Ground Zero: A Zombie Apocalypse, Nicholas Ryan
A generic take on the zombie genre, Nicholas Ryan delivers a little adventure with a large side of sexism in his novel Ground Zero: A Zombie Apocalypse.
The novel starts with a terrorist plot to kill Americans. Ryan puts the reader in the moment and inside the mind of a middle-eastern terrorist. The next part is a POV shift and Ryan "blinks" you in and out of the lives of people who die because of the infection. These snapshots are vivid and contain everything it takes to be a zombie novel: graphic descriptions and gory deaths. The reader meets survivors and that is where women's roles are revealed. The women either die or are forced to offer sex to the men as a way to survive. Ryan's female characters seem to have no survival skills beyond their sexual appeal. Sexual encounters are repeated throughout the story, but the main character stays noble until the end. Cutter tries to save people but has zero survival skills. The ending of the story proves that the "hero" isn't immune to a women's sexual prowess after all.
Nicholas Ryan's misogynistic writing is only overshadowed by the lack of a finished plot. What started out as a promising adventure story, ended with no additional references to the terrorist plot and female characters who feel they need to subjugate themselves to survive.
Wow! I love zombie fiction but after reading this review I will be staying clear of this book. I love a strong female character in the apocalyptic setting. Thanks for the heads up!
ReplyDeleteIt was hard for me to write a bad review, but if any book deserved it, it was this one! Glad I could save you from the same mistake.
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