Review: The End Games by T. Michael Martin

Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: May 7, 2013
Pages: 369
Source: For Review from HarperCollins Canada
Rating: 4 Stars

It happened on Halloween.
The world ended.
And a dangerous Game brought it back to life.
Seventeen-year-old Michael and his five-year-old brother, Patrick, have been battling monsters in The Game for weeks.
In the rural mountains of West Virginia, armed with only their rifle and their love for each other, the brothers follow Instructions from the mysterious Game Master. They spend their days searching for survivors, their nights fighting endless hordes of “Bellows”—creatures that roam the dark, roaring for flesh. And at this Game, Michael and Patrick are very good.
But The Game is changing.
The Bellows are evolving.
The Game Master is leading Michael and Patrick to other survivors—survivors who don’t play by the rules.
And the brothers will never be the same.

In short: The End Games by T. Michael Martin was an exciting post-apocalyptic zombie novel with a wonderful sibling relationship at its heart.

The End Games was one of my most anticipated reads of 2013. Everything about it screamed that it was a "me" book - the male protagonist, the focus on a non-romantic relationship, the fighting of zombies. And as I expected, The End Games was a book that I ended up enjoying a lot. 17-year-old Michael and 5-year-old Patrick are brothers and video gamers who are fighting their way through zombie hordes to get to the safe zone and The End of the Game. The End Games was a surprisingly insightful post-apocalyptic zombie book with plenty of scary, gory, and heart-pounding action scenes. More importantly though, it had a wonderful display of sibling love that was quite lovely.

I can't say that this post-apocalyptic zombie book is particularly groundbreaking in its genre, but The End Games did provide me with enough originality to keep my interest. The zombies in The End Games repeat back to you anything you say to them, earning them the nickname "Bellows". I quite liked this as it added a creep factor, but was also humourous at times. Something that wasn't at all funny about these zombies, however, was their ability to adapt and become savvier over time. Over the course of The End Games, the zombies become progressively harder to defeat and this added a lot of thrilling tension.

The best part of The End Games for me was definitely the display of sibling love between Michael and Patrick. There is some romance in The End Games, as well, but the main focus is on the familial relationship and I can't begin to describe how nice and refreshing this was, as it is something of a rarity in YA these days. Michael's nurturing and protectiveness of Patrick was so wonderful to see. I loved their bond and I loved the insight I gained from their relationship.

The stylized writing is the one thing I have mixed feelings about. Sometimes the writing was striking; there were several unique turns of phrase that added some interest to debut author's T. Michael Martin's prose. I really liked how the style of writing gave a "voice" to Michael's character. Other times, I found the prose to be too harsh and jarring. It didn't always flow very nicely and thus was sometimes distracting and confusing. It could very well just be me and my personal preference though; others may not be so bothered by the writing.

Overall, The End Games was an exciting post-apocalyptic zombie book with an impressively emotional sibling bond at its core. Though the writing may not have always clicked with me, it is evident that T. Michael Martin is an authentic new talent and one to watch. The End Games is a standalone (win!). I would recommend The End Games to zombie-lovers in need of some emotional depth in addition to the gore.

Other Reviews:
A Blog About Nothing
Good Books and Good Wine
Stories & Sweeties

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Review: Ashes (Ashes Trilogy #1) by Ilsa J. Bick

Publisher: Egmont

Published: September 6, 2011

Pages: 480

Source: Goodreads First Reads

Rating: 3 Stars - I Liked It

It could happen tomorrow... 
A cataclysmic event. An army of "The Changed." 
Can one teen really survive on her own? 
An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky, destroying every electronic device and killing billions. For those spared, it's a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human... 
Desperate to find out what happened and to avoid the Changed, Alex meets up with Tom---a young army veteran---and Ellie, a young girl whose grandfather was killed by the electromagnetic pulse. 
This improvised family will have to use every ounce of courage they have just to survive.

In short: Though I disliked the last third of Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick, the first two thirds provided an intense, action-packed post-apoc/zombie thriller with great characterization.

Ashes is the latest post-apocalyptic/zombie book, this time featuring an electromagnetic pulse that kills some people, spares some people, and changes others into zombies. Alex, an orphan with a brain tumor, is one of the spared. With that background, she is already one tough girl and her nature aids her greatly in the new post-apocalyptic world. She joins eight year old survivor, Ellie, and love interest, Tom, as they start up a new family and try to survive in a world overrun by brutal zombies.

I loved the first two thirds of Ashes, which were intensely action packed and frighteningly haunting, if perhaps a bit derivative of many other post-apoc/zombie reads. Ilsa J. Bick has a real talent for setting up and describing extensive, heart-thumping action and fight scenes. The pacing was incredibly fast-paced. Another thing that Ilsa J. Bick excelled at were her characters and character relationships. I loved reading about Alex, Ellie, Tom, and their little makeshift family together. The characters all had well developed histories and genuine characters. All in all, I would give the first two thirds of Ashes a strong 4 Stars.

It's the last third of Ashes where things go wrong. There is a development that happens that, while interesting, slowed the pacing considerably. While the first two thirds were nonstop action, the last third introduces a completely new environment, new information, and a new love interest. It felt like a completely different book. It was just odd, anti-climatic, and frustrating. The last third seemed better suited to be the beginning of the sequel to Ashes. It's a shame because I felt Ashes had such a good thing going with the first two thirds.

Overall, while I wouldn't say the last third of Ashes ruined the book for me, I wasn't pleased with the halt in the pace. If the plot development in the last third had taken place earlier in Ashes or at the beginning of the sequel, I would have welcomed it as an interesting and original idea.

Word of warning: If you are someone who dislikes brutal animal violence (there is a very graphic scene involving a zombie murdering a dog), love triangles (the second love interest is introduced very late in the book), or cliffhanger endings (this one had absolutely no resolution), then I would be wary of Ashes.

Other Reviews:
All of Everything
Tracy's Happy Bookshelf

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*The Letter A is the A-Z Reading Challenge