Review: Lakewood Memorial by: Robert R. Best
Lakewood Memorial by Robert R Best is like a classic Romero work. The zombies are the traditional living dead-slowly shambling from place to place, vacant of feelings or thoughts until one of the living happens by, then they mobilize to devour the flesh of those unfortunate to get caught in their grasp. This is book one of a trilogy and I am grateful of that.
In this particular volume we are introduced to our main characters: Angie Land, Parker Welch, and Angie’s two children-Maylee and Dalton. Angie is a Nurse’s Assistant at the local hospital, Lakewood Memorial. Maylee and Dalton are at home with the babysitter, Brooke. Parker, or Park as his friends refer to him, is on his way back from a hunting trip with his friend Moe. Park has to take his friend to the hospital because some “hitchhiker†bit Moe on the hand. This is the point where it becomes apparent that something is not right to our central group as the march of the living dead begins.
Like most people, the hospital is the last place I’d want to be during the zombie apocalypse. Robert Best is a brilliant writer; with in the first few pages I was hooked. The action is fast paced throughout the entire book, and I felt exhausted just trying to keep up with the constant skirmishes. He is relentless in a way that I couldn’t stop reading because there was never any lull in the plot and before I knew it, I’d read the entire book in one sitting. The language is graphic and the violence is abundant. He makes the readers feel like they are there swinging the bat and fighting to live.
Even though the full background of the characters is not known, we still have two more books to find out. It’s obvious that Robert Best put a lot of time and hard work into writing this book, but it flows so organically and effortlessly, as if he just sat down and decided to start writing and see what happened. What really made the book authentic to me was the character of Angie and her job as a Nurse’s Assistant. I have worked in a hospital as an NA, as well as in a nursing home. I’ve had to work with those demanding patients and their families, those asshole doctors who really aren’t worth a damn, the head nurse that is intimidating and the other NAs who are hard workers. This is what truly drew me in and let me empathize with our main character.
Lakewood Memorial has revived a love of the Romero zombie, proving that some things don’t need to be updated. Even in a fast paced world, the slow moving zombie is just as terrifying as it slowly and methodically shambles intensifying the level of anticipation so that it almost becomes unbearable. I am looking forward to getting started on the second book to see what happens next. This is a trilogy that can be placed amongst the classics of the zombie genre.
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