Review: Zombie Whisperer by Caterina Torres

Zombie Whisperer by Caterina Torres

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Dear god, am I actually doing a REVIEW??? Why I am! The review here is going to be SPOILERIFIC, if you don't want spoilers, well, head on over to Zombie Whisperer's Goodreads page. I shall be posting a less spoilery review there. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU

Now, onto the review!

Now, I'm not much into the Zombie trend. Although I absolutely love the Resident Evil games, I just feel there is only so far the Zombie trend can be brought before it nosedives into corny territory.

Caterina proved me wrong.

Zombie Whisperer is about a young woman named Jane Smith who woke up from an illness to find the world as she knew it turned upside down: the zombie apocalypse had happened. After escaping to her boyfriend, Josh Williams', house, the pair make a mad dash to the East Coast and possible safety, but not before they are captured by the very people who created the zombies. That is where Jane learns more than she would ever want to know about her family history and her newfound abilities; she can control the very creatures that had destroyed everything.

I love this idea she brought to the table. This mix of science and the metaphysical with zombies. I actually envy her ability to do this without having the reader go 'Author! Will you just PICK one already??'. I love it when authors really challenge the 'rules' of their genre.

Now for the spoiler part.


I really, really, really struggled with Jane and Gerald's relationship. It's not because I wanted to. I really wanted to route for them, but, frankly, there wasn't much set up for their relationship. Which was a tad sad since the second part of the book really relied on the reader believing Jane is falling for Gerald.

Jane spent and entire year in the underground facility. Plenty of time to get to know Gerald, but we were never shown this, only told. In fact, the entire build up for their relationship was summarized in one chapter, which really disappointed me.

This was the same for Darla also. Someone who, ultimately, was so intrumental in getting Jane to finally control her powers and defeat Cassidy. Yet, we didn't get to see these vastly important relationships develop and grow. Only briefly summarized in a single chapter. To be honest, when I read that chapter. I thought Darla and Gerald played vastly different roles.

Not to say this couldn't be easily fixed. I found a lot of the president's chapters to be redundant, repeating things I learned maybe a page or two back. I know authors need to constantly remind their readership about various things, but I think don't think we readers needed to be reminded every other page. Frankly, some of these chapters could have been cut and that space and words used to develop the relationships between Jane and Darla and Gerald during the year they are underground.

There was another issue I had, namely with Cassidy's motives. I know she is insane, but I dont think it ever really explained what made her snap. Yes, the housing market crash was and is horrible but I fail to see how that affected Cassidy personally. She comes across as narcissistic and selfish. I don't see her creating a genocide just because a couple of friends lost everything in the economy crash. No matter how close she was to them. Psychopaths only think of themselves, first and foremost and solely.

Now, my complaints might seem long winded, but that is only because I tend to over explain things. That is why I annoy people who's books I critique.

I am hoping to do more reviews of books I come across. Though, I'm a very slow reader, so this may be fairly inconsistent.