Welcome to Wickedly Bookish's stop on The Becoming Virtual Tour brought to you by Innovative Online Tours.
Review
The Becoming
About the Author
Jessica Meigs is the author of The Becoming, a post-apocalyptic
thriller series that follows a group of people trying to survive a massive
viral outbreak in the southeastern United States. After gaining notoriety for
having written the series on a variety of BlackBerry devices, she
self-published two novellas that now make up the first book of the series. In
April 2011, she accepted a three-book deal with Permuted Press to publish a
trilogy of novels. The first of the trilogy, entitled The Becoming, was released in November 2011 on Amazon, Barnes &
Noble, and Audible in paperback, eBook, and audiobook formats. It was also
named one of Barnes & Noble’s Best Zombie Fiction Releases of 2011 and Best
Apocalyptic Fiction Releases of 2011. In March 2012, she released a related
novella entitled The Becoming: Brothers
in Arms. The second novel in the series, The Becoming: Ground Zero, is coming in July 2012 from Permuted
Press, with a third novel, The Becoming:
Revelations, to follow. A fourth and fifth book are currently in the
process of being written.
Part of Wickedly Bookish's Dead Hot Summer Lineup
Review
The Becoming
Jessica Meigs
Genre: Science Fiction, Horror, Zombies
Rating: 4
The Becoming, the first book in a new trilogy and Meigs' first novel follows three main characters as they experience the initial outbreak of the zombie virus Michaluk and fight to survive. Cade, Ethan, and Brandt pick up other survivors along the way, but when Ethan insists on returning to Memphis to find closure with the loss of his wife, Cade and Brandt forge on to find a safe place for their group.
The Becoming, the first book in a new trilogy and Meigs' first novel follows three main characters as they experience the initial outbreak of the zombie virus Michaluk and fight to survive. Cade, Ethan, and Brandt pick up other survivors along the way, but when Ethan insists on returning to Memphis to find closure with the loss of his wife, Cade and Brandt forge on to find a safe place for their group.
Finally! A strong female lead character in a zombie series other than the Newsflesh Trilogy! I've been reading a lot of zombie fiction lately and I have to say I'm sickened with the amount of wimpy, whiny, practically useless female lead characters. The Becoming was a breath of fresh air for me and certainly for the genre itself. Finally a woman who can hold her own and is just as gritty as the boys. While there were still times I was frustrated with Cade's often overly dramatic actions, I still enjoyed her character.
Really each character Meigs has crafted for this novel is well developed and relatable. For me, there is nothing better than well written, character driven apocalypse fiction and this novel delivers it in droves!
One other thing that really stuck out to me was how much more cinematic this novel felt to me than others I've read of the genre. In the first chapters of the book, the tension is slowly and carefully built, setting the reader up for horror moviesque anticipation for the action to kick off. The tension had me biting my nails as I waited for the first zombie to rear its ugly head. This is one of the first zombie novels that truly made me experience horror rather than simulating it with over the top gore and action. Meigs played on my worst fears from the very beginning, sucking me into her world completely.
I think the only thing that rubbed me the wrong way about this book was the fact that the main characters took forever to catch on to what was happening. As this book is set in our world, which has been saturated with zombie movies, books, and pop culture for decades, I would have expected the main characters to have caught on right away. Instead, they spend the first quarter of the novel going, "This is so weird! I wonder what could be happening?" Umm... duh... A real world example would be the incident in Miami recently where a naked man was gunned down by police as he ate the face of another naked man. Although it has been ruled that the man was incredibly high on an illegal narcotic that caused him to act this way, many people associated the actions with zombie like behavior. No, I'm not insane, I don't think the zombie apocalypse is upon us, my point is, people are smarter than you think. It doesn't take an erstwhile Marine you randomly meet to tell you its freaking zombies chapters later. I really felt this dumbed down her otherwise impressive and capable heroes for me. Really, this may not make much of a difference for other readers, but it is kind of a sore spot for me when it comes to zombie fiction in general.
Really each character Meigs has crafted for this novel is well developed and relatable. For me, there is nothing better than well written, character driven apocalypse fiction and this novel delivers it in droves!
One other thing that really stuck out to me was how much more cinematic this novel felt to me than others I've read of the genre. In the first chapters of the book, the tension is slowly and carefully built, setting the reader up for horror moviesque anticipation for the action to kick off. The tension had me biting my nails as I waited for the first zombie to rear its ugly head. This is one of the first zombie novels that truly made me experience horror rather than simulating it with over the top gore and action. Meigs played on my worst fears from the very beginning, sucking me into her world completely.
I think the only thing that rubbed me the wrong way about this book was the fact that the main characters took forever to catch on to what was happening. As this book is set in our world, which has been saturated with zombie movies, books, and pop culture for decades, I would have expected the main characters to have caught on right away. Instead, they spend the first quarter of the novel going, "This is so weird! I wonder what could be happening?" Umm... duh... A real world example would be the incident in Miami recently where a naked man was gunned down by police as he ate the face of another naked man. Although it has been ruled that the man was incredibly high on an illegal narcotic that caused him to act this way, many people associated the actions with zombie like behavior. No, I'm not insane, I don't think the zombie apocalypse is upon us, my point is, people are smarter than you think. It doesn't take an erstwhile Marine you randomly meet to tell you its freaking zombies chapters later. I really felt this dumbed down her otherwise impressive and capable heroes for me. Really, this may not make much of a difference for other readers, but it is kind of a sore spot for me when it comes to zombie fiction in general.
The Final Verdict
Regardless this was an amazing read for me full of action, true horror, and visceral emotion. Well written and superbly edited, The Becoming is a zombie novel you don't want to miss. Looking forward to the rest of the series!
Regardless this was an amazing read for me full of action, true horror, and visceral emotion. Well written and superbly edited, The Becoming is a zombie novel you don't want to miss. Looking forward to the rest of the series!
FTC Disclosure
I was provided a copy of this book by the author and IO Tours in exchange for an honest review. I received no compensation for the views stated. All opinions are my own.
About the Author
Jessica Meigs is the author of The Becoming, a post-apocalyptic
thriller series that follows a group of people trying to survive a massive
viral outbreak in the southeastern United States. After gaining notoriety for
having written the series on a variety of BlackBerry devices, she
self-published two novellas that now make up the first book of the series. In
April 2011, she accepted a three-book deal with Permuted Press to publish a
trilogy of novels. The first of the trilogy, entitled The Becoming, was released in November 2011 on Amazon, Barnes &
Noble, and Audible in paperback, eBook, and audiobook formats. It was also
named one of Barnes & Noble’s Best Zombie Fiction Releases of 2011 and Best
Apocalyptic Fiction Releases of 2011. In March 2012, she released a related
novella entitled The Becoming: Brothers
in Arms. The second novel in the series, The Becoming: Ground Zero, is coming in July 2012 from Permuted
Press, with a third novel, The Becoming:
Revelations, to follow. A fourth and fifth book are currently in the
process of being written.
Jessica
lives in semi-obscurity in Demopolis, Alabama. When she’s not writing, she
works full time as an EMT. She enjoys listening to music and spends way too
much time building playlists for everything she writes. When she’s not rocking
out at concerts or writing or working, she can be found on Twitter
@JessicaMeigs, on Facebook at facebook.com/JessicaMeigs, and on Goodreads at
goodreads.com/jessicameigs. You can also visit her website at
www.jessicameigs.com.
Website http://becomingzombies.com/
Don't forget to stop by the other stops for this tour!
1 comment:
I love a strong woman character too!
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