Nocturnal Book Reviews

Egalley thanks to Random House Publishing Group
Absolutely glorious book!
Not only Lia Habel managed to create a fascinating neo-Victorian society in the distant future, her engaging characters shone all the way through the book.

There are gazillions of reviews out there already on Dearly Departed, so I'll keep mine short.

This book is really visual, to the point where I can easily imagine it being made into a movie a-la Hellboy (hopefully with Guillermo del Toro as the director), it's entertaining, sweet and its bad zombies and villains feel almost too cartoonish to invoke fear.

There are some absolutely delicious moments which keep playing in my mind - Nora dressed up as a cute anime character, zombies being patched up by the doctors or eating their tofu, Pamela, Nora's feisty friend, smashing some zombie brains with her umbrella... Come on! I will be really surprised if this book isn't picked up for a possible movie.

Nora and Bram's relationship is very sweet, so as their conversations, but I still wasn't entirely convinced in Nora's attraction to a zombie boy. However, we'll just have to see how the couple develops in the next book.

Overall, a fascinating, hugely entertaining, light read. Recommended to anyone.