Antony J. Stanton: Once Bitten, Twice Die

You know I love post-apocalyptic books. And you know I love vampires (duh!) so how could I resist buying the first book of a trilogy just about that. Wait a moment, did anyone say zombies? Vampires and zombies? Well, now I am genuinely intrigued because I don't remember ever reading a book with the combination of these two species. Subspecies. Whatever. You know what I mean. Let's not talk imaginative creatures' biology right now.

So, this time we arrive into postapocalyptic Britain (finally somewhere more close to reality where not many people have guns at home) where some mad rushed scientists wanted to cure dementia and winded up with crazy people instead. Due to a series of unfortunate events the "cure" got distributed all over the world and before anyone started noticing odd behaviour and realized that the disease can be spread by biting, !POOF! most people died or became zombies. There is a military base which holds its ground and scavenges for food which is good in short-term but what about later?

And the vampires? The book cover promised vampires! They are hidden. They've been hidden for centuries after all and the British clan which is closest to the military base is unsure of what to do. See, there is a fraction there. The leader wants to wait before making any decision while some feel this is the right time to finally reveal themselves and rule the world - with people as cattle. 

It's a very enjoyable read given the fact that it's the author's very first book and it wouldn't even exist had he not made a bet with his friends. I mean, it's got vampires (not so much now but I hope for seeing them more in the following books), it's got survivors trying to figure out how to live while losing everyone they love, there's no time for cheesy romance, it's action packed, and there's interesting character development everyone tends to overlook until it's too late. Only if the people weren't so full of themselves, they would have prevented so much trouble. Oh yeah.

Anyway, you know I have to lower the score because of the cliffhanger. And there is one particular thing which nagged me the whole time. It's not about the story. It's about the print. When I saw yellowish pages I was happy because it hurts people's eyes less. Yay! But then I noticed that the ends of the lines weren't aligned. It was so distracting! I just discovered my biggest bookish pet peeve! It's not the annoying stickers you never get rid of or broken spines and folded corners. No. It's the text which hasn't been put into a nice block. Just look how much you hate this paragraph when you compare it to the ones above! Wow. Really. Sometimes I held my breath as I was turning the page if I'd miraculously see a page set right. Nope. The person responsible for it should rethink their career because book design isn't probably it.

GENRE: postapocalyptic

FANGS OUT: a ton of action and innovative elements
FANGS RETRACTING: cliffhanger, the ends of lines make my eyes weep blood
TOTAL SCORE: