have changed and others not.  Because this book is YA, it a very quick and easy read even if it is close to 500 pages.  This book was recommended to me by a coworker and I am glad she did.  This was great read, I mean who doesn't like a post apocalyptic, woodland survival story with friggin zombies.  I will absolutely be reading the other two books in the trilogy as well.

My rating: 7
Pages: 496
Author website: http://www.ilsajbick.com/