REVIEW: Dead: The Ugly Beginning (Volume 1) by T. W. Brown
Previously from T.W. Brown we had one of my favorite zombie themed novels last year, Zomblog. I can see you asking it now, “Stu, with Zomblog being so high in your mind for a quality undead filled novel how could T.W.’s second entry stack up?â€
Todd has once again delivered a well crafted story that zombie fans are going to love. While I did prefer Zomblog for the format I can’t stress enough that zombie fans should love the overall plot and writing style of this one as well.
We open the novel with Steve showing how the outbreak happens that gives us a very entertaining viewpoint. Steve is called by one of his friends to watch the news on what is happening and chooses to ignore that it could be a zombie outbreak. While ignoring that the undead are on the loose we also find out that he and his friends have discussed what to do in these EXACT kinds of scenarios. Very realistically you will be sitting there groaning but laughing at the same time because YOU would never do that. Right? This one is huge because it’s a trend that happens throughout the novel – fans of zombie fans exist in the book. We aren’t stuck in a pre-Romero universe in this tale. People are fanatics of the zombie culture and it’s shown in multiple ways throughout the story (giving us a few laughs as well.)
After a zombie attacks his apartment and he saves a young girl and a teenager the story shifts a little. With a semi-original kind of a setup T.W. decides to mix it up by going into multiple stories at the same time. It’s great to be able to have so many viewpoints of the outbreak going on at once and Todd clearly writes it in a style that will be enjoyable to the fanatics and casual readers alike. While there is a LOT going on from this point forward it’s not hard to keep track of and with how many characters we see killed off by zombies and other humans alike it’s not too difficult to keep track of the living.
The focus though of this story as I said is not on Steve. There are multiple main and side plots going on at once as we follow quite a few survivors as well as a few that don’t make it. One of the first we meet is Travis who is a former convict who clearly deserved to be in prison and escapes. The sense of loathing you’ll have for Travis comes quick and it’s always good to have a character you just can’t stand. Speaking of prisoners we will also later meet Dillon and Ian later in the novel who sticks out as we meet them as they are standing in the back of their cells away from the undead. For the zombie fanatics we have Darrin, Mike, Kevin, and Cary who are 4 characters any true zombie fan can relate too right off the bat. I won’t go into details but it involves a plan on what to do with the zombie outbreak (with quite a few moments that I both groaned and laughed at from how I could see a few of my friends and myself having the same conversations.) With the good though come the bad as in one area we are introduced to Garrett who is a sadist and user of women int he worst way possible during a zombie outbreak. You’ll immediately love to hate the man. Then of course there is a young teenage girl whose story absolutely stands out. While she is safely gated into yard her parents are just on the outside of these gates – trying to get in. She knows they are no longer her parents but when you are lonely and scared for long enough you can get the wrong idea in your head.
One of my favorite aspects is that T.W. does NOT skimp on the details on new characters. From the introduction of new members to the tale you really do not know if they are going to die in a few pages or survive to the sequel. (If you read the “volume 1†in the title it’s clear there is going to be a follow up. There better be at least with the cliffhanger he leaves us off on.)
