This was a slog. Three stars is a gift. I am invested in the characters based on the previous two novels, which were excellent. In the beginning I enjoyed the militaristic strategy the protagonists, Kilroy, took to surviving the zombie apocalypse; it's what kept him and the people he found along the way alive for as long as they have been. It was enough to make sense why he survived and was able to help people along the way; creating a community of survivors.

This novel took away the connection with the characters, changed the plot, made it slightly convoluted and ramped up the military aspect to 1,000. This novel is 80 percent military jargon and operations now, as Kil and his group encounter a working branch of military and he, as an enlisted man, is pushed back into service.

While I am still very invested in the characters and would like to see where this goes, but who knows what gresh hell the next installment will bring.

To start, I have no idea what I was thinking when I decided I HAD to read this. I shall quantify this by saying, as someone who has lived her intire life dealing with the reality of slaver, racism, and mysoginy, I despise dealing with it in my fantasy world. I actively avoide books and movies that are racially charged or heavy with the sexism. Sometimes you can't avoid it, and sometime and book/movie is so effing fantastic that I can give it a pass. Dread Nation is going on the list. But make no mistake, the racism really grated on me.  Also, it was in first person perspective, which I normally loathe; this was not bad.

With that being said, this was an amazing story, and what drew it to me was zombies, combined with historical fiction, and black people in the forefront. The characters were fun and likeable, even when they were unliekable. The world building was amazing and the writing was incredible!

We follow Jane McKeene a half black/white girl who is a student at Miss Preston's School for Negro Girls (I think that's what it was called.) Basically when the dead decided to get up and walk during the battle of Gettysburg The Civil War "ended" and the war vs the Dead began. The North still "won" and blacks were given freedom, but not really. They, along with indigenous tribes were swooped and placed in combat schools where they taught them how to be on the frontlines in the battle against the dead, as well as beat their culture and "savageness" out of them so that they can better serve their white betters. Sigh, I'm letting the bitterness bleed into the review.

Anyway Jane gets thrust into crazy adventures and all around bad situations with her nemisise Kathrine Devaraux, who is also of mixed race, but a goody-goofy know-it-all, which irks Jane to no end. There are devious plots, secret "utopia" towns, crazy scientists with vaccines and terrible experiments. There is also the dead, which the characters refer to as shamblers. There's a lot of death, allies, betrayals and grudging friendships.

I've heard the narrator before and they were amazing. They captured the voices and brought the world to life.

Just read/listen to it; it was great!

The second of Alex's books, and the best of the two by a clear margin.  This one takes place in Australia, and the author nails the setting, while taking the mickey about (northern) Australia's natural population's inherent desire to kill everyone.  Half-off Ragnarok struggled to get this cultural uniqueness right, in my opinion, so it was a relief to see the improvement here.  Shelby still remained elusive as an individual, but her family members more than compensated.

Shelby's family is why I didn't like this book even more; they're over-the-top asses to Alex and it teetered on caricature.

The plot was good; while I wasn't shocked by the turn of events, I didn't see them coming, either.  I love how the author and Alex brought in the wadjets, using this angle to work in the injustice of ‘otherness’, though the Yowie's (who I loved) circumstances turned what was a subtle but effective highlight on that injustice into something more like a sledgehammer.  

The Aeslin mice are here but I did not appreciate the turn of events the author took with them.  Maybe she'd argue it was necessary to the story line, but she'd never convince me.  Luckily it was a relatively short scene.

With every book of McGuire's I've read, I have both enjoyed them and found them problematic.  That I mostly keep coming back (I've skipped a few) for more Price family antics suggests she gets it right more often than she doesn't.

It's not terrible, but all the excess military talk/speak/jargon is what is making this less likeable that the first two novels in the series. I'm invested in the characters and sometime there a chapters that are just further the story. Other times it so confusing it makes my head spin.