Genre: Horror
Publisher: Sinister Horror Company
Publication Date: 13th July 2015
Pages: 328
MY REVIEW:
A copy of Those Who
Survive (Class Four #1) was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author
Duncan P Bradshaw in exchange for an honest review. This is said review. This
book is published by the Sinister Horror Company.
Until a week or so ago, I had never read Duncan P
Bradshaw. I read his debut novel Class
Three last week. You can see my review of it here. I absolutely loved it,
which is hard for me to do with a zombie novel.
Those Who Survive is sort of a continuation of the story. They work
just as well as standalone novels but to be honest I would recommend you read Class Three before Those Who Survive. Some characters carry over and it gives you a
bit of continuity. Also it will make you smile when you see some of the
characters come back. So, did the new found faith in zombie novels continue
with Those Who Survive courtesy of Mr
Bradshaw?
It’s been months since the virus spread and the world
fell apart. The dead keep on dying, then they keep on coming back to life, in a
manner of speaking.
Nathan is eight years old. He has lost his mum and everyone
else he knew in the previous life. Francis is a grown man. He is struggling to
survive after his own previous life ended horrifically. He has taken on the
role of protector for Nathan. He has vowed to keep him safe from the dead.
They bump into Phil who tells them of a safe place to go
where they will find people that will provide them shelter, food, friendship
and hopefully safety.
It’s going to take them a while to get there. On their
travels they will have to battle against the undead and a band of religious
freaks hell bent on turning the world over to their new “god”.
In an abandoned biscuit factory, some other survivors
scrape by day to day. The place is run by “The Gaffer”. He runs a tight ship
but it is needed to stay safe. Within this group is a small number of people
who attend a session each week with a shrink to try and relieve their pressures
and pains. Their individual stories are harrowing but necessary.
The Gaffer’s methods are needed more than people believe.
People need to pay attention if they want to survive.
OK. Second zombie book in a week. Both written by the
same man, Duncan P Bradshaw. I thought I might zombie overload. In truth it’s
quite the opposite. I am now left gagging for Class Four #2.
So what are our characters like in this little jaunt?
Superb. Every single one of them. We have all different shapes and sizes,
alive, dead and undead. We have goodies, we have baddies and we have ones in
between that have no idea what they are. It would take forever to go through
them all so here is a snapshot.
Nathan is a scared little boy who has had to
grow up very very quickly. He still likes reading his comics but he knows
exactly what to do as each situation arises. Francis is an ex-security guard that
had to go through what no man should when the disaster struck. He now has the
mission to protect Nathan and he will do whatever it takes to do this. He would
give his life for the boy. They meet up with a few others on their travels that
band together with them. Zena and Russ become their closest allies in times of
need. Again normal people who just do what is needed to be done.
In the biscuit factory The Gaffer is ruthless. He needs
to be to protect everyone. Not everyone believes he is right but he knows what
he is doing. Our characters in the “self-help” group are the leader Steve and a
few others Matt, Sylvia, Dee and Anton. They each give their own stories in the
process of recovery and rediscovery. They are all totally different people with
totally different stories and problems.
In the religious “freak” group. The characters are a bit shadier.
You don’t know as much about them but you do form your own opinions of them
from early on in the story. They are nuts. They are very dangerous.
In Class Three,
we were given the opening scenes in the story, the beginning of the end of the
world. That book concentrated on the first twenty four hours after the disaster
hit. It was a book that, to me, showed the human aspect of a zombie apocalypse.
It was full of horror and it was full of laughs. It was a completely different
approach on the whole zombie thing that had me glued to it from cover to cover.
Read my review and you will get the full picture.
Those
Who Survive is a continuation of the story but not
totally in the same vain. This is much darker. A lot of the humour has gone.
This is a story of struggles for survival. Again the thing that really stands
out for me is the way Mr Bradshaw writes in the human element. Too many storied
of this nature feature on the zombies and the evil they do. They go for the
sensationalist angle and the “blockbuster” theme. Those Who Survive gives you a perspective that you will find
yourself nodding sagely to. You will appreciate the way it is written because
you will appreciate the fact that you would probably act and react in the same
way as the characters are. I really cannot emphasise just how much this is a
perfect example of storytelling. Not just another zombie book.
I need to tell you about a couple of specific parts in
this book without giving too much away. The scenes where the “self-help” group
meet are absolutely fantastic. What you have is a room full of people sitting
around, telling their individual stories to help themselves and the others
around them. These stories are all totally different and come from totally
different people. The thing you will notice when you read them is just how real
they seem. They are written so beautifully that you become totally absorbed in
their stories living every harrowing second as if you were right there with
them. From the point of view of how the actual book is put together, this
section is also so very unique. I’m not going to tell you what it is but I will
say the formatting for this part is pure genius in how it’s done.
The second part I need to tell you about is where Nathan
and Francis come across what seems to be a circus on their travels. What
happens in this sequence is a surreal battle to stay alive in a freak show of
enormous proportions. These scenes are so totally unexpected you would think
they were in the wrong book but again they are perfectly written. When you
finish this section you will wonder what the hell you have just read but you
will feel wonderfully fulfilled that you did. I had a vision of Rob Zombie
sitting reading this section clapping his hands with glee but wishing he had
written it at the same time. Think House of 1000 Corpses on speed. By the way
if you have never seen that film you are just weird. It’s a classic.
I really need to stop writing about this now because I
could keep going for hours and hours. This book is so damned bloody good for so
many damned bloody good reasons!
To summarise: a world after the end of the world. Full of
zombies. Full of people doing what people always seem to do and trying to take
advantage of the situation at hand. Full of the normal religious nut jobs that surface
to try and put things right. More importantly full of real people with real
stories to tell that make this book an absolute pleasure to read.
I don’t have a lot of money to bet with but if I did I
would be putting a hell of a lot of it on a bet that Duncan P Bradshaw is going
to become a very big name in this world of writing. His style is so easy to
read. It’s fantastically realistic. It totally draws you into the story making
you feel, see and smell everything.
When you see the end of the book coming.
You want to drag it out further and further. I for one am sorry I have finished
this book. I am jealous that if you pick it up, you have the wonders of it
still to discover.
Most of all, I am excited for Class Four #2.
General rating:
★★★★★ Truly wonderful.
Horror rating:
★★★★★ In so many ways!
If you would like to help support Confessions of a
Reviewer then please consider using the links below to buy Those Who Survive (Class Four #1) or any other
books from Duncan P Bradshaw or indeed anything at all from Amazon. This not only
supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books
after reading my reviews.
Thanks.
Book Synopsis:
The dead rule the world.
In the months after a deadly virus has swept across the
planet, an eight year old boy and his appointed protector live from day to day.
After a chance encounter they head for sanctuary. To get there, they will have
to run the gauntlet of the inhabitants of this new world.
Ruled over by The Gaffer, a group of survivors holed up
in a derelict factory struggle to maintain order and stability. Inside, those
affected the most share their stories, hoping to come to terms with what has
happened and what they've lost.
However, a clandestine operative in their midst lays the
groundwork for an assault, the likes of which none of them have ever seen or
could hope to prepare for.
These are the stories of those who survive.
Part-Time Author/Full-Time Loon.
One day upon waking, as if from some frightful nightmare,
I sat at my laptop and typed out letters, which formed words, slowly they
created sentences. People read it and said, that's okay that is, have a
biscuit. And I said yes.
I live in Wiltshire, in Southern England with my wife
Debbie and our two cats, Rafa and Pepe, they just miaowed a hello at you.
Between bouts of prolonged washing up and bungie cord knitting, I type out the
weird and wonderful things that run around my head.
My debut novel, zom-com Class Three, was released in
November 2014, the first book in the follow up trilogy, Class Four: Those Who
Survive is out in July 2015. I'm then going to try and get some novellas
released which are on something other than the undead.
You can see more of Duncan at his website.
Duncan’s author page is here.
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