Mediocre at best

There’s a lot of unnecessary dialog taking place in the middle of critical action. So much so you have to wonder how all the time charActers are chatting, why they zombies aren’t on them before they get away. Except for that the story line isn’t bad. Will get the next in the series when I have nothing else to read.

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Love it!

Such an amazing book! Love me, some zombies and mayhem. Started this book randomly, and absolutely moving onto the next one.

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Great read!!!

The story line was really interesting, the characters had good background stories, the author did a great job. I’ve read 100’s of zombie stories and I feel as though this series (at least the first book) is a series I definitely want to read. Great job on the story Mike Evans and narration had superb inflect, good tone. I can’t wait to go to book 2 in the series!!

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The whole series is great!

I love the characters in the series. I’m listening to it again so I can help sort out the neighbors but the combination of zombies and sarcastic wit is irresistible!!

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Not bad.

I can tell that this story is written by a amateur zombie writer. However, with that being said. It’s still turned out to be a pretty good read. There were some funny moments that I truly enjoyed, and Diane and Danny were by far my favorite characters. Will definitely be going on to book 2.

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My favorite series from Mike Evans

What to do when you are sick as hell and you end up with all the cul-de-sacs kids at your house due to the bus driver turning. Parents all out trying to make it back to their kids. Who will last the day with Zombies on the Block? Narrator was OK, but sounded like Captain Kirk on Star Trek.

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Another great one!

This book drags you in from the very beginning! A great take on the zombie apocalypse, and of course leaves you wanting more!

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Impossible to get invested in

I only got less than an hour into this before I gave up and decided to return it. The author is way too verbose, cramming exposition into every place possible, completely ruining the pacing and doing a heck of a lot of telling-not-showing. Check the Goodreads reviews for more details on that.

The writing sounds like it was written for kids/ya, but the profanity and sexual references are anything but kid-friendly.

The POV is a mess. The author tells what everyone is feeling and thinking (even the dogs sometimes) but not in a way that feels immersive and natural. Even brand-new/short-term characters’ thoughts are completely transparent.

The reactions that people have to the zombies are completely bizarre and unrealistic. The father character starts calling them zombies almost immediately without any struggle to come to grips with the bizarre behavior and physical changes he sees in the first infected he encounters. The kids (including the ones saved from the school bus) feel like they were written by someone who doesn’t really understand kids all that well. They go from watching their beloved school-bus-driver get turned into a purplish monster and fleeing into the neighbor’s house, to excitedly plopping down on the couch to watch “Infinity War” within what seems to be an hour or less. None of them are crying or in shock. No one is expressing that they want their mom or dad as the father literally boards up the house! It’s just… so silly.

The book is supposed to have comedic moments, but nothing is actually funny.

The narrator has a strangely over dramatic way of reading. If the writing had been good it might not be a problem, but with foolish dialogue that is meant to be humorous (and failing imo) it comes across as ridiculous and silly.

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ZOTB1 Falls a Little Short

ZOTB #1 is the first of a zombie series by indy author Mike Evans. The story begins as the zombie outbreak occurs from the perspective of several residents of a suburban neighborhood. There are some creative scenes of strife and struggle as the 'average people' type characters fend off the undead and survive the first few hours of the zompoc. Notably a bus load of kids on their way to school have to escape their zombified bus driver. A nurse barely escapes from a hospital, losing colleagues along the way. The Zs in this universe are fast changing, fast moving, ravenous and purple.

Altogether, it follows the typical formula of a zompoc and doesn't offer much in the way of uniqueness to the genre. In itself this isn't bad but Evans' writing is so clunky and amateurish it makes it hard to maintain SODB. Characters have long, and totally irrelevant, conversations in the middle of activities that should be life or death situations. After being attacked by a zombie, a father calls his son at college (maybe to warn him) but they get into an argument about the kind of car the boy drives(?). The boy's girlfriend finally looks out the window and instantly knows its a zombie apocalypse.

Evans has written an entire series of these so I hope his craft improves over the course of those later books. I'm a fan of indy horror so may read the next one just to see if the writing gets better.

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excellent

Really enjoyed this first book in the Zombie on the Block series! On to the next one right now.

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