Terror 'Tober: Twice-Baked Thursday Review: The First Days

Check out Terror 'Tober Event Page here!

Title: The First Days (As The World Dies: A Zombie Trilogy #1)

Author: Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date: August 14th, 2008
Page Count: 335
Genre: post-apocalyptic (zombies)/horror
Audience: adult
Source: bought (Randi)
Rating: 3 I would friend this book on Facebook just in case of the zombocalypse (Randi)
                 2.5 I'd give this book a hug as a guise for putting it out of its misery (Becky)

Goodreads Summary: 
Rhiannon Frater's As the World Dies trilogy is an internet sensation. The first two books, The First Days and Fighting to Survive, have won the Dead Letter Award for Best Novel from Mail Order Zombie. The First Days was named one of the Best Zombie Books of the Decade by theHarrisburg Book Examiner. AmericanHorrorBlog calls Rhiannon Frater "a writer to watch."

The morning that the world ends, Katie is getting ready for court and housewife Jenni is taking care of her family. Less than two hours later, they are fleeing for their lives from a zombie horde. 

Thrown together by circumstance, Jenni and Katie become a powerful zombie-killing partnership, mowing down zombies as they rescue Jenni's stepson, Jason, from an infected campground.

They find sanctuary in a tiny, roughly fortified Texas town.  There Jenni and Katie find they are both attracted to Travis, leader of the survivors; and the refugees must slaughter people they know, who have returned in zombie form.  

Fast-paced and exciting, filled with characters who grab your heart, The First Days: As the World Dies is the beginning of a frightening trilogy. 

Randi in black
Becky in blue


Our thoughts: Well, I have mixed feelings on this book. But I did like it. I did not. The zombified action was excellent and very well-written.  I thought the writing was pretty terrible.  There is way too much description of everyone and their dog's emotions that could and should have been shown instead of told.  There was also a noted lack of suspense in most of the book and virtually no atmosphere.  

I feel like the author failed on the all-important (for me) zombie-book aspect of telling us why there are zombies.  I get that the people didn't know, but this wasn't first-person narrative - we could have gotten some explanation.  That's one of the coolest parts of a zombie book for me and it was totally lacking in this book. I don't actually think a zombie book does need to explain that, although it might have saved this one from being so boring (I fell asleep reading it).  I can think of many zombie books and movies that never do, and it makes sense.  Most if not all of the people who would be able to figure that out die before the action really starts. There were all kinds of references to zombie flicks and the zombie survival handbook, (I did like that haha) but not even any speculation about how the zombies might have come into being. Lamesauce. 

Also, the characters were pretty wishy washy. I second that remark. Honestly, the characters I cared about most were Jason and Jack (the dog).  I cared for no one.  Let the zombies take them.  I suspect the dog would survive better on its own. Jenni's personality transplant from battered wife to zombie-killing-machine (obsessed with finding a man) did not work for me. Considering what she went through, that shift could have been made believable. Buuut, it wasn't in this instance.  She was flat like a truck-squashed zombie and her dialogue and actions were completely unbelievable.  She was also intensely grating.  Am I right?  Katie didn't really strike me as having a distinct personality either.  I think both of these women would have died quickly. This is why I love you, Becky. :)

I love that one of the main characters (Katie) is bisexual!  I like that the story just accepts that aspect of her nature instead of revolving the story around it.  I think it would have been more interesting if she was just gay, since the bi part comes up conveniently far in after a suitable male protagonist arrives. And yet I felt like (until the last 30 pages or so) that detail was thrown in simply to provide sexual tension. Yup. Lydia, Katie's zombie wife, could have easily been replaced with a man and the only difference would have been that she wouldn't have needed to persuade Jason to keep her "secret" about being bisexual and not a lesbian. And, presumably, the derogatory comments about lesbians would have been absent.  Lydia was barely even a person.  All we know about her is that they never fought, jogged every night and were blissfully happy.  What a Mary Sue. I'm not convinced she actually existed. LOL. Stop making me laugh!

Zombies! They can run, they can jump, they can climb. WHAT THE HECK?! Crazy zombies! And this totally added to the horror. I did like it when they started climbing.  You don't see much of that.  I was like Go ZOMBIE GO! Went out to smoke around 1 A.M. while reading this, and all the leaves blowing around and scurrying squirrels creeped.me.out. Baby. (I figured you were going to say "that's what you get for smoking!") :P. I loved the action sequences which I thought were by far the best parts of the story (ignoring Jenni's personality shift). There was also a bit of "OMG, we can't kill them, what about our humanity?" conflict, which provided some nice contrast.  Though there could have been a little more. Whatevs! Not Whatevs, Randi!  NO! lol.  That aspect was barely touched on and was written so obviously that I just wanted to brain the characters talking.  There was no subtlety or finesse to the exploration of humanity and it has been done so often that you really need that at this point.

I would recommend this to zombie lovers, but expect crazy zombies with so-so characters. Probably won't continue this series, but I'll be lending it back to my bestie, since she's one of the zombie-obsessed. You keep those books away from me, lol.  I like my zombie books like my wine...subtle, well rounded, with a complex, lingering taste.  This was none of those things.  I think Frater could actually have written this story well, but her style needs development and probably some writing classes.  Even my college-level ones would have ripped this book mercilessly apart.  It was a good idea rather poorly executed.  I'd recommend for fans of "The Reapers are the Angels" by Alden Bell...although that book was much better. Did you see all the typos? Drove me BONKERS. Editors, people. They're there for a reason.

FTC Disclaimer: All reviews are solely the opinions of Becky and/or Randi. We are not paid in any way for our reviews, and all opinions are 100% honest.