Allison Hewitt Is Trapped: A Zombie Novel

I liked that this story remained narrow-focussed and intimate. And it kept to that track almost throughout, and only got a little broader towards the end. Allison's survival depended upon making lucky choices a lot of the time, but after a while you start having to wonder when that luck was going to run out.

There was good character development here, and the tragedy and its impact on the characters is explored convincingly.

I've read several zombie novels now that rely upon a "diary" structure, and personally I don't know what the motivation is for that construction. It's not necessary to the story, and in many places punctures the tension due to the obvious "I lived to write about it" necessity of the form. Yes, it's used to bookend the story, but for me it could have been scrapped in lieu of a straightforward narrative and been the better for it.

Overall a very good listen, though, and I will look out for more from this author.

As a book lover myself I had to appreciate a story that starts out set in a book store which is written in blog format. Allison Hewitt, the lead of our story naturally, is a graduate student in English. Which overall would make you think that she has little use in a zombie outbreak scenario. But she proves that wrong, with her quick and expert utilization of a fire axe.

Written as a find in the future that is being submitted to a literary collection addressing the zombie outbreak, this novel collects the posts and comments (which give a nice flavor for how the rest of the country is dealing with things, something that is often lacking in other books once the comm's go down (taken care by the concept of SafeNet, a (almost magical network to a techie like me) network that was meant for last minute coordination in a grid down scenario)). Any story where the main character almost gets whacked because she is so focused on getting some new reading material to alleviate the boredom is one that I enjoy and relate to. Of course I have a harder time seeing myself being so unprepared and untrained as she is, but it is things like that which make the character relate able.

Overall a well written novel that provides a satisfying end for the story, with a unique voice and very familiar writing style. Only part of the audiobook I didn't like was the whole keyboard clicking during the comments sections... really unecessary.

The good: Fine narration and the author is very descriptive and tries hard to establish characters, soemtimes effectively. It deosn't deteriorate into a dumb action/gore story, which I feared it would.

The bad: It starts out all right, with a story line and characters we can begin to follow and care about. But it degrades it to some endless twist-a-plot, with new scenarios at every turn, none related to the one that came before, established characters discarded with no continuity to move on to the next piece in a way that feels disconnected and not well planned. The internal machinations and goings on of the main character stop being moving at a point when it is so disjointed and far too many plot twists and new characters are in play.

The main character loves her missing mother and has a bog to inspire others, both of which get abandoned as nothing for long portions then recalled when the plot lags, as a convenience, rather than a defining mission it seems.

On the whole it started out ok, but too many characters, too many plot changes, nothing is followed through, as though there was no real plan for the story - even the main character's blog starts to feel like an interjection or a footnote, though it is supposed to be the defining means of conveying the story.

In a lot of ways, it is like it's own medium - a blog. The main drive of the story is supposed to be a personal blig durign a zombie apolcolypse. And like most personal blogs, it is disjointed and feels random... though it has a zombie apocolypse to define it, the story itself has a meandering, amateur personal bloggy feel to it.

For those sci fi, there is none of that here - no explanations or exploration of why the zmbies have happened, there is no medical accouint of it - no explanation or even a description of how it happened. Not that this is a bad thing - but just understand that this is a character study, not a piece of sci-fi or a medical thriller, or even a survival story

This was the first zombie book I've had the pleasure to listen to. Not at all what I expected and that's a good thing...! I could not stop listening to this book! You've just got to find out what will happen next to these characters. Just enough gore to remind you that it is a book about zombies and it has characters you can really care about. Looking forward to listening to a sequel. Nicely done!

I may, it was a easy listen.

There were many memorable moments,

This was my first listen by the narrator, she did a really good job :)

Not really, this is more a action book.

Interesting story line.

i liked how the story started with employees at a book store.

i think the narrator fit the character quite well.

it was worth the credit and i would listen again.

Easily one of the best "zombie" books I've listened to. You get invested in the characters quickly. Maybe it's because I used to work in a bookstore and could almost see where Allison was originally trapped, but the detailed descriptions allowed me to visualize the story being played out. Truly enjoyable.

I never read the print version so I have nothing to compare it to.

I'm not sure which was better, the story or the performance. Both were top notch and kept me riveted.

This was my first.

I'd take Ned and Allison. Shame she ended up with Collin and not Ned.

I was iffy at first about a story based on blogs. I'm not one to like

I remember this story before it got published, back when it was a fictional blog that I came upon through fazed. In it's original medium it felt more interactive, it's nice to see some of the comments made it into the final published work. Can't wait until Madeleine's next release!!!!!!

This audiobook starts out interesting but does not give you any great thrills.
It is very slow going. The overall story gets summed up in the last 3 minutes of the book.
Disappointing...