Chasers (Alone #1) by James Phelan

 Review: Chasers (Alone #1) by James Phelan, Young Adult Zombie Novel

PJV Quickie: Part vampire, part zombie, James Phelan’s young adult zombie novel CHASERS was a tough read for me. The book was compelling and the concept was original, just the implementation had me scratching my head at points.

Review: 

The novel starts with four teenagers on a subway in New York city. The teenagers are members of a UN Youth Ambassador camp and from all parts of the world. Jesse is the main character, a young boy from Australia, he is accompanies by Dave, Mini and Anna. An explosion rocks their subway car and no one but them survive, they crawl out into the streets of New York to find the city ravaged and the only survivors very thirsty…so thirsty they are attacking the living. The four teens take shelter in a skyscraper and are relatively comfortable until they decide to venture outside.

This was a very slow read for me, boring at times to the point of having me skim quite a bit. Then the ending just sped up to the point of whiplash. It was disconcerting. On top of this, Phelan implemented the quote-free format, popularized by Cormac McCarthy (“No Country for Old Men”) which is supposed to relieve the reader of clutter, but instead, for me, makes things confusing. I like my dialogue delineated, I guess it’s the OCD coming out. I understood once the novel concluded why he used this technique, but because I failed to recognize the clues, it went right over my head and I trudged through the novel until the very end.

I believe that this novel was written completely around the surprise ending. There was little to it but that final reveal. Jesse was a closed off character, insecure at times and confused most of the time. I can only describe my experience with reading this as okay. I’m unsure if I will read on in this series.

The novel was also very reminiscent of the classic “I am Legend” , but not quite on par with that novel as far as technique. My overall feeling is that this book was a great concept and interesting idea, but the pacing was just way off.

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Parajunkee

Rachel, whom you might know as Parajunkee, is the blog owner of parajunkee.com and the design blog parajunkee.net. Rachel has been blogging for close to four years, designing / web programming for over twelve, but her real love, reading, has been her favorite hobby since childhood. Rachel has won numerous awards for her writing, the blogs she has created and her design work.

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