Book Review: STILL ALIVE

 STILL ALIVE (book series 1-9)

Author: Javan Bonds

Book One: ZOMBIE LAKE (2016)

Book Two: ZOMBIE ISLAND (2017)

Book Three: ZOMBIES ON A PLANE (2017)

Book Four: ZOMBIE OASIS (2017)

Book Five: ZOMBIE RIVER RUN (2018)

Book Six: ZOMBIE PARADISE LOST (2019)

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Book Seven: ZOMBIE PERDITION (2020)

Book Eight: ZOMBIE CRUSADE (2021)

Book Nine: ZOMBIE UPHEAVAL (2022)

"You is always in the place you is always post to be!!" - Smokes (The Oracle)

The STILL ALIVE series follows a small group of survivors during a particularly gross zombie apocalypse as they find other survivors and secure a place as their permanent stronghold. As the series progresses you are introduced to the characters almost one by one. It is written mainly from the point of view of one of the main protagonists or "Hero" if you will, Elmo "Mo" Collins in the form of his journal entries. Mo is a reluctant hero and during the beginning of the outbreak is holed up at his place of work which just happens to be a replica pirate ship known as the Viva Ancora. Viva Ancora means Still Alive in Italian. The ship had dropped anchor in the town of Guntersville, Alabama. A peninsula town that they shut off from the mainland and once free of infected turn into a safe haven for survivors during the first couple of books. As the series progresses Mo finds many survivors along the way, some find themselves as main protagonists too. One of the first people Mo meets calls himself Smokes who has the incredible gift of foresight it would seem. Knowing what is going to happen and who they are going to meet earns Smokes the title of The Oracle. To Mo it's almost as if there was a screen writer making this shit up as he goes along. Creating a script to the ultimate zombie movie slowly introducing other main characters such as The Expert, The Tech, The Protector, The Sacrifice, The Old Friend and even, The Love Interest but this screen writer has a funny way of going about things! The Hero has to wander around aimlessly when really it would have been easier to drive, puts himself in all number of dangerous and disgusting situations just to procure condiments and argue endlessly with The Oracle about things being "the living dead or undead" and "always being in the place you is always post to be"!! Not to mention fighting off or avoiding the hordes of bright blue, naked infected that have no control over their bowels. As the series progresses and the cast is complete the story is not just from Mo's point of view, others write their own journal entries. Sometimes there are multiple stories going on in similar locations and other times there are different stories unfolding on differing timelines. The STILL ALIVE series is a captivating, humourous and self aware tale told from normal peoples view points.

Author of the STILL ALIVE series, Javan Bonds was the one to reach out to me down here in my dark and dingy crypt and brought his series to my attention... I was more then happy to devour as much of him, sorry, them as I could. Javan is a bit of a genius and has overcome many odds and severe health issues to bring his dream to reality. He was diagnosed at a young age with Friedrich's Ataxia and was in a wheelchair before he was a teenager. In 2010 his eyesight started to diminish to a point that he is now completely blind and his hearing is also severely compromised. Despite all of this he discovered his passion for writing in 2010 and with the help of Nuance's Dragon Naturally Speaking (a medical dictation device) started writing everyday. In late 2015 Javan got even more bad news and was told that he might not have long left. After that bombshell Javan went into full on work mode and completed and published his first novel by mid 2016 after that he never looked back. He strived to write as many novels as he could with the time he had left. Since then he has had a slight reprieve and been informed that his health has improved and, whilst by no means cured from this genetic illness he is living and loving life to the full. With eleven titles to his name the STILL ALIVE series of nine books are his most detailed and popular works to date.

The STILL ALIVE series are very self aware as I mentioned, and takes familiar scenarios from some classic zombie movie templates with Javan giving them his own unique and often slightly twisted ideas to really mess things up. I like the fact that the story acknowledges pop culture and zombie movie history. Mo is a closet nerd and Eugene The Tech is less closeted so it has lots of references to Star Trek, Star Wars and Marvel. George A. Romeo is often graciously revered as are his movies both zombie and non-zombie.Tributes to SHAUN OF THE DEAD, THE WALKING DEAD, 28 DAYS LATER and many others are scattered throughout the series too. Amongst the characters you will find villains not dissimilar to say Negan or The Governor. As with any zombie series, be it TV or novels, things often become less about the threat of the zombies and more about the state of humanity and behaviours towards each other, STILL ALIVE  is no exception. The zombie threat is ever evolving and always present but there are many layers to the story as bad influences get into Guntersville and people start disappearing under mysterious circumstances. 

I am getting to the best part now... no zombie story is complete without great zombie content. I'm talking origin, looks and behaviour. The zombies in this take on attributes of revenants from various different platforms. The Peevies, or Plague Victims as they were originally referred to (then shortened), are more of the infected type rather than the living dead, they have crazy bright yellow eyes and can be killed fairly conventionally not just by the familiar staple of zombie killing...the head shot. However, they do shuffle around when not hunting, will horde en masse and feed on human flesh like your classic zombie. Initial infection (from memory) was a flu like virus that swept over the world. Infection is transmitted by bites or scratches. Once a victim has been  bitten by a Peevie, the infected, will longer be interested in eating tainted meat and move on, meaning the victim has about 8 hours before they to turn. At the beginning of STILL ALIVE the Peevies are more nocturnal, their eyes and skin cant seem to cope with the UV so by day they they seek the dark kind of like the zombies in KINGDOM. Similarly to KINGDOM the Peevies begin to evolve to their environment and start to move around in the daylight. Javan has of course added his own special quirks to his abominations. The Peevies have a blue tinge to their skin, are completely naked and have no control over their bowels so are constantly soiling themselves. These characteristics conjure a bizarre and stinky image in your mind. The Peevies also start to keep their human victims alive for longer ready for torturous consumption later. There is talk of further evolution as pregnant zombies are discovered, whether that be from pregnancy before infection or there is some form of breeding going on (for my thoughts on that subject please refer back to my ARMY OF THE DEAD review) it is still a bit of a grey area at my current point in the story. They certainly are a horny bunch of blue-natics! 

This brings me nicely onto the kind of humour this series conveys. The Peevies are the butt (pardon the pun) of mostly all the jokes and disgusting goings on here so if you are easily offended by toilet humour, penis references, outdoor sexual antics, casual racism and misogyny then maybe give this series a miss. It is not a constant thing and probably worse in the first 2 or 3 books, as more characters get involved and the story broadens you notice the toilet humour a little less. The humour may be an acquired taste but it is necessary, where there is a disturbed mind there is lots of gore and gratuitous violence. In book one ZOMBIE LAKE the gore and violence is probably at it's lowest and the humour it's most uncomfortable. It does have some action but in that respect it is probably the tamest when it comes to the fight against the Plague Victims. It's more an introduction to the cast and the back stories of the main protagonists created by the mysterious screen writer. By about book 3 ZOMBIES ON A PLANE the violence is picking up and by book 4 ZOMBIE OASIS then you get some really awesome descriptive graphic acts of gory attacks very enthusiastically described. It follows typical big budget zombie movie script patterns, sometimes it takes an obvious leap to a potentially disastrous situation but concludes with a more "normal" outcome with hilarious consequences. It feels more like real life then the huge over the top movies and the people most disappointed by this are the characters within the story. 

I have been listening to the STILL ALIVE series on Audible and am currently making my way through book six ZOMBIE PARADISE LOST. I had thought to hold on and complete the series before writing my review but then I also figured that it was not necessary now that I think I have the general idea of it. I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I thought book six was a good a place as any to make an informed critique on the series. The audio book is narrated/performed by S.W Salzman and his accents and inflections truly let you know that you are deep in southeast USA. Some people don't like hearing other peoples interpretations of characters voices but with STILL ALIVE I feel like they nailed the accents, humour, the little annoyances, the fear and the human condition. I will, of course, continue listening to the STILL ALIVE series and can whole heartedly recommend this to other fans of zombie apocalypse fiction. I score the STILL ALIVE series so far 3.5 brains out of 5.

Please check out this series on Audible and reach out to author Javan Bonds on social media through the Written Undead facebook group.