Hissers

By: Ryan C. Thomas

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

It's the last weekend of summer break in the small town of Castor, and four teenage friends are about to attend the most popular end-of-summer high-school party in town...with a massive wave of mutated undead about to crash the party. It's The Breakfast Club meets Resident Evil as the teens of Castor fight to stay alive. 

BONUS SHORT STORY: Hissers includes "Confidentiality", one of four interlocking stories from The Junkie Quatrain by Peter Clines.

©2010 Ryan C. Thomas (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Heart stopping

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

Y.A. ?

The main characters are 14. They face several problems in normal everyday life. Due to the characters and subject matter involving them you would think this to be young adult, but the gore element is tremendous. Yet to be an adult book the gore element lacked intensity. The author would be like, the guy's tongue was hanging out of the slit in his throat. I believe a better author would have made you cringe, where as here it was more matter of fact.

I liked the characters, they grew on me. They all had problems and most of them did not have perfect parents. Yet the parents were not total bad guys. In real life parents make mistakes and it is nice to see them not demonized for it.

I found myself thinking looking back 40 years to when I was 14 and about my friends then.

The author did a good job, not great, I will listen to more of his if on sale, but it is not worth full price.

You want good adult Zombies, get "Patient Zero" by Jonathan Maberry.

stephen king of zombies

Any additional comments?

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.

Change of pace. Original

Any additional comments?

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.

extremely enjoyable, a pleasant surprise

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

Stephen King... but better

WOW!

Such an unexpected awesome story. Hissers is heavily indebted to Stephen King. I've read almost every one of King's books. The story telling is fashioned in vintage 70's King style. And the characters could exist in any King novel. But this is a step beyond anything King ever wrote.

The story drags at a couple of points but only for a short while. The character development is very strong, though I felt that some of what the youngsters were internalizing was beyond the age Ryan Thomas set for them. & lastly, I have a little beef with the Hissers themselves, the story played with the abilities of the creatures in a way that made them seem too convenient depending on the plot needs.

in the end, this is a book you HAVE TO PICK UP AND READ. Or should I say, LISTEN TO.

Good Zombie Fun

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.

Fun & Fast-Paced

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.

Sadly...a bit boring

I don't know...maybe cause it's been a long time since I was 14, but this book really did nothing for me. Unless your a teenager, you'll probably have a hard time connecting to the characters. I have 2 teenage boys, so maybe they'll enjoy it. But I have a feeling that they'll be dissapointed by the lame ending. It's like the author forgot to finish the story.

Best book ever!

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!