REVIEW: Down The Road 2: On The Last Day by: Bowie Ibarra
The Walking dead
a Global Crisis
The remnants of America.Around the globe, the dead are rising to devour the living. Hospitals are overrun, and martial law has been declared. The streets are in chaos. Society is disintegrating.
In a small south Texas town, the mayor has rallied his citizens against the living dead and secured their borders. Isolated in the countryside, the community holds their own. But when two strangers from San Antonio stumble into town, they bring news of a global peacekeeping force sweeping toward the city. Led by a ruthless commander, the force is determined to secure the republic of Texas on its own terms, and establish a new, harsh government for the plague-ravaged nation.
Will the independently fortified town hold out against the flesh-eating zombies and the tyrannical foreign army traveling down the road?
Bowie Ibarra’s writing can be easily described in two words ‘No Mercy’. This is one of the earliest zombie novels I have read and its even better on the second read.
Plot: The plot is excellent and faultless. The most enjoyable aspect of Bowie Ibarra’s stories is that they are dark. I have read a lot of zombie material where there was a lot of fluff with happy endings and them all singing “Kumbaya†at the end, but that is never the case with Bowie Ibarra. He gets down to the nitty gritty and reveals to readers the truth behind the end of the world. No happy endings, this is reality when order has been destroyed. Bowie Ibarra is reminiscent of George A Romero and reminds us of the dark side of zombie horror. This is also one of Permuted Press’ earlier publications and it’s a pleasure to see Ibarra’s work amongst some of the top zombie authors out there.
Writing: the writing itself is crisp and screams with Character. What is nice to see, are zombie novels out there that are well written. I have stressed this before, I have seen lots of zombie novels where the author apparently didn’t think too much about the writing itself, and just focused on the gore. *bangs head off desk* Zombie literature needs more novels out there where the writing is excellent and projects a better image of the genre. Currently, there’s a stigma that the majority of zombie novels are horribly written. In some cases, this can be true, but it is a stigma that must be removed! Books like Down the Road (and this sequel) are showing horror readers that zombie novels can be well written. The writing is brimming with character and it drives this story with an unrelenting velocity. He writes the gore not only to sicken you, but to disturb you, which contributes to the dark atmosphere in Ibarra’s zombie world.
Characters: Again, the author hits it out of the park with characters that are realistic. The U.N force is commanded by a stern, dictator-esque leader that shows the dark tendencies of man. Now again, the idea of the U.N actually doing something productive is kind of ‘out there’, but it makes for a fresh perspective of the zombie apocalypse. The cast in this novel was much stronger than the original Down the Road. The author fermented each character and brought them to life through his strong writing abilities and characterized dialogue. Each character’s personality is a reflection of the books tone and that was a huge bonus.
Overall: This is one of the better zombie novels in circulation. The dark atmosphere makes for a terrifying read, a novel that would make Romero proud. I noticed that the erotica was used differently in this novel. The erotica sections in this novel served a great purpose in telling this story. By including these erotic scenes, the author establishes points in the novel where the reader is momentarily alleviated from the dark horror. If positioned correctly, these scenes can make this story an exhilarating roller coaster ride. (This is the case for this novel!) So, the erotica may not seem necessary to some other readers out there, but I for one believe that the erotica made this a stronger read.
Down the Road 2: On the last Day is a prime example of a well written zombie novel. After reading the last words, your fingertips will bleed from gripping the pages so hard.
Available on Amazon
