Road Less Travelled: The Plan - By C.Dulaney
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The Z plan.
We all have one, secret or not. You know you've got one, stashed away there at the back of your mind. You've got your out, your escape route planned. It's cool, me too. That's why we like books like this. 'The Plan' opens on the first day of October, a frenzied phone call taking place between Kasey and her friend Ben. We're quickly looped into their Z-plan, and the fun begins. Basically, Ben just has to get his butt from college in Pennsylvania to Kasey's house. The twosome quickly becomes a sextet and we volley between various POV's telling their story that spans various Eastern states, mainly West Virginia where Kasey's safe house sits among the mountains in the middle of nowhere. This book has plenty of zombie slaying action scenes, with enough gory details to keep my attention. We don't get bogged down in scientific facts and explanations about how the outbreak starts; we are in the middle of the action right from point and I liked that - it got me hooked. The author, Dulaney, provides enough awesome details to paint a wicked picture of the encroaching apocalypse, and the pacing of the action sequences keep the story entertaining and moving along. We see whole cities on fire; abandoned drug stores; hordes of moaning deadheads closing in, and trapped in cars on the jammed up highways; buzzards circling; running and screaming and Molotov cocktails; blood and guts and torn off faces. There's also this pretty rad scene where Kasey mows down 48 zombies to a soundtrack of Metallica. Amazing! Did I mention the roving band of escaped convicts, who are gathering up all surviving women and killing the men? Yeah, well that sh*t is scarier to me than a zombie apocalypse. |
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It's not the most original plot: two friends make a Z-plan and try to stick with it while trying to cope with a world changing around them, living in constant fear, and dealing with the evolving group dynamics of their fellow survivalists. But if you're like me, and you like your zombie consumption from the survivalist POV, then this book fits the bill. I like watching as the characters change and (d)evolve until we wonder who the real monsters are... This book doesn't go too deep into character development, but being the first book in a series I have a feeling the author didn't want to blow his load just yet and reveal everyone's dirty secrets. Way to keep us on the hook!
Despite the lack of full disclosure about who these characters are, we end up liking most of them. Our main protagonist is Kasey and we see some chapters through her first person POV. She is a strong, smart, independent girl, but not in that obnoxious 'girl power' way. She's an aloof loner who does her own thing, and knows her way around a gun like no one else. She also used to work in a lab before the panic spread. I have a feeling this detail will come back in another book. The rest of the group is comprised of Ben; his best friend Jake; Zack who is a classmate of Ben & Jake's; and Kyra, also a classmate and hooking up with Ben. Nancy, Jake's grandma rounds out the group, and is a retired nurse. A seventh group member shows up about two thirds of the way through the book, wounded, a horde hot on their heels. Oh, also there is Gus, Kasey's dog.
Despite the lack of full disclosure about who these characters are, we end up liking most of them. Our main protagonist is Kasey and we see some chapters through her first person POV. She is a strong, smart, independent girl, but not in that obnoxious 'girl power' way. She's an aloof loner who does her own thing, and knows her way around a gun like no one else. She also used to work in a lab before the panic spread. I have a feeling this detail will come back in another book. The rest of the group is comprised of Ben; his best friend Jake; Zack who is a classmate of Ben & Jake's; and Kyra, also a classmate and hooking up with Ben. Nancy, Jake's grandma rounds out the group, and is a retired nurse. A seventh group member shows up about two thirds of the way through the book, wounded, a horde hot on their heels. Oh, also there is Gus, Kasey's dog.
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