The Ghoul Archipelago is definitely not what you could call your average zombie novel. With its mixture of Zombie, Apocalypse Now, and even a touch of Strange Days, the book is clearly aimed at the zombie reader whose seen it all and wants something different.
The story takes place in a chain of islands in the South Pacific and begins by following the crew of the Rey Gould, a smuggling vessel with a very unusual cargo. The story unfolds to include pirates, a sleazy technology mogul with a VR device that could mean the survival of the human race, and a maniacal preacher who believes the dead are a sign of The Second Coming.
Kozeniewski balances the viewpoints of an array of different characters pretty seamlessly. There were only a few times I found myself needing to revisit earlier sections of the book to recall what was happening. The characters themselves are also well drawn and feel completely distinct with their own motivations, mannerism, and voice. Foreign characters Tuan Jim and Kurtz, for example, evince some clear deficits in their command of english, which makes them both distinct and real to the reader. Furthermore, Kozeniewski can write. His use of metaphor, characterization, and description are all excellent. There are a few phrases that appeared too often for my liking, but nothing of them were book-breaking.
Where the issues arose for me was that the book was A) a tad long for me and B) the plot and end goal for some of the main characters were not as focused as I would have liked. The book feels much more character rather than plot driven and there are stretches in the book where not a whole lot seemed to be happening. For me this was an issue, but for those looking for an off-the-wall premise and are OK with a somewhat unconventional plot, this will not be an issue.
Please find this complete review and many others at bookie-monster dot com
[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]
The Ghoul Archipelago
Audible Audiobook
– Unabridged
Prime member exclusive offer
Get 3 months of Audible free. Terms apply. Try now.
People who bought this also bought
1 of 1
Only from Audible
1 of 1
Technology, Zombies, and Pirates!
The Ghoul Archipelago by Stephen Kozeniewski is fun page-turner that will delight you with each turn that the story takes! Of course, as this tale also features zombies, there is some wonderfully vivid violence scattered throughout. I had so much fun with this one! This story is a character-driven tale that will have you either rooting for the characters, or wishing that they would meet a sudden demise! At the beginning of the novel, the chapters were organized in a way that would feature one group of characters at a time before jumping to another group. As each grouping was very intriguing to me, I couldn’t stop reading because I wanted to see how things were going to turn out for each of them! I absolutely loved that we kept jumping from group to group until each storylines began to merge with one another. While some of the storylines were very different from one another, there was one element that was present throughout: the dead were rising. It was so much fun to see how each group was handling that fact because they were all extremely different; we had some that were simply killing them, some that wanted to save their souls, and some that wanted to control them and use them for… various things. The overall pacing was wonderful, the plot was perfectly organized, the characters and their relationships were fun, the dialogue was great! All around, this was an awesome book! It will definitely be one that I return to again when I need a fun zombie tale.
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2014
- Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2014
- Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2021
- Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2014
- Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2014
Top reviews from other countries
- chettsgenieReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2014
Must Read Zombie Horror
