Review Detail

This review can also be found at http://fortheloveofbooksreviews.blogspot.ca/2017/01/dearly-departed-by-lia-habel.html


In 2195, Nora is living in New Victoria, a place that models it's values and social norms from the Victorian era, but is far ahead in terms of technology. When she returns home from school for the break, she finds herself attacked by a group of zombies, and saved by another group of them as well. Within this group is Bram, an undead soldier from the Punks, the enemy of New Victoria.

Amongst political unrest and savage zombies, Nora is surprised to find herself trusting Bram and the others dealing with 'The Laz'; the virus that causes the dead to rise. Along with her determination to get to the bottom of what's really going on in New Victoria, she will face uncomfortable and surprising truths about her family and her homeland. But will they be able to defeat an opposing zombie army before New Victoria is entirely infected?

I've only read a handful of books including zombies so I was unsure what to expect going into this one. I can say that this book really blew my mind and was almost flawless! Despite it's nearly 500 page count, I read it in a matter of a few days and I found myself reading it whenever I possibly could.

The world-building in this book was absolutely incredible. I feel like everything, from the actual city of New Victoria to the problem of 'The Laz' was perfectly thought out and tied together nice and neatly. I found it very easy to understand the society that Nora lived in and to picture the world that she had to navigate every day of her life. This includes settings other than her hometown, including her location when she is rescued by Bram and the others.

My favourite character was Bram. He was so full of life, despite technically being dead. I found him funny and sweet and I appreciated his tragic background story. He is one of the best male love interests I have ever come across within the YA genre. Nora was a great heroine and I found her to be strong, loyal, and determined. These two characters, and their romance, stuck out to me from many other YA paranormal romances I have read and this made the novel all the more enjoyable. The other zombies that Nora and Bram worked with made for a great cast of characters as well with their humor, tensions and drama. Much drama amongst the humans, for example Nora's friend and her family's situation, was present as well and made for a captivating read altogether.

My issue with this book was that I found it hard to follow at times. I'd wonder what was going on as occasionally things would seem a bit rushed or scenes jumped a bit too rapidly for me. For example, this book uses several different points of view, and sometimes I felt like one character's chapter would end too abruptly, or wouldn't end with any kind of explanation, which might be good to keep the reader going but I found that it made it hard to concentrate on the following chapters, told by other characters. It got a bit distracting. If this hadn't been an issue, this book definitely would have gotten five stars!

I absolutely recommend this book. While I found it a bit confusing at times it was worth the read and I am really glad that I bought the sequel while it was on sale! I recommend this for fans of YA dystopian books and romance. If you like futuristic books, romance, and zombies, then this combination of all three of these elements is sure to blow you away.