a review by Jade Hounsell
‘..on the evening of September 15, 2009, just before closing time, the Brooks & Peabody shop on Landon and Park was attacked by the infected. I don’t know what else to call them. The infected? The damned? I guess I’m not sure if it’s a virus or disease, but I know it spreads and I know the kind of destruction it brings.’
Allison Hewitt is at work, just your usual average ordinary day, when just before closing time the store is attacked by the infected. (Or undead or damned or lets just put it out there, zombies. Really who cares what you call them, it all boils down to if you get bit or attacked by one then you become one.)
Allison and five others (co-workers and customers) manage to make it into the safety of a break room and seal it off from the outside world. ‘We’re living behind a solid, safe door. The lock is industrial grade. The safes are housed back here and the doors are very heavy and reinforced. It was the logical place to hide- no windows, a refrigerator with some food, and most of all the very heavy reinforced door.’ There is also a single black and white monitor which they can access the security cameras throughout the store and the electricity is thanks to a back-up generator. Still it is only a matter of time before they have to leave the confines of the safe room and venture out into the store to find more supplies.
Once all the supplies in the store have been raided and supplies are again running low, it is decided that a ‘mission’ to the upstairs apartments is needed. After finding supplies and what they hope is a defendable apartment, the group decides to make the shift from the safe room to the ‘comforts’ upstairs.
The group manages to live here for several weeks without too many problems or issues, when one night Allison stumbles upon an old radio and manages to hit on a voice which urges anyone out there to try and make it to the local university where there is food, shelter and medical supplies, as well as a chance to meet up again with family members or friends who may of made it there. A meeting is held and it is decided that they would all rather stay put then make a break for it. Then one of the members of the group betrays them and another becomes infected so the choice to move on is made.
The book is written in blog form, made up from Allison’s entries throughout the course of a nearly two month period. In it she details everything that is going on with her and her group of, well we will call them friends for the sake of this review. It includes the perils they face and of Allison’s decisions, whether they are good or bad and the consequences of them. There are also responses at the end of each blog from other survivors from around the country.
I have to admit I have never really been a fan of zombie novels at all; then again I had never picked one up that had roused my interest. That is until I was handed a copy of ‘Deadline’ to review. Now I have to say I really enjoy them, even going out and buying Feed so I could read that series from the start.
Trapped was actually a really good read from start to finish; I have to admit I was hooked pretty quickly. I find something very appealing in the struggle of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The thing with zombie novels is that, if written properly like this one is, you feel like this is something that could happen and you wonder how it is you would react in the same situation. All in all I give this book a big thumbs up!!
