Dead Meat: Day 1 by Nick Clausen – Spoiler Review

It’s time for my in-depth spoiler review of Dead Meat: Day 1 that I posted a review of last week. I’m really excited to have this be the first book that I review in this way since I started my new review system. I hope that you all enjoy it but let this be the fair spoiler warning, if you want to read my non-spoiler review instead you can find it here.

And with that lets dive right in..

So I’m going to be breaking this down by various categories, this will not be a direct retelling of the book, if you want synopsis or links to Goodreads you can find that information in my non-spoiler review. I will link to Amazon to purchase this book at the end of this review and I do hope that you buy it!

Plot:

Obviously this is a story about zombies. But the one thing that this doesn’t have is a starting point of a virus. The story is set in a house that is in a rural area and therefore disconnected from people. It’s enclosed and a lot of what happens in this first book happens within and just outside of the house.

The main characters that start the story are there because of a paper route, they find a zombie old lady and run to the basement. I mean, I would have run to my car but hey, does that make a story? No it does not. Anyway, things escalate quickly. The girl, Jennie, turns from a scratch, they find a young zombie child while trying to get away, one of them gets out of the basement and finds that of course there is more people outside. The father to the young child and his wife. Things of course go sideways and well, I’ll go into just what in the twists section.

I liked that the starting point of the zombies was a spell that the owner of the house attempted to bring back her grand-daughter who had died. I didn’t get a clear understanding of how the girl died but that the grandmother sacrificed a chicken or some such to do a blood ritual in the basement.

The main characters discover this ritual room and from the books and the residuals of the ritual itself surmise that that is what caused the grandmother to become a zombie because the young girl came back to life. If there is an interesting way to start a damn zombie apocalypse this is it folks. It was one of my favorite reveals to this story for sure.

Characters:

There are three main characters really. Jennie in the beginning that turns, obviously isn’t a main since she’s a zombie, I didn’t have much to think about her because she isn’t really in the picture for much of the book. That leaves the two boys and the wife that was outside. But that main main character is just one. The story mainly is from his perspective more than anyone else’s.

Thomas: He’s by far my favorite of the story. A natural leader that doesn’t really want that kind of responsibility the first part of the story he is just looking to break up with his girlfriend. They do break up but really that’s cause she became a zombie so, love can’t be a thing there ya know? He cares for his friend and wants to also save the world. He is smart but also makes mistakes and I enjoyed that he wasn’t perfect.

Dan: Is sweet and you can’t help but love him as well. He’s innocent but can be brave even when he’s scared. His sister is the one that turned in the beginning and there is that moment where you worry that he’s going to have a difficult time remembering that she’s not really his sister once she wakes back up and tries to eat him. He doesn’t and is able to come out of the house and this story alive.

Linda: The wife, she’s hiding in the car the whole time, her step-daughter ate her husbands aka her dad’s intestines effectively turning him into a zombie as well. She is the least developed character because she comes in basically at the end but I liked her. She struggled with her husband being a zombie, with all of it but was able to put on her big girl pants and run over the damn zombies when they needed to be ran over.

Twists:

Really the big twist for me was what happens to Thomas. It is amazing and so perfect for the setting of the beginning of a zombie end of the world. Thomas in his escape walks over broken glass that the zombie girl had been walking over repeatedly. A piece of said glass stabs into his foot, he’s in a rush, he’s trying to get out so that he can save Dan and stop all this so he doesn’t think about it.

It is written in such a way that I didn’t really think about it either. So when it’s much later and he’s sweating, talking about his foot that it’s clear what happens even before Thomas realizes it himself. And does he go out in the best damn way, he saves Dan by getting him to the other woman’s car, and he’s able to kill a couple of the zombies.

But what makes his ending real fun is that Dan still tries to save Thomas by bringing him to the hospital only to realize that he’s turned and they set the car on fire with Zombie Thomas in the trunk. Like I said…what a way to go out!

Ending:

The ending is clearly just the beginning of the story since there are more books and of course Dan realizes that while they killed the other zombies, they completely forgot about his dear dear zombie sister, Jennie. What crazy fun that will bring!

I think the ending makes the most sense considering that this isn’t the only book. It’s not meant to give you a full amount of closure but leave you wanting to read what happens next. I found that I was pleased with how it ended and certainly want to know what happens with Jennie.

Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed this book a lot, and I would highly recommend it for anyone that wants to read a story about zombies. Nick does a fantastic job here and I’m so happy that he gave me this copy to read and review. If you do like this book please consider purchasing through the link below, it will help support my blog without any additional cost to you, and it will support a wonderful author that deserves it.

Buy on Amazon!!