From Goodreads: When a trio of academics research documents that point to a class of beings they classify as zombies for want of a better word, Nancy Palmer meets Basil who turns out to be 144 years old. As the evidence mounts that there actually are such “living dead,” Nancy and her colleagues struggle with the difficulty of making that knowledge public. Nancy’s relationship to Basil brings her into mortal danger in the form of Exiter, a serious criminal zombie. Nancy’s brief affair with Basil ends when he disappears. A female zombie who befriends Nancy volunteers to be used as a demonstration to invited scientists in order to prove that zombies exist but not as they are usually portrayed.

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This novel started out really, really good, but, sadly, I feel it went downhill from there.  Now, keep in mind that I’m somewhat old fashioned, and certain things within novels, such as explicit sex scenes, really turn me off from a book.  I think that’s part of what happened in this novel, but let me back up a bit and start from the beginning.  Hamilton draws the reader in through a series of short excerpts in which people mysteriously disappear, or die, only to be seen roaming naked about the countryside by a lone witness a few days later.  This element of storytelling always draws me in, especially because they’re short stories with a definite connection, but the ending for each one is left up in the air.  Hamilton doesn’t finish these short excerpts with any conclusive evidence, but rather strings them together, somewhat like a magazine of strange sightings, forcing the reader to make sense of the information on his/her own.  I love things like this… it’s like Unsolved Mysteries all over again!  However, in this novel, all these short excerpts do have a purpose, and as the story unfolds, the reader finds out, alongside Nancy and her colleagues, that these urban legends are actually a reality.  

I loved how Hamilton strung all this information together, keeping the reader’s interest peaked; however, as the plot thickened, I felt like the story became a little choppy at times, jumping from place to place, and scene to scene.  I also felt that the last quarter of the novel was a bit too rushed for my taste.  The novel had a great, slow start, explaining everything to the reader, but as the story went on, I felt like the plotline began to break down in some areas, becoming choppy and losing its flow.  There were a few times that I had to re-read sections as new characters were introduced and the story went off in a completely different direction, leaving me a bit confused as to what had just happened.  Yet, regardless, the novel did keep my attention and I think Hamilton had a great premise for his novel, so it is unfortunate that I did find that my love for the novel begin to dwindle. 

My main issue, of course, is with the sexually explicit scenes within the novel.  I, personally, don’t stomach these scenes very well and, honestly,  I was shocked by their inclusion in the novel.  As the book had been so clean and precise for the entire first half of the story, I wasn’t expecting it to become rated R in a matter of moments.  I, personally, don’t see the need to throw detailed sex scenes into novels, and I tend to shy away from that type of writing, so I have to admit I was thrown for a loop when the scene hit.  Once it was over, however, it went back to be a great story and I thought to myself that it was over and it wouldn’t happen again.  However, there were more sexual encounters within the novel after that, and I was really put off by it.  Now, it doesn’t bother many people, and that is fine, but I’m biased and I have to admit that it does bother me and, therefore, does affect my feelings for the novel.  I wish I could say it doesn’t, because the writing was relatively good, and the plotline was good for the most part, aside from some of the choppiness, but I have to be honest with myself, and for me, the explicit scenes undermined a lot of the text.  So, it is with great sadness that I can only give this novel two and a half stars.

I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review.