This book was gifted to me nearly a decade ago -- and I just finished it today! 🤪🙏
(Please don't get the wrong impression -- it is NOT an encyclopedia of sorts! 😅 It is just your average 300-pager that kept getting tucked away over the years into moving boxes.)
Many moons ago, my best friend had given me this book with the intention that I would read and enjoy it. She told me it was about a zombie apocalypse, taking place in a more "medieval" setting. I thought that sounded right up my alley, so I agreed to read it! 😊
Well, I have finally finished reading it, and unfortunately I found it to be quite dumb and boring...
To set the scene, the story takes place in a village that is surrounded by forest. However, gated off in the forest are the zombies -- the Unconsecrated, as they are called in this book. In typical zombie apocalyptic fashion, nobody knows how everything fell; only that this is the world they live in now...
And, of course, there's no cure! 🥴 So right off the bat, it is very uninspired and generic...
The main characters share a perilous journey together, and some of them even end up dying. However, because the novel was so poorly written, there is no emotional connection whenever it occurs. Hearing about these 20-something-year-olds die had the same emotional appeal as watching paint dry -- just, nothing...
Throughout the book, the symbolism of the ocean is a recurring theme, with said symbolism being freedom, something new, perhaps even a chance at a "safer" life!...
Well, the book ends with the protagonist finally making it to the ocean, like she desired -- after her boyfriend and brother literally SACRIFICED themselves to ensure it happens -- and that's about it!...
She meets the keeper of the lighthouse, whose job is to kill any Unconsecrated that wash up on the shore, and he takes her inside. No big reveal, no hidden meaning -- she just, makes it to the ocean, the end.
The only reason that I held out for this novel for the entire thing, was because I was really curious to see where it would go with the Sisterhood of nuns -- and it went nowhere! I thought the protagonist would have a "coming to God" moment by the end of the book.
But no! 😩 Instead the Sisters just kept a bunch of secrets from the rest of the villagers, for no reason, under the guise of religion, that ultimately led to the village's demise! 🤦♀️ As stated earlier, this whole book was a mess...
This book has been so sentimental to me purely because of the intention behind it; my friend had been very hopeful that I would enjoy it (having actually read it myself now, I don't know WHY she thought that I would). Yet, similar to our actual friendship, the tale just left a terrible taste in my mouth...
