Rating: 
Summary: Horrible horror! I've lost my faith!
Review: ... in the publishing industry that is. This book is so terribly written, I could barely force myself to read past the opening passage. Do not let the other reviews suck you in with their praise. The characters lack depth. And it is apparent that they were not even purposefully drawn to be as hollow as they appear as a matter of convention. The point of view is weak and morphs when it is apparent that the story line would have benefitted from something like a strong POV. There are even basic flaws in sentence structure and glaring errors. Did no one even beta read this? It makes me angry to consider that this sort of amateur content is published when skilled writers languish in the slush piles.
Rating: 
Summary: Reign of the Dead
Review: A BIG disappointment! After following many glowing reviews, I purchased this book. Little did I know that the content reflects something out of a basic writing course. Characters and plot are shallow to an almost absurd degree. Chapters run, in some cases, only one page. The main characters are cardboard cut-outs. There is practically no tension in the story. The sudden, convenient ending (no spoilers here) came abruptly and without any logic.
Max Brook's Zombie Survival Guide was a much better representation of the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Dreadful
Review: Absolutely dreadful. Where was this man's editor? The plot is the sort of thing a pre-adolescent might dream up, the characters are as dull as can be, and my 5-year-old can construct a better sentence. At first, I kept reading because I thought there had to be a reason the book was this bad -- perhaps the author was playing some kind of trick on us. When it became clear he was serious, I started actually enjoying the book's awfulness, waiting to see how bad it could possibly get. Pretty darn bad, as it turns out, culminating in an absolutely ludicrous ending.
Rating:
Summary: Get This Man an Editor
Review: As far as zombie fiction goes, this story gets a solid "ehhhh." It's a connect-the-dots tale that all but files the serial numbers off of George A. Romero's zombie works. The few interesting ideas that crop up (a mention of an intelligent zombie, for one) are then tossed away and ignored completely. Characterization can only be called lacking, as well.One bit of advice for Mr. Barnhart...hire an editor, posthaste. Basic grammar goes out the window with the persistent run-on sentences, fragments, and gross misspellings. Phrases like "he shuttered in fear" (instead of "shuddered") and "he was weary of the plan" (instead of "wary") make reading the book a chore. All in all, it reads like a first novel, and I hope Mr. Barnhart learns from the experience and improves his craft. (All my criticisms aside, I've already purchased the sequel. What can I say? I'm a sucker for zombie stories.)
Rating: 
Summary: Guily Pleasure.
Review: Barnhart has some very imaginative ideas. I especially like the zombies in the prison, the underground military base and the religious cult that punishes evildoers by tossing them in the undead infested basement. Unfortunately some of the ideas are just kinda grazed over. What happened to the teenager thrown in the basement? That could have been very scary. What happened to the hand grenades found at the army depot? That could have been explosive!
Despite all that and the punctuation errors I still enjoyed the book and can't wait to read the next installment. I guess that classifies this as a guilty pleasure.
Rating: 
Summary: A gruesome, entertaining book.
Review: Being a fan of Night of the Living Dead and other assorted zombie movies, I was very intrigued when I happened upon Reign of the Dead. After reading it, all I can say is that I was thorougly impressed. The story itself isn't very complex. A man named Jim Workman retreats to the Blue Ridge Mountains for 3 weeks to get away from society for a while. Going through divorce proceedings and a rough time on the job, he didn't want any contact at all with the outside world...no phone, no tv, not even a radio. When he returns after his hiatus, he finds the world to be a very different, horrifying place. From there, the terror and action begin. While not the best writer in the world, the author certainly captures the essence of George Romero-esque zombies. While there certainly wasn't much anything new in terms of zombie behavior that we've all probably seen in classic films, the author definitely keeps your attention with the details. The descriptions and behavior of the ghouls in the book are very easy to picture, and genuinely creepy. There were a few minor spelling errors and other grammatical mistakes, but nothing to suddenly become an English Professor and start ranting about. They were so easy to overlook that you would have to be determined to find grammar errors to actually notice them. The only real problem I had with the writing was that the chapters were so short. There was over 100 chapters, each one no more than 1 or 2 pages long. Some chapters were nothing but a single paragraph. The writer could've easily just condensed many chapters into one, which would have made the book a bit more managed. Since there were so many short chapters jumping to and fro, following multiple plots, it just felt very jumbled and disorganized. Some of the characters are rather poorly conceived, and many of the names (Jim Workman, for example) just seem so made-up. Despite that, most of the characters are very likable. This book borrows pretty much everything you can learn from movies like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and others, but reading and watching a movie are two completely different things. I found some of the descriptions in this book more gruesome than anything I've actually watched in zombie flicks, yet at the same time it was not as over the top and disgusting as some of the scenes in zombie films. However, there are some parts that are generally disturbing, and I would warn those that have a weak stomach about certain scenes. I had to put the book down for a while after one particular scene in the prison that was a little too disturbing for my tastes. It was definitely an unforgettable part of the book. The best part about it is that I absolutely could not put the book down. It was a fairly short book, and I tore through it in only 2 days. I finished more than half the book in one day, and the rest of it the next. That may be attributed mainly to the fact that the book was so short, and the text was large, but it was also very gripping. I had a strong urge to finish the book and I was very satisfied in the end. My overall opinion of the book was that it was a great read, and something a bit different than what I usually read. It was suspenseful, terrifying, gruesome and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: I was psyched to read this after Dawn of the Dead's remake
Review: But man this was disappointing. I figured this would be a good book to take on vacation and do some fun reading. My problem was that the guy writing it seemed to get tired of his own story toward the end. He made up some really cool ideas and then kind of let them slide or ended it with something lame. Yeah, I know, zombies are running around and stuff and that's all cool but this book made me want to go find a better zombie book to read.
Rating:
Summary: "When de ded walk senoir....we must stop de killing!"
Review: Hmmm, Recent dead rise from the grave and kill the living. Very Original!!! Quick someone get my buddy George Romero on the phone, maybe he can buy the film rights!! Or maybe some Italian director if Romero is busy! HAHA Like Fulci, no wait he's dead!! Um... Bava, Rami, Umberti, Degatto........?????
Rating:
Summary: No new twists to an old story
Review: I admit that I love Zombie fiction. There are some great ones out there. I had high hopes for this story. I really felt this could have been fleshed out (bad pun - sorry) much better. All of the characters seemed to be sketched lightly and I had no real reason to care about any of them. The end of the preacher and his followers was almost an afterthought. All in all, typical end of the human race at the hand of zombies story. Nice addition to the collection but not a great story.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK!
Review: I am not normally a fan of this genre (scary and graphic) unless it is exceptional and this book is just that. What a great story. It really draws you in to this desperate situation and gets right down to the human elimate. I could not put it down! I thought that the character development was top notch and I can't wait for the sequel. While I reserve 5 stars for books like The Stand and Lord of the Rings, this was a strong 4 stars. Loved it.
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