CK Fiction

I love a good zombie story. I also enjoy short, easy reads. This title is the perfect combination of those two things.

The story is told from the perspective of multiple characters in the form of journal entries. The characters are all family members that own and operate a junkyard in West Virginia. They all have unique and useful backgrounds, making them a perfect team to survive and find answers for why everything went wrong. The story takes you from the junkyard in West Virginia, to Fort Belvoir outside of Washington D.C., to a third destination that I won’t name to avoid spoiler territory.

While you get a sense of the rural, small town mentality, there is a level of eloquence from the characters that wouldn’t seem typical from that area, and the local dialect is missing from the dialogue.

The story tends to focus on the humanity aspect during a zombie apocalypse, and what people are capable of when push comes to shove. Zombies were present in the background of the story, but rarely provided much threat to the group of heroes. Most of the conflict came between the survivors and how they interacted with one another.

My biggest piece of critical feedback would pertain to formatting issues. There were several odd spacing issues and paragraph breaks, but that’s just nitpicking. In terms of the actual plot, I would have liked to see the zombies serve a more imposing threat. There was also travel over some lengthy distances, and the difficulty that would come along with that could have used more focus to challenge the group as well. The structure is solid, I just would have liked to see some topics and scenes expanded a bit more.

Overall, as mentioned, this was a short, easy read. If you can get past the formatting issues (which are just distracting, but don’t detract from the story itself), this is a fun zompoc that you should certainly check out. The resolution was an interesting one, and was satisfactory to boot. I give it three broken down tanks out of five.

Hey there! It’s been awhile, huh? I’m going to blame it on life and leave out the specifics. Now that we have that agreed on, let me share my latest reading conquest with you!

Die by Proxy is the second book in Ben Oneal’s Benjamin Kroh series. The first book was a fun read that left me ready for the sequel. Book two did not disappoint.

FBI Agent Kroh gets called back to his home area when a mysterious vigilante, known only as Mr. Smith, leaves a trail of bodies along Interstate-69 throughout Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky. Mr. Smith becomes something of a folk hero, as his victims are all discovered to be violent, sexual predators. What Kroh doesn’t know, is that Mr. Smith has a grudge and a personal vendetta against him. Once Kroh and his team become the primary targets, the race is on for Kroh to connect the seemingly non-existent dots to protect himself and his loved ones.

The story is well-crafted, and the clues leave you guessing well into the third act. Like the first book, Die by Proxy is told in first-person from the perspective of Benjamin Kroh, with some chapters being third-person when Kroh isn’t involved. The dialogue can get downright corny at times, but in a fun, light-hearted way.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the Benjamin Kroh series so far, and am looking forward to book three, Die by Vengeance. I give Die by Proxy five severed hands out of five.