One Rainy Night by Richard Laymon

One Rainy Night by Richard Laymon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 410

Publisher -

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

An unusual black precipitation is having a horrifying effect on the residents of Bixby, California, transforming ordinary people into deranged killers. Original.


My Review

So I apparently read this back in 2011 so before my reviewing I believe and one of the reasons I started reviewing. I would buy/read books and be like oh I have read this so this way I can keep track and I actually remembered none of this book at all. A young boy was brutally murdered, likely racially motivated. An officer is back at the scene, looking around when the heavens open and the rain comes pounding down. This is no ordinary rain, it is black and upon touching the skin of a person they become wild, dangerous, murderers even cannibalistic in some cases. It is only affecting the small town of Bixby California and before the night is over many lives will be gone and changed forever.

Right big warnings here guys, racism, racist language, murder, sa, sv, abuse, cannibalism like all the biggest and baddest things humans can do to each other is in this. The book follows a few main characters, a police officer (not the guy at the start), a young girl and her babysitting charge, the wee girls parents who are headed to a restaurant, three teenage boys who are vile even before a spot of rain touches them and a pizza delivery woman who unfortunately delivers to the teens.

It reminded me a little of the movie crazies but far far darker and shocking. Absolute horror, quite graphic in the abuse, murders, sexual violence and abuse so please prepare yourself, 3.5/5.

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Zom-B by Darren Shan

Zom-B by Darren Shan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 217

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Blurb from Goodreads

Zom-B is a radical new series about a zombie apocalypse, told in the first person by one of its victims. The series combines classic Shan action with a fiendishly twisting plot and hard-hitting and thought-provoking moral questions dealing with racism, abuse of power and more. This is challenging material, which will captivate existing Shan fans and bring in many new ones. As Darren says, "It's a big, sprawling, vicious tale...a grisly piece of escapism, and a barbed look at the world in which we live. Each book in the series is short, fast-paced and bloody. A high body-count is guaranteed!"



My Review

This is the first book in a zombie series, we open with B our main character, a teenager who is still at school when the first stirrings of a zombie outbreak starts. No one really believes it and thinks the videos & news are mock ups. We follow B through relatively mundane happenings, until over 100 pages in we finally get our first glimpse of the undead.

So, for me this was a bit more like Fear The Walking Dead rather than The Walking Dead, heavily focused on the pre and build up to the actual onslaught. B is not a likable main character, a lot of time is spent being a bully or just horrible selfish behaviour to assessing the behviour and not wanting to be like her very racist father. There are scenes of bullying, racism, violence and when the zombies finally show up, some gore. There are also some black and white illustration artwork scattered throughout the book which makes for a nice wee change I thought.

There is a lot focus on self exploration of B's attitude, family values (that of white extremist attitude of the father), pack mentality in schools and survival mode. There are quite a few books in this series, I have already bought them so will be reading them. I would advise this may not be for the die hard zombie fans as it is a slow burner and not quite as much focus on the outbreak and zombies as it is on the characters however it is still a decent read, 3/5 for me.

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