Genre: Horror/Post-Apocalyptic

Pairings: N/A

Queer Rep: Bisexuality

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence,  discussion of self-harm, suicidal ideation, emetophobia, domestic violence, pregnancy, childbirth, and gore.
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REVIEWED BY L.A. ASHTON

M. Rose Flores’ official Facebook is here, and her twitter is over this way.

Note: I am an Amazon Associate and I am using affiliate links. These do not affect you or my reviews.

From Ninestar Press:
The End (ebook) — $6.49
From Amazon.com:
The End (print) — $15.99    |    The End (ebook) — $6.49



[Note: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.]

Synopsis

Being a teenager is rough. Being a queer teenager? Moreso. And being a queer teenager during the zombie apocalypse, well... at least it can’t get any worse.

Cate’s life takes a cataclysmic turn on her seventeenth birthday. Now living in a world where the dead live and the living have lost their humanity, Cate and her sister struggle to survive. As if suddenly having to acclimate to zombies being a real thing isn’t bad enough, Cate soon discovers that not all zombies are as simple as they seem, and she just so happens to be immune to their virus.
General
“The End” is a book with a strong voice and a focused plot. If you’re itching for a zombie thriller, the biggest strength of this novel is that it’s everything you expect it to be. Unfortunately, its biggest weakness is that it’s everything you expect it to be.

Plot

My first few moments with The End had me jumping back to the book’s listing to check for a Young Adult tag. The End is not shelved as a young adult novel, and I honestly believe that was an error on the press’s part. The age of the characters notwithstanding, the narrative is highly colloquial and felt geared toward a younger reader. Or, at the very least, for someone looking to read YA.

The book is told on two timelines: “THEN” and “NOW”. This works well for the piece, and helps give the reader momentum. It was a saving grace at times, as the catch 22 for this novel becomes apparent very early: this book will give you the zombie story you think you want, but it will almost never surprise you.

We’ve seen zombie stories plenty: The Walking Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Day of the Living Dead... you get the picture. We know the rhythm and tropes by now. This novel follows them almost to a T, which made some of it fall just this side of boring. I could guess how things would play out, what would be introduced next, etc. Unfortunately, the hook the author promises in the synopsis—zombies who aren’t “just zombies”, and an immune MC—makes almost no impact on the narrative. Yeah, fighting the abnormal zombies is a bit rough, but they don’t do anything truly jarring or horrifying, and you never find out the how or the why behind them. For the most part, there’s not even speculation. Cate and her comrades handle them the way they handle all the rest, and they move on. I wanted something creepier, or something with more narrative weight, and all I got were some zombies that could run.
On the other foot, I’m a picky jerk about a lot of things, but I’m even more of a picky jerk when it comes to written action. M. Rose Flores is good at action, describing things clearly and succinctly with just enough gross “oomf” when necessary. In general all her descriptions and prose were wonderful. She had a tendency to over-explain things to the reader—obvious things that we could glean from context or would inherently understand—but the cadence and feel of her words was good. If she plays it less safe with her next project, she could hit one out of the park. She just needs to do the weird thing, give us the plot twist we weren’t expecting, and give the middle finger to some of the standard genre tropes.

Setting

The descriptions were good, so the setting was fine. We’re given the rundown towns and cities you’d expect from a zombie apocalypse. I actually wish the characters would have spent more narrative time in one place so we could have explored these places more; it was difficult to get attached to places and people when Cate and Melody moved at such a break-neck pace.

Characters

Cate is a cool kid. You get a sense of her character right away from the narrative style, and it sticks with you. She is just a kid though, and I sometimes had to remind myself of this when she did something stupid. Would teenage me have been smart enough to know better? Maybe, but maybe not. She also deals with real problems that make real sense given her current (awful) circumstances, and I liked seeing a proper portrayal of the mental strains a person would face.
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I really liked Marco. I eventually grew attached to Calvin as well, but some of the more superfluous characters (especially toward the end) didn’t really stick with me, which made the climax less impactful.
 
I think if you’re looking for a YA zombie narrative, The End is for you. If you want something that’s gonna knock your pants off with new ideas, it’s not for you. If you just want to chill alongside some dudes while they cleave into zombie heads, dig in! Despite my very par feelings about this particular novel, I look forward to what else Flores will bring to the world.

Genre: portal fantasy
Pairings: none
Queer Representation: trans, ace
Warnings: potential tooth decay
Rating: four stars

Review
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This is the third book in the Wayward Children series, which started with Every Heart a Doorway, which won, in no particular order, the 2017 Hugo, the 2017 Alex Award, the 2016 Nebula Award, and was nominated for the 2017 World Fantasy Award, the 2017 British Fantasy Award, and was on the 2016 Tiptree Honor List.
I still need to write reviews for the first two, so when they’re done, you’ll find the review for Every Heart a Doorway here and Down Among the Sticks and Bones here.

In this third installation is told mostly from the perspective of new student Cora, former resident of the Trenches and former mermaid. Cora happens upon Rini, daughter of the deceased Sumi (remember, Sumi is from a nonsense world, so having a kid after you’re dead is totes legit). Rini has just found out her mother is dead, and so Rini is starting to disappear. A handful of students set out between realms to bring Sumi back to life, save Rini, and maybe, just maybe, find their own doors again in the process. In doing so they must journey through the Halls of the Dead to find Nancy, and eventually head to Sumi and Rini’s land of sugar and confection to defeat the Queen of Cakes.

Plot

This book lacked a lot of the magical whimsy of Every Heart a Doorway (EHaD), and had a lot less darkness than either EHaD or Down Among the Sticks and Bones (DAtSB). It’s possible that since it primarily dealt with a land of sweets that the author was trying for a lighter feel, but the story came off, well, sugary instead of heavy. More cotton candy than meat pie, which was how I felt after EHaD. Full. Content. This left me with that sort of high fructose corn syrup aftertaste. It wasn’t bad at all. It just wasn’t incredible, which is what I’ve come to expect from this series.

Still, the plot was well paced and the characters rounded. This was the first book in the series I didn’t wish was longer. This one was exactly the right length for the story that needed to be told. The plot, that Sumi needed to be brought back to life so she could create her daughter Rini (who is part of this Scooby Gang), was completely appropriate for both Sumi’s character, and the description of her nonsense world. It was great, too, to get to see Sumi again. Out of everyone who got offed in EHaD, Sumi was the one I was most attached to. It was great to get to see her not only alive again, but to know that she would one day find her door.

Worldbuilding

If you read this book for no other reason, read it for the worldbuilding. The descriptions of Sumi’s world are amazing. I’m not a big sweets fan but I appreciate the artistry that goes into things like gingerbread houses, and the descriptions in this book were like mind crack. I would kill to visit this world, if only for a few minutes, to see the gingerbread castles and candy corn fields, and soda pop oceans. What kid hasn’t dreamed of something like this? What child who has seen Willy Wonka (the trip 1970s version) hasn’t been obsessed with a world made entirely of sweets?

Characters

Cora makes a find addition to the crew and adds a dimension on body positivity to the otherwise very diverse and eclectic school kids. Kade gets a bit more backstory as well (nothing new, just some more intricate rehashing). Seeing Nancy happy in her home is worth the price of admission, and the real emotional punch comes at the end, as one of our students gets their long awaited door home.
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Overall, this was a worthy addition to the Wayward Children series, just not perhaps it’s strongest entry.