Zurvival Saturday (73) Review: Sick by Tom Leveen

 
This week I'll be reviewing the book Sick by Tom Leveen. You might remember me featuring this on my Waiting on Wednesday a few weeks back. How did it turn out? Read on to find out!

Author:Tom Leveen
Genre: Horror, Zombies, Apocalyptic
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Publication Date: October 1, 2013



Breakfast Club meets The Walking Dead as a group of unlikely allies tries to survive a deadly outbreak.

Brian and his friends are not part of the cool crowd. They’re the misfits and the troublemakers—the ones who jump their high school’s fence to skip class regularly. So when a deadly virus breaks out, they’re the only ones with a chance of surviving.

The virus turns Brian’s classmates and teachers into bloodthirsty attackers who don’t die easily. The whole school goes on lockdown, but Brian and his best friend, Chad, are safe (and stuck) in the theater department—far from Brian’s sister, Kenzie, and his ex-girlfriend with a panic attack problem, Laura. Brian and Chad, along with some of the theater kids Brian had never given the time of day before, decide to find the girls and bring them to the safety of the theater. But it won’t be easy, and it will test everything they thought they knew about themselves and their classmates.


Review
Sick was one of my most anticipated October must reads. To say I was excited to finally start this book would be an understatement. So I sat down to read Sick and when I finished my heart sank. While I did enjoy the book my expectations fell quite short and here's why:

The Characters- Here we have this group of guys who are supposed to be these misfits, troublemakers etc... their the type who while maybe not popular aren't the type you'd want to mess with either. While I definitely got that vibe from Chad, I didn't from Brian. This wouldn't be a problem if Brian wasn't the main character. As a sidekick, OK sure I could overlook his faults but as the main protagonist I just didn't really care for him.  First off, He was all about himself. I need to find my sister, I need to find my girlfriend. He didn't really care that he was locked with 25 other kids who might have had brother, sisters, lovers, best friends scared and hiding hoping for someone to rescue them. It was all about him and his needs first. Secondly, I didn't really like his fixation with finding Laura. Oh I get it, Brian has guilt ditching his disabled girlfriend but was she worth all the lives lost just to find her? Probably not. Lastly, we have this John character who is mentioned quite heavily in the beginning. John could've been a great antagonist for the group but is dropped almost entirely midway through. The only redeeming character out of everyone was Chad. I really enjoyed him.

The Zombies- They sparkle....nuff said. No seriously though they do. I swear we already did this with Twilight and THAT was enough for a lifetime thank you very much. Sparkling aside, I really felt they were underused not just on the gory kills front but in being the villains of the story. Yep I get it they are "Sick" and your former classmates but that doesn't change the fact that they still will rip your throat out and kill you without hesitation. The whole cripple not kill idea had me rolling my eyes hard. Also we hardly ever saw them and when we did it just wasn't all that scary. I also would've liked to know more about the Infected. Brian's mom mentions slowing the disease down but sadly we never get to see that put into practice and yes I'm bitter over that. 

The Ending- While the moments leading up to it were exciting once they find themselves regrouped in relative safety the story quickly loses steam and tries to rush what little is happening. Honestly, I'm still not sure if Brian is just in shock or if what he's feeling signifies something greater or worse. I really hope Sick is a series and not a stand alone because I have so many unanswered questions.

Now while it might seem that I didn't particularly care for Sick I did actually enjoy the book.I liked the writing, the story (minus the ending) had great pacing and the world building while not exceptional was decent considering the length of the book. I also as mentioned above liked Chad. It really is a shame he wasn't the main character instead of Brian because I think he could've carried the story a bit better and certainly been more interesting to read about as well.

Final Thoughts
While Sick isn't the Zombie blockbuster I hoped it would be it wasn't a bad little book. If you like snarky one liners and untraditional Zombies then I definitely recommend picking this one up and giving it a go. If your looking for Horror, gore and lots of Zombie action then you might want to pass this one by or borrow from a library instead. With that being said, I'll be rating Sick by Tom Leveen an underwhelming ★★★.

 *Copy reviewed provided by Netgalley. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in an which way  for providing them.

Want to learn more about this book or Author? Click the links below!
Tom Leveen:
Goodreads Page
www.tomleveen.com
@TomLeveen

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Out of curiosity, Have you heard of Sick? 
If so, Do you plan of reading it?
What would do you think of Sparkling Zombies?

 Leave me your answers in the comments below or feel free to tweet me them @Hermyoni  

Well that about wraps up this weeks Zurvival Saturday. Like what you see? Please share! I thank you if you do.  Want to check out past Zurvival Saturday's? Click Here

Comments

  1. LOL sparking zombies! Are you for real? Oh my. I do remember this as your WOW pick a couple of weeks ago but I don't think I'll get to it. I mean it sounds interesting but I don't like the sound of MC. Not to mention sparkling zombies again. But I'm glad you were able to enjoy this book :) Great review :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah even though it wasn't quite as bad as twilight with the sparkling it certainly was mentioned enough to be something the Author wanted you to take notice of.

      Delete
  2. I haven't heard many good things about this zombie novel. But then to hear that they sparkle? WTF? I like grotesque abominations, not sparkling monstrosities, thank you very much. :)

    ReplyDelete

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