11
Sep102010
BCC’s Double Dare with Leontine’s Book Realm – GUEST REVIEW: The Rising by Brian Keene
by Carolyn • Posted in 3.5 Star Reviews, Authors I-L, BCC's Double Dare, Book Reviews, Brian Keene, Horror, Zombies
Every now and then I like to read outside my comfort zone – to me it keeps reading fresh. Most recently, the genre I have tried and come to love is the ‘Romance’ genre but I wanted to delve further. There have always been a few sub-genres I wouldn’t touch at ALL, such as Erotic Romance. One such blogger reads erotic romance with relish, and her love and contagious enthusiasm for these books led me to my double dare.
Leontine from Leontine’s Book Realm reads all sorts of romantic sub-genres: M/M, Menage, BDSM, GLBT, so I thought she would be the perfect partner. The fact that Leontine hasn’t read horror for many, many years had me rubbing my hands with glee – this was going to be fun!
So, here is Leontine’s fantastic review of the book I dared her with: THE RISING by Brian Keene – a pretty good zombie novel in my opinion, with lots of tension and of course viscera! If you want to see how I got on with my dare, then pop on over to Leontine’s Book Realm and read my review of LAID BARE by Lauren Dane, an erotic m/m/f/ romance *eek* 
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Title: The Rising
Author: Brian Keene
Publisher: Leisure
Publication Date: Jan 2003
Paperback: 321 pages
Genre: Horror, Zombie
RATING: 7/10
BOOK COVER SUMMARY:
Nothing stays dead for long. The dead are returning to life, intelligent, determined… and very hungry. Escape seems impossible for Jim Thurmond, one of the few left alive in this nightmare world. But Jim’s young son is also alive and in grave danger hundreds of miles away. Despite astronomical odds, Jim vows to find him – or die trying.
Joined by an elderly preacher, a guilt-ridden scientist and an ex-prostitute, Jim sets out on a cross-country rescue mission. Together they must battle both the living and the living dead… and the even greater evil that awaits them at the end of their journey.
REVIEW:
When Carolyn contacted me with the proposal of a double dare I could not refuse the challenge. She would read and review a book from one of my favorite genres and vice versa. She gave me three options; Anne Rice’s INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE – Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND and Brian Keene’s THE RISING. The first two titles I saw as movies and I wanted to go in to the book with an unspoiled mind so I chose option #3 Brian Keene’s THE RISING. I ordered my copy, I received it and already the cover notified me of the chills and thrills to come. There was no hunk on it flashing his abs that triggered the instinctual; “hubba hubba come to Leontine” reaction. So after a week I gathered up my courage and cracked the spine of THE RISING which Library Journal deemed “Not for the squeamish!” and all I could go was *eek*
There was no easing in to this story as Brian Keene immediately threw me into a world infested with humans turned zombies and there were very few survivors left. The first one I met was Jim Thurmond, a construction worker from Lewisburg who got a desperate call from his son to come save him. Instantly I was hooked because the desperation emanated from Jim was well written in a no-nonsense writing style. Jim’s situation was dire with all of his friends, family and even his second wife turned zombie and hunting him down. Even in the face of tremendous adversity Jim went on the journey to save his son.
I literally flew through the first hundred and twenty five pages. The set-up of various character storylines kept me in its grip, the origin of the zombies was a major trigger for me and this all caught me off guard. It must’ve been ten years ago since I’ve read my last horror story but this was nail biting good. Befitting the genre the abundant descriptive telling of how the zombies looked and how they managed to create more zombies was creeping me out. Next to that my gag reflex was working overtime with the flesh eating or the descriptions of missing limbs or intestines *shivers in horror* In the first part the alternate point of view switched between Reverend Thomas Martin, prostitute Frankie and Professor William Baker and I was wondering when their storylines would all come together.
This was one of the two let-downs I had with THE RISING. The blurb suggests that all of these characters would come together at one point and journey with Jim to find his son. None was less true as each has his or her journey to make to briefly come together in the end. Jim was most of the way accompanied by revered Thomas Martin but with the alternating storylines that first impact of the story diminished somewhat. The author kept a great pace in the storytelling and the dangers where plenty which definitely kept my fear at an alleviated level. But it was the promise of those initial chapters where the personal interest attached me to Jim that gradually fizzled along with the greater tension if he would make it or not.
The second let-down was the origin of the zombies; in the beginning I received information via professor William Baker’s storyline that there was something divine behind the zombies. I always love a good versus evil plotline so to say I was in my happy zone at first was an understatement. Only the author also let this plot twist fade to the background not to be mentioned again for the better part of the story. I was left with questions mainly about their back story; how did they become trapped in the first place? What is their origin? What truly happens to the human soul? I’m a reader who wants the details and my only guess is that the author likes to let the reader’s fantasy work on its own too.
Save these two disappointments and as far as I’m adequate enough to tell you THE RISING is horror with a good twist. With Jim, reverend Thomas, Frankie and Prof. Baker the chases, the threat of turning zombie and the goal of saving Danny accumulated in to a harrowing read that does justice of this genre. Next to these characters the National Guard with Colonel Schow became the worst of what humankind can do to each other. With the grim situation of no government it was the biggest, the toughest and the meanest that ruled all and I can tell you that some National Guard characters really triggered the ‘punch-in-face’ reaction from me.
Brian Keen, with his descriptive writing, gave little to hope for. He created a gritty and bleak situation and world but all the while I kept a little flare of hope that there would be some form of good that would be victorious over all this evil. I guess it is my genre of preference, romance, that stubbornly kept popping up but oh how Brian Keene made it clash with his kind of horror. The ending is probably worthy of much appraisal and befitting the entire story but my hope was stomped and trotted on by the zombies who laughed in my face.
VERDICT:
All in all I can tell you that I have enjoyed this dare, just to step out of my comfort zone and be completely entertained by a book I otherwise never would’ve picked up. I would’ve liked to see a few things different but the interesting characters, the fast-paced story that was a consecutive of chills, thrills and heart pounding horror, and the fact I will not forget this read any time soon made up a great deal!
SOURCE: Leontine purchased this book herself.
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**Check out my dare review from Leontine of erotic romance, LAID BARE by Lauren Dane over at Leontine’s Book Realm**
11 Comments
OMG Leontine, I couldn't read this book but kudos to you for daring it.
The book sounds fascinating but I'm sure I like horror movies more cuz they leave me some space. Book always make me feel the story so much more and this book..*shudders*
Great review!
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@Susi – A book or a movie, they can both make me feel the fear skitter over my skin LOL I actually found out that THE RISING has a sequel and I'm actually contemplating on buying it – I can see Carolyn rub her hands in victory now LOL – since the ending left a few things open too.
I can recommend you to set up a double dare to with someone Susi, it's such great fun! Just your reaction to reading a book out of your comfort zone can become great entertainment, both for yourself and in conveying it in your review for others too
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Leontine – Hehe, I'm pleased that The Rising has at least got you thinking about reading the sequel! It's the same for me though, I've already bought Coming Undone, so I'd say you are the victorious one! LOL
Thanks again for being my double dare partner – it certainly was an adventure!
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I'm just about to head off to read Carolyn's review on your site. But, this is such a fun idea! It's interesting to read your review and as you say your reaction to the book too.
Like Carolyn, I love horror. But have never in my life picked up erotic romance. Maybe I should set myself a dare!
But, I really enjoyed this feature & your review
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What a great challenge! While Brian Keene is one of my favorite horror authors, some of his books are pretty tough (in the gory sense!) to read. Kudos to Leontine for reading this!
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@Book Chick City – Coming Undone is a more traditional contemporary erotic romance so perhaps that one is even more to your liking
@Laura Summers – That's how I discovered books that are now treasured books on my shelves. It's probably my scatter brain or my broad interests that trigger the need to venture in to uncharted territories. Even within my own genres I can push the envelope with authors who can take it to the extreme
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That cover is friggin fantastic. Sounds like a book I need to read!
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I love this dare idea! It's so nice to see you reviewing a horror book, Leontine! Like Susi said, I wouldn't consider reading this book, and admire you for doing it! Kudos to Carolyn for setting you, and herself, up for this dare!
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Lol, way to go Leontine to read this one! So out of my comfort zone
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Great review. I'm not sure I will read it though. I've only read one other Brian Keene by, Urban Gothic, and I didn't care for it all that much. I thought it was more of the same.
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@Smash Attack – If you like horror you should definitely give it a try
@Janna – Carolyn has great ideas and I was excited from the moment I read her request e-mail
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@Blodeuedd – I kinda blame my mum here. She always said to give all things one try and if I didn't like it at least I tried and I could always tell people why i didn't like it
@Ryan G – And this is where my newbie status in this genre pops up. I haven't got all that much books <- read none, to compare it with. The books I read in this genre were in my late teens and early tweens and the memories are vague to say the least
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