Hissers

hissers wasn't written by stephen king, but it felt like a vintage king novel- stand by me meets 28 days later. not only do a group of 4 14 year olds have to confront an outbreak of re-animated dead, but they also have to contend with teenage angst! but don't let that put you off! that adds to the power of the story telling.

connor is a good-looking soccer player. his best friend, seth, is an overweight nerd, who's picked on b/c of his weight. they share a love of video games and all things geek. their star trek snd star wars references go over the heads of the girls. connor's and seth's relationship is getting complicated b/c connor is starting to get popular, and seth feels like he's getting left behind.

the 2 girls in the group are nicole and amanita. they too are best friends and polar opposites. nicole is the skinny smart girl while amanita is the quickly developing girl.

all 4 have different backgrounds that are flushed out as the story progresses. the story begins with them discussing the big back to school party. nicole and amanita are invited while connor and seth plan to hang out in the fort. nicole has a crush on connor and talks amanita into stopping by the fort before going to the party. while the 4 of them sip on some booze amanita brought, a plane crashes into the houses below.

the plane is carrying a doctor who is supposed to be showing her samples too the big wigs in washington. the dr has developed some kind of ra serum that would allow amputees to attach other peoples' limbs to their bodies w/o rejection. however, the chemical cocktail has some unforeseen side effects.

when the 4 teens run down to see if they can help, they encounter their first reanimated dead person from the plane, and the action really picks up.

the action is frenetic with well-timed pauses. there's a lot of gore. the story is smart and unique. the characters are well-developed and memorable. i thoroughly enjoyed this story. not only is this a good zombie story, but it is also a great coming of age story.

i really enjoyed this book. great story, very well read. rather gory, but some good old zombie fun (spoiler: these are fast, 28-days later, style zombies, not your classic shuffling undead). as a zombie purist i have issues with this! but a really good listen. unusually for zombie novels, the characters are very well developed, in fact we spend the first hour or so, just getting to know them. although the protaganists are all 14 years old, as a forty-something i still enjoyed it.

set up for a sequel which i am really looking forward to.

the bonus story at the end was also great.

after a bad run with audbile recently about the quality of some of their stuff and the length of their samples, this was overall a very good experience.

get it. you wont regret using your credit

This book had me really surprised when I found out the main character was going to be a 14 year old boy. I’m not into the Harry Potter teen main character books. I have to say I was really surprised. I thought it was well written and deserves a listen. Original story with creepy creatures that were easy to visualize. One of the girl main characters had me rolling my eyes a little. At 14 with the supposed knowledge she had she should be out of high school not getting ready to start. Small annoying part to an overall good book. Very new way to come at this theme. Nice job I will listen to another from this author.

Loved this one. As I've said in another review, I'm not usually all that interested in zombie stories, but after reading a few good ones this month, I may have to revise my thoughts on the genre. This one started out as seemingly a young adult story, but as the zombie presence grew in the story, it quickly intensified to a true adult horror book. The characters were all quite well built, and as an author, I couldn't help but to take character-building notes from Mr. Thomas, as the four main-characters all had their flaws and heroic points to make them quite likable. The story is quite bloody and violently graphic, but that's to be expected from a tale of zombies. These aren't the old, slow-moving variety, but fast-moving and evolving creatures, which means no one is ever safe. If you're looking for a good zombie book, or a horror story in general, give this one a look.

As for the narration, I think the narrator did a great job of changing up his natural voice to give the characters distinct sounds, especially the four teens. They weren't much different from one another, but different enough that I rarely needed the voice tag to tell who was speaking. I always like that.

One final thing about this that I enjoyed: There was a short story on the end, and it, too, proved to be a pretty neat zombie story. It had a neat twist (which I, of course, won't spoil for you), and an interesting premise all the way through. So after you finish listening to Hissers, listen to the final hour of the recording to hear this story.

Fast paced, heart stopping zombie terror! Actually caught myself mumbling the words "run, run" as I listened.

If that friend was a fan of pulpy, pop-corn zombie horror with gore, action and a cast of generally troubled high schoolers then yes,
Hissers is fairly standard within the zombie/survival horror subgenre with enough cliches and tropes to be farmiliar along side some interesting new takes and a genuinely engaging cast of characters (though they do get a little whiny and annoying at times throughout)

It is also a lot of fun to listen to. If you are already a fan of the genre you will like Hissers, but it probably wont convert you if you aren't already itching for some bloodthirsty zombie action.

Hissers also feels geared more towards a teenage/young adult audience than a straight up adult horror but it doesn't lack for want of gore, violence and horror

Yes - I have a lot of friends who are horror/zombie fans

There were times when his readings of various characters was a little flat and homogenized and could have done with a little more variation, but was fine overall.

absolutely, though visually I can't help but think hunger-games vs lord of the flies...

Hissers was fun, comfortably farmiliar zombie horror with enough turns and departures from the standards to keep it interesting and entertaining.

I wasn't expecting a lot from this one, but it ended up surprising me. I think a better comparison would be 28 Days Later meets Super 8, with a bit of Resident Evil thrown in for good measure. I really became fond of the characters and the way they grew in the book. There were one or two loose threads at the end, and the narration had the usual problem of an older reader attempting to do younger voices, but neither of these were enough to detract from the overall story. The "bonus" story at the end didn't really do a whole lot for me, but I look forward to more by Mr. Thomas, hopefully involving these same characters.

I am only 2 hours into this story but I had to write a quick review. Quite often I will start another audio book within hours after finishing the previous one. This makes my brain take a while to adjust to a whole new set of characters and world settings (sometimes space setttings). Not so with this book.
As soon as the story starts Mr Thomas makes the characters believable and the story flows smoothly. The high school students interaction with each other and their parents are in sync.
I have to admit that I am a believer that men are better narrators, they can make female voices better than females can make male voices. That said Mr. Andrews is very good and he doesn't have an English accent which would seriously marr an American setting.
I bought this book in the $5 special that Audible had. I am going to look for more Thomas/Andrews combinations in future purchases.

Ryan C. Thomas' entry into the world of zombie fiction is an inventive one. Taking the now almost routine "zombie armogeddon" theme and marrying it to a highly-relatable story about teenagers adds an additional level of familiarity to the story.
I was initially turned off by the disclaimer mentioning "The Breakfast Club" as I took that to mean the story would be childish and silly (beyond the zombie premise, I mean). With the exception of a few regrettable developments, the story is fairly smart and enjoyable for adult fans of this kind of fiction. The story occasionally gets angsty, but never overly sentimental.
The scenes involving the military (particularly the beginning and the end) are the weakest elements of the story, but don't overly detract from what largely a quick, enjoyable read.
I liked the new twists offered on the living dead.

This is by far the best book i have ever listened too. Granted, i'm somewhat of new in the book universe, but non the less, i think most people will enjoy this one. I find myself really getting emotionally involved with the characters in this story.

A must for zombie lovers!