How I Started the Apocalypse: The Hunger Wars by Brian Pinkerton

Chaz's saga continues!  Woo hoo!

We have the good guys (those alive) who are actually pretty bad guys.  We have the bad guys (the zombies)  who actually aren't all that bad...they're just really hungry.  Then we have Chaz and his new mate, Dolores.  They're both the good guys (bad guys)  and the bad guys (good guys)  and really hungry, but with plenty of snacks!  Sound confusing?  It's really not...it's the fact that in the most dire of circumstances, humanity plays lovely little tricks on what we think we know and can take for granted.

I have zero complaints about structure or story telling or anything here.  Alright, that's a lie.  I do have one serious complaint.  I feel like I've just finished the season finale of Walking Dead and I have to wait three months to find out if Chaz is dead or alive.  Now, I could be smart and buy the Kindle version and read it right away, but I'm not going to!  I'm a purist!  I read the first two in hard copy format and by golly I'm going to read the third the same way!  So, I suppose that means it's my own fault.  It probably is.  The point, though, is that I was stuck on a huuuuge cliffhanger.

I easily breezed through this book this morning, along with a nap, so the reading went pretty quickly.  It's mostly because of Pinkerton's storytelling.  Half the time you forget that you're reading a book and you feel like you're just leaning back and relaxing and letting someone tell you a story.  I don't mean the mechanical sound that accompanies an audible, but that rich, warm, husky tone that comes from a real live person telling you a story.

Even though there are some grisly scenes in this one too, it's not really the same as the first.  Most of the time, you root for the humans to get what's coming to them.  It's actually pretty fun.  Yes!  Get the human!  Yeah!  Crunch his ear!  But I forget myself!  The main difference between the scenes in this book and the first is the level of severity.  In the first one, we have some pretty dark scenes where we're compelled to be emotionally involved.  Most of this is because Chaz is emotionally involved.  We feel everything and use the same pace he does.  By this book, however, Chaz is a little more used to his diet and tends to make plenty of jokes.  For example, he's out of finger food, so they share a bowl of toes.  Deliciously fun!

One of the things that kept niggling my mind while reading is the age difference between Chaz and Dolores.  Now, Chaz has a son who is in college.  Doloros is 23.  At first, while reading I kept doing the math in my head...'but he's old enough to be her father!'  After a little more thinking, I guess if you're the only man and woman of a species and your shelf life is expiring quickly, it really doesn't matter what age you were when you died.  Funny little things that pop up when you're reading, eh?

Over all, another fun read from Pinkerton.  I'm anxious to get my hands on the third.  Either it will wrap everything up so I'm not left on pins and needles, or it'll really throw me for a loop.  I'm not sure if Pinkerton is working on a fourth book or not.

GO ZOMBIES!