This is how the world ends.

 

- First sentence

 

Wow. Reading Dead of Night blew my mind. Imagine being trapped inside your brain, having no control over your actions, but feeling and experiencing everything. Oh, and your body is a zombie, eating people. The people trapped inside zombie bodies just wanted to die and escape the horror. Maberry captured their thoughts and feelings perfectly.

A scientist creates a formula that mimics death, with the purpose of punishing serial killers in the worst possible way. He plans to inject the formula during the execution process and bury the body in an unmarked grave. When the killer's consciousness revives, they are unable to move, forced to experience the pain of decomposition, and the torture of being buried partially alive. Of course, things don't go as planned and the world gradually goes to hell.

I've been a fan of Jonathan Maberry's work since I read Rot & Ruin several years ago. The events in the Dead of Night series take place years before that, in the same world. He is an amazing writer. I'm looking forward to reading more by him.

Overall the series was fantastic. Dead of Night (book 1) was my favorite, followed by Fall of Night (#2), and then Dark of Night (#3). Dark of Night was very short, but I enjoyed seeing characters from other series in that one. 

It was funny seeing the characters watching dead people reanimate and not believing their eyes. Or, seeing the zombies taking bites out of people and then watching others trying to reason with them. Zombies are so prevalent in our entertainment that I felt much more knowledgable on the subject than the characters in the books. How did they not realize what was happening and how did it get so out of control? The characters also wrestle with moral issues - is it ethical to destroy a town full of innocent people in order to prevent an apocalypse?

Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...?

-Chapter 49

Dr. Volker created a way to punish serial killers, but it didn't turn out exactly as he thought it would.

Chapter 16 --

We realize the true horror of being a "zombie" in this world. Your consciousness still exists and you experience everything your body does, with no control to stop or change what happens.

I've read the first four books so far (as I haven't been able to find the last three books in my library yet), and for me, this series was a great surprise! I had been willing to read the Tomorrow series for years, but somehow I never really got to the point where I would buy and eventually read them.

Till last year! And I may say that I thought it to be the best series I've read that year! This second book, I thought it to be thrilling, and I love the fact that (even though the things that happen are terrible) the story is original and full of suspense!

I would recommend this book to a lot of people, but please read the first book first!

A dr out for petty revenge infects Hitler's Nazi Germany with a rabies based virus that turns people into zombie like creatures within hours of being bitten or scratched.

It sounded like fun, and in the hands of a more experienced author could have been a good alternate history.

Instead, it mostly sucked.

The writing was stilted and juvenile, and I don't think it was meant to be a middle grade level book.

I would have DNF'd at about 25%, but my Kindle version (it was free back in 2012) has some awesomely screwed formatting in regards to the page numbers.  Goodreads and Amazon say it has 410pgs - the book said I was WAY past that at 25%, and it ended with over 2000pgs showing.  I couldn't figure out where I was, so I slogged it out.   Next time I'll just take the zero.  LOL