This past summer I discovered a wave of excellent authors who have e-books for free (or close to) on Amazon.com via Kindle. +Melanie Karsak is one of these authors. I first read Chasing the Star Garden and fell in love with Melanie's writing. Next I read the Harvesting. While I'm not really interested in zombie stories, the Harvesting is most definitely not your typical series about zombies. There is a lot more going on in this story aside from your normal every day zombie tale. I really enjoyed it, and I plan on reading more of the author's work. So when I saw she was looking for book reviews, of course I jumped at the chance!
Today I will be reviewing Midway, a novella which takes place in the Harvesting Series world. It is book number 1.5 in the series, yet it works well as a stand alone story.
Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, for the beginning of the end.
Carnie. Ride jockey. Roustabout. White trash. Tilt girl. Gypsy. Cricket has been called a lot of things, but she never thought survivor of the zombie apocalypse would be one of them. One day she’s barking on the midway, and the next day, the world is eating itself alive.
Cricket, along with Vella, a tarot reader, and Puck, Cricket’s mangy mutt, find themselves running for their lives, but where can you hide when mankind has fallen? Cricket will need help if she hopes to survive.
Luckily for her, we were never really alone, and apparently, magical forces want to keep this tilt girl alive. (Image & blurb source: Amazon.com)
Review:
I felt the characters in Midway were well developed, the plot interesting. I had hoped this story would tie in with the Harvesting more than what it did, but that's alright. As I mentioned, just by itself this is a good read and I can see it being read as an introduction into the Harvesting series or just as a stand alone novella. I don't feel like you'd be missing too much if you read this without having read the Harvesting first. That alone can be tricking to accomplish in a series, so well done Melanie.
I didn't enjoy this story quite as much as Melanie's other work, perhaps because it was so short. However, she introduces some new characters which I hope will make a reappearance in the series (edit: it appears they will in the next book.) There are also some parts of the story line which seem like they will have more meaning in forthcoming works (I really hope the mention of the foxes are a hint at Kitsune!)
One of the things I like about Melanie's work in general is her characters are likeable. Unlike the typical zombie horror movie, there aren't any annoying characters which you just want to see die. That little difference is nice for a change. I feel like there are some interesting parallels between the characters in Midway and the Harvesting, so I think it will be interesting to see if that trend continues throughout the series. I'm also interested to see if she's going to give Cricket her own novel or continue her story as novellas, or what she's she's going to do. More so, I hope to read more about Tristian in the future ;)
This story would be fine for young adults or teens, as the gore factor is a minimum. This story is a short 99 pages estimated, and is only .99 cents on Amazon, which in my opinion makes it a great buy.
I'm definitely looking forward to the release of The Shadow Aspect, the next book in the Harvesting series, coming next year!
Links
Amazon
Goodreads
Author's blog
Thanks to Melanie Karsak for providing me with this novella to review.
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