Maddie comes up lots of undead, a soldier with a weird darkness about him, and a trip to the west. While this book was only 55 pages, the beginning was slow to start. The dialogue was hard to follow, but the story itself was great. The author is very good at descriptions, which I love in a horror book - they're what make or break a book, to me. I would recommend this to my horror-loving friends, for sure.

It is cruel that this was less than 100 pages. I want more! I want to know everything about Mal and Maddie. I wanted to know his entire history! Ughhhh! And the wording and writing style of this author is so beautiful. With their words alone the canvas of their words quickly came into view and I saw everything like a movie in my mind. The scene of them rushing through the woods with the hoard coming after them! Horrifically amazing. I want more. I need more. Do yourself a favor and read this now! Zombies in the Wild West should attract you enough but there is a little magical twist there toward the end. A hint of a romance.

I was given this eARC in exchange for an honest review, so I’ll be honest: I don’t get it. I can surmise that this is the first “episode” in a series that will be published (as a graphic novel? what I just read is so invested in the specificities of its prose and stylistic choices that I can’t imagine stripping that away…) either later this year or next year? I got to the end of what I thought was the first chapter but was the end of the “book.” That’s on me, I guess. But what I have in front of me to review… isn’t finished. So it’s pretty tough for me to evaluate it. I didn’t really care for it but also I feel like I’ve barely started.

This is definitely the work of someone who knows how to write, thankfully - in less capable hands it would be insufferable. My primary critique is that it suffers from too many ideas, and they’re all front and center. The dialect(s), the undead Situation, the additional layer of supernatural (that presumably won’t feel as disconnected from the baseline plot in the finished product), the italicized indented sections, the quotes at the end of chapters AND the stylized quotes as chapter titles? It’s all just too fussy for my taste. There’s too much showiness and action for me to be able to settle into Maddie and get a sense of her, and that’s a bummer. I don’t even know that it’s clear to me what this book’s going to end up being about - the tone isn’t inconsistent, per se, but it’s still not clear. There’s just so much going on that I feel like I need to back up and squint to see the full picture.

I don’t think it’s actively bad - for me, this 2-star assignment reflects that I think that so far it’s “below average” and… frankly, it’s just the beginning of something. It could turn into something really interesting - my heart’s open to it! - but this first stretch, while cromulent, didn’t light me on fire. It did leave me intrigued enough to want to circle back to it when it’s done, but we’ll see how it shakes out.

I really enjoyed reading this story. It was short and the writing was lyrical and beautiful. I felt like there was a lot more story in it that I really wanted to get to, but I'm assuming this is only a short part of the story (hopefully because I want more!). I found the writing stunning and each moment was built on one another and so gorgeous. I did get confused a few times and I felt as if the accent writing went a smidge overboard at some points, as clarity was scarce. I wish there was more to the story because I was left with a lot of questions and would love to know how this story ends.

So this was a good short story. I liked how it was just action packed from the beginning. It also seems that you don’t get what this evil is which makes it a little more scary. My issue was the dialogue between Maddie and the Soldier, the soldier had the weirdest vocabulary. I don’t know if this was to give him an accent or set the time for the scene. But it was awkward because then we would get Maddie’s inner dialogue which was beautiful. Then the writing to set the scene was okay, but not living to the one between reality and dream like state. I would LOVE to see this story as a graphic novel. It has full potential. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. This will be publish September 30 2024

I will post my review on Fable, GoodReads and Lemon8. May 23,2024

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ebook copy of this!

Did I understand anything besides the fact that there's some sort of zombie plague going on? No.
Did I enjoy every moment of this weird little book? Absolutely.
While I wish it was longer, Mel C. Bell's writing scratched the itch I've been having to read more paranormal-ish stories that are also somewhat rooted in folklore. I definitely recommend this if you're looking for a quick, atmospheric and slightly gory read!

“In a mere breath of night, every token of my life had been turned to ash—a history rewritten in char.”

Let me tell you, the potential for this book is INCREDIBLE. I mean, a zombie romance? So unique and so many lanes you could go down! However, this is a debut, and you can tell. It falls into many of the common pits of debut writing, but this book is definitely a solid start to Mel C. Bell’s career.

Let’s start off with what I liked:
The Pacing
According to the publisher’s notes for the ARC, the ARC is being released in installments, so what I read is not the full story. The best part, you can tell it in the story! This might seem like a little thing, but I’m telling you, the pacing was spot on! I’m incredibly excited to see what Bell does next with the rest of the story! Hopefully I get those ARCs as well

The Story
UGH the story (so far) was amazing! It left a lot of intrigue and suspense and compels you to keep reading! My finger could not stop flipping the page! Again, super excited to see what Bell continues to do with this plot where there are so many unique and interesting avenues for her to take!

The Way the Dialogue is Written
I actually love when authors fully commit to the accents of characters. Did I have to search up what “ken” meant? Yeah, but hey, the more you know! I absolutely loved the way that Bell committed to these accents, and it just gives the characters even more personality.

...so what pitfalls did Miss Bell fall into with this book?

A Lack of Worldbuilding
Now, this might be because this is only the first part of this book, but I still don’t know where we are in the world. Are we in the U.S.? Scotland/Ireland? Are we even in our world? I find that this is a common issue with debut authors, but this was still a source of confusion for me in the book.

The Romance
This isn’t really a pitfall so to speak, but more of a dislike on my part. The romance isn’t clicking for me at the moment. It feels very insta-lovey, and you can see in my updates below, it has the “big strong man and smol bean girl :3” trope. (I don’t like either of these)

The Writing (sometimes)
Now this is a common pitfall: overflowery writing. I wrote “sometimes” because sometime these similies and metaphors were unique, well placed, and well written! (I’m looking at you “My mouth did an admirable impression of a bear trap being set wide open”) However, other times it fell flat and I felt myself skimming parts because it went way over detail. Again, Bell has AMAZING potential as a writer, and I see her being hugely successful, but if the flowery writing could be cut down just a little bit… that would be awesome. Also, minus more points for the repeated mention of the horse’s “orbs”. I mean come on… did we really need to use orbs?

As for the grey area stuff such as the lack of characterization for our 2 main characters, I’m just attributing that to only having one little chunk of the book.

Overall, it’s a solid debut so far, and I can’t wait to see what else Bell comes up with!

3.5/5 stars rounded down

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got the arc 🥳 this cover is GORGEOUS and the premise sounds amazing! can’t wait to read it :)

update: I’m pretty sure this isn’t the full story… the publisher notes said they’re releasing the arcs in installments soooo

update #2: it’s the dreaded trope… big strong boi and smol bean girl :3… if the rest of this book is good maybe I can overlook it

update #3: it isn’t looking so good….

- thank you publisher for the arc -

The prose are lyrical and the story grips you from the off. I loved this short story although I found myself getting really invested and then feeling a bit let down when the end of the chapter would come up.

I cannot wait to see what this author does next and I really hope it is a full length novel as this was brilliant I just desperately wanted the characters to be more fleshed out and the story to continue after that final sentence.

I could have easily read a 100 pages more. I wish the story was a bit longer because I found it really difficult to connect with the characters.

I still give it 4 stars, because the way this story was written, so beautiful and lyrical, I did feel like I was in that world myself.

The way the author uses words is so otherworldly and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Did I know I needed a zombie horror romance in my life? No.
Can I imagine my life without it now? Absolutely not, I need this like I need air.

Bell writes descriptive scenes that paint a picture of grotesque horror, and others that truly make you think of the circle of life. There are scenes that have you going "damn, that FMC be sassy, I like her" - and scenes with a gentlemanly MMC who you just want to get to know. A touch of gore, a touch of FMC self discovery and romance, add in a dash of loss and you've got the mixture for an absolutely killer story that I devoured episode by episode.

The way Bell uses words is beautiful, lyrical, and easy to obsess over. Can't wait to see what she does next.

5 stars, if I could give more, I would.