Book Review: DOG OF THE DEAD: A ZOMBIE VALE NOVELLA.

 DOG OF THE DEAD: A ZOMBIE VALE NOVELLA.

Author: Nic Roads

"A dogs love is unconditional... but can a dog love a monster?"

There are many zombie stories out there from all manner of different human perspectives; soldiers, survivors, sometimes even kids but this is the first zombie story I have heard told from a dogs point of view. 

Quigley is a Hungarian Sheepdog and he lives with his human Gavin in the remote mountain village of Sparrowdale, Colorado. Out on their daily walk together everything is as it should be and Quigley is enjoying the fresh air, scent marking his favourite places and looking forward to pizza scraps from Gavin's girlfriend Jenna on their return home when Gavin is suddenly struck down mid-walk by a mysterious virus. Quigley is so confused and has no idea what to do about his striken owner lying unconscious in the street. When Gavin wakes up he has changed, he is no longer the happy, friendly guy he once was. Now he is a milky eyed, vacant, slavering blood thirsty zombie intent upon hunting down uninfected human flesh to feed on. He doesn't even seem to see Quigley anymore. It is not just Gavin, many others in the town have turned too. Quigley does what any good dog would do at first and tries to help Gavin as he can see that Gavin cannot help himself anymore, but as Gavin gets angrier and hungrier Quigley starts to understand that this is not the Gavin that he knew and loved. As I mentioned Quigley is a good boy,  his job is to protect and when he cant protect Gavin any longer he has some difficult decisions to make!

I listened to DOG OF THE DEAD on Audible which is a wonderful tool for busy human beings who don't often have the chance to sit down to read,  it is also really handy for undead ghouls like myself who would rather have someone read to them then try to turn pages when the rigor mortis has well and truly set in! With narration from Zachary Johnson you are really drawn into the story and feel every emotion that Quigley goes through, you laugh at his goofiness, his concern for Gavin and really feel Quigleys fear and despair as he slowly starts to learn exactly what is going on around him. If I had a beating heart in my chest I fear it would be on the brink of exploding at some points during this truly captivating story.

Quigley has a name for the zombies, he calls them "Angry Hungaries". The way he describes them is that once infected the angry hungaries are at first slow, unsteady and very growly. When not on the hunt they shamble around aimlessly seemingly oblivious of their surroundings. When the angry hungaries get the scent of human flesh they will stop at nothing to get to them. They will run, if they can, regardless of any injuries they sustain to catch their prey or they will relentlessly claw at a door to get to them. They rip and tear at their victims until they no longer taste right and then they will move on to the next one. The descriptions of how the angry hungaries look and act is very detailed and intricate. The story is told completely from Quigleys point of view and that too has been incredibly well thought out and really does tug at your heart strings. Even if you were not a dog lover at the start of this you will be once you have finished DOG OF THE DEAD! I score DOG OF THE DEAD the full 5 brains out of 5!!

The author of DOG OF THE DEAD Nic Roads, has quite a few zombie related short stories and novellas to his name. He is well known in the online zombie community with his page The Zombie Pen and associated group where he is very active and asks numerous zombie apocalypse questions, suggests scenarios and promotes himself and other great authors and their zombie stories and novels. DOG OF THE DEAD is the first of his books I have checked out but if DOG OF THE DEAD is anything to go by then I will most definitely be checking out his others stories.

You can find DOG OF THE DEAD: A ZOMBIE VALE NOVELLA on Amazon, you can get it as an audio book (as I did) on Audible or it is also available on Kindle and in paperback. Nic Roads other shorts and novellas are available on these formats too. Please check Nic Roads out on his website at www.nicroads.com or visit The Zombie Pen community on facebook.