Dearly, Departed

Dearly, Departed
Lia Habel
382 pages
Publisher: Random House
Source: NetGalley
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I first became aware of this book through a Goodreads giveaway, which I sadly did not win.  I tried to procure a hardcopy ARC and failed so when I saw it on NetGalley I jumped at the chance.  It looked like such an amazing book, and I wasn't disappointed... too much.

In 2195 in New Victoria, a group of zombies is emerging.  Just as their semester ends, Nora and Pamela are separated by a zombie attack and Nora is captured by a group of them.  There, Nora learns that her father is one of the undead, trying to create a vaccine to prevent the disease from spreading.  Meanwhile, Pamela is back in New Victoria, trying to convince her family that something much more serious than they think is going on.

Dearly, Departed is a steampunk zombie apocalypse novel with a side of girl-power.  That might sound like a lot, but it was very cohesive and drew me in right away.  My favorite part of the book was Pamela - I loved her character!  She stood up for what she believed in and was one step ahead of the general public.  I loved that she was able to overcome her prejudices and help her enemy in a time of crisis.

I did think there were a few too many viewpoints in the novel and maybe limiting it to Pamela, Nora, and Nora's father would have been more effective.  More importantly, though, I would have liked to have seen more steampunk-y goodness in the way of tech, gadgets, and transportation.  Most of the steampunk genre was demonstrated though clothing choices and might give readers unaccustomed to genre the wrong idea.

Finally, I just want to add that I hope this human and zombie falling in love thing doesn't catch on.  There really is nothing sexy about a zombie.

Dearly, Departed is out now!  Check it out if you'd like to see what Twilight with zombies would look like.