What do you think?
Rate this book
Zombie #1
Allison Hewitt Is Trapped
One woman's story as she blogs - and fights back - the zombie apocalypse"
Allison Hewitt and her five colleagues at the Brooks and Peabody Bookstore are trapped together when the zombie outbreak hits. Allison reaches out for help through her blog, writing on her laptop and utilizing the military's emergency wireless network (SNET). It may also be her only chance to reach her mother. But as the reality of their situation sinks in, Allison's blog becomes a harrowing account of her edge-of-the-seat adventures (with some witty sarcasm thrown in) as she and her companions fight their way through ravenous zombies and sometimes even more dangerous humans.
Allison Hewitt and her five colleagues at the Brooks and Peabody Bookstore are trapped together when the zombie outbreak hits. Allison reaches out for help through her blog, writing on her laptop and utilizing the military's emergency wireless network (SNET). It may also be her only chance to reach her mother. But as the reality of their situation sinks in, Allison's blog becomes a harrowing account of her edge-of-the-seat adventures (with some witty sarcasm thrown in) as she and her companions fight their way through ravenous zombies and sometimes even more dangerous humans.
340 pages, Paperback
First published January 18, 2011
About the author
Madeleine Roux
40 books4,606 followersNew York Times Bestselling Author of the ASYLUM series, Allison Hewitt Is Trapped, Sadie Walker Is Stranded and the upcoming House of Furies series.
MADELEINE ROUX received her BA in Creative Writing and Acting from Beloit College in 2008. In the spring of 2009, Madeleine completed an Honors Term at Beloit College, proposing, writing and presenting a full-length historical fiction novel. Shortly after, she began the experimental fiction blog Allison Hewitt Is Trapped. Allison Hewitt Is Trapped quickly spread throughout the blogosphere, bringing a unique serial fiction experience to readers.
Born in Minnesota, she now lives and works in Seattle, Washington.
MADELEINE ROUX received her BA in Creative Writing and Acting from Beloit College in 2008. In the spring of 2009, Madeleine completed an Honors Term at Beloit College, proposing, writing and presenting a full-length historical fiction novel. Shortly after, she began the experimental fiction blog Allison Hewitt Is Trapped. Allison Hewitt Is Trapped quickly spread throughout the blogosphere, bringing a unique serial fiction experience to readers.
Born in Minnesota, she now lives and works in Seattle, Washington.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 512 reviews
June 9, 2011
I first picked up this book due to the interesting concept, "Allison Hewitt is Trapped" being a stitch-up work designed from a blogged novel. I truly wanted to enjoy this book, and while the basic idea appealed to me, for several reasons the narrative is flawed and ultimately did not deliver the goods.
It's a brave experiment, attempting to invest chick-lit sensibilities into a post-apocalyptic piece, but one that just doesn't gell when you look at suspension of disbelief. The upbeat aspects of this narrative are a welcome relief from the grinding ennui typical to this subgenre, but when held up against Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the episodic moon-calf introspection of the protagonist is completely misplaced. I just couldn't buy that characters in absolute mortal peril would frequently pause to cogitate about their relationships, have extended D&Ms, and all continuously engage in sassy upbeat dialogue in this somewhat sanitised apocalypse.
Of course characters have relationships, even in wars and natural disasters, but the stakes are significantly higher at these times, the moments of love much more fragile and poignant. This just reads like a post-pubescent's initial approach to awkward romantic liaisons, occasionally interrupted by starvation and what should be a terrifying wave of rotting cannibal corpses (but aren't).
(And seriously, how is there a working wireless router every 3 blocks, when the wheels have fallen off everything else?)
That's not to say there aren't enjoyable plot twists in this story, but the supporting characters are cipher-like at best, the protagonist is a Mary Sue if ever there was one, and the framing aspects of the chapters (comments threads from the blogged experience of the protagonist) are distracting.
Humour in such a dark setting is hard to pull off, but I'm gonna have to sadly give a thumbs down to this genre mash-up. Apparently there's a sequel to this book, I'd be interested to see if a purpose-written novel in a standard format is a better vehicle for this concept.
It's a brave experiment, attempting to invest chick-lit sensibilities into a post-apocalyptic piece, but one that just doesn't gell when you look at suspension of disbelief. The upbeat aspects of this narrative are a welcome relief from the grinding ennui typical to this subgenre, but when held up against Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the episodic moon-calf introspection of the protagonist is completely misplaced. I just couldn't buy that characters in absolute mortal peril would frequently pause to cogitate about their relationships, have extended D&Ms, and all continuously engage in sassy upbeat dialogue in this somewhat sanitised apocalypse.
Of course characters have relationships, even in wars and natural disasters, but the stakes are significantly higher at these times, the moments of love much more fragile and poignant. This just reads like a post-pubescent's initial approach to awkward romantic liaisons, occasionally interrupted by starvation and what should be a terrifying wave of rotting cannibal corpses (but aren't).
(And seriously, how is there a working wireless router every 3 blocks, when the wheels have fallen off everything else?)
That's not to say there aren't enjoyable plot twists in this story, but the supporting characters are cipher-like at best, the protagonist is a Mary Sue if ever there was one, and the framing aspects of the chapters (comments threads from the blogged experience of the protagonist) are distracting.
Humour in such a dark setting is hard to pull off, but I'm gonna have to sadly give a thumbs down to this genre mash-up. Apparently there's a sequel to this book, I'd be interested to see if a purpose-written novel in a standard format is a better vehicle for this concept.
March 26, 2018
Die Geschichte war ein wilder Ritt! Oft völlig durchgeknallt, absolut unlogisch und mit viel derbem Humor. Zum Abschalten für zwischendurch also genau das Richtige!
September 1, 2015
4.5 Stars
'Allison Hewitt is Trapped' is just fantastic. I was absorbed after just a couple of chapters and didn't want to put the book down. Allison is a great character, she's spunky and real - a woman I would like to be if the world was overrun with the undead. She's scared of everything going on around her but she's brave, not afraid to fight and put her life on the line for others.
Allison is locked inside the break room because it's the strongest door in the department store, which means They can't get in. There are also surveillance cameras which are used to keep an eye on what's going on in the store, it's a helpful tool to be able to see where the zombies are, especially when you have to do a food run. Allison is not the only one in the break room. There are five other people who she's sharing the small room with and they are all very different, but all very realistic, personalities.
The relationships between the characters is as close to real-life as you would imagine in such a situation, there's no gun-ho stud with a shotgun over his shoulder, instead it's a skinny chinese guy with broken glasses and a baseball bat. It's a store manager and his golf clubs, it's Allison who's weapon of choice is an axe.
The novel is actually the content of Allison's blog, which she updates regularly, and uses to connect with other survivors. And although I was a little skeptical of this format at first, wondering how the flow of the story would be and how the dialogue would work etc, but I needn't have worried. It's brilliantly written and I couldn't stop myself from reading chapter after chapter - it was very addictive reading.
Eventually Allison and her co-survivors have to leave the break room. Lives are lost, friends are killed and she is longing to know if her mother is safe or one of the undead. I really went on Allison's journey with her and felt every emotion of despair, hope, anger, and complete bewilderment of the circumstances.
From the moment I met the characters in the break room until the end of the novel, which sees Allison far from where she began, it really feels like a long pilgrimage. I could feel Allison and the other survivors become weary, harder, jaded, and their actions and decisions reflect all those feelings. Although Allison does some very bad things I understand why and don't judge her for them.
There is love between certain characters, including Allison but it's written with sensitivity. It's understated romance - there are no sexual scenes and hardly any kissing, it's all shown through Allison's words on her blog and it's believable, tender and heartwarming. There's a lot of heart to this book and I enjoyed it immensely.
VERDICT:
'Allison Hewitt is Trapped' is an emotional rollar coaster and the ending was so perfectly bittersweet it brought tears to my eyes. It's a fast-paced read with believable characters and convincing story that will move you and because of this you will Allison, and the other characters, to succeed and survive. This is no ordinary zombie novel. It's fresh and original and I just loved it.
This book is a must read for fans of horror, urban fantasy and zombie fiction. It's a story that stayed with me for many days after I'd finished it, and a book like that stays on my shelf forever.
'Allison Hewitt is Trapped' is just fantastic. I was absorbed after just a couple of chapters and didn't want to put the book down. Allison is a great character, she's spunky and real - a woman I would like to be if the world was overrun with the undead. She's scared of everything going on around her but she's brave, not afraid to fight and put her life on the line for others.
Allison is locked inside the break room because it's the strongest door in the department store, which means They can't get in. There are also surveillance cameras which are used to keep an eye on what's going on in the store, it's a helpful tool to be able to see where the zombies are, especially when you have to do a food run. Allison is not the only one in the break room. There are five other people who she's sharing the small room with and they are all very different, but all very realistic, personalities.
The relationships between the characters is as close to real-life as you would imagine in such a situation, there's no gun-ho stud with a shotgun over his shoulder, instead it's a skinny chinese guy with broken glasses and a baseball bat. It's a store manager and his golf clubs, it's Allison who's weapon of choice is an axe.
The novel is actually the content of Allison's blog, which she updates regularly, and uses to connect with other survivors. And although I was a little skeptical of this format at first, wondering how the flow of the story would be and how the dialogue would work etc, but I needn't have worried. It's brilliantly written and I couldn't stop myself from reading chapter after chapter - it was very addictive reading.
Eventually Allison and her co-survivors have to leave the break room. Lives are lost, friends are killed and she is longing to know if her mother is safe or one of the undead. I really went on Allison's journey with her and felt every emotion of despair, hope, anger, and complete bewilderment of the circumstances.
From the moment I met the characters in the break room until the end of the novel, which sees Allison far from where she began, it really feels like a long pilgrimage. I could feel Allison and the other survivors become weary, harder, jaded, and their actions and decisions reflect all those feelings. Although Allison does some very bad things I understand why and don't judge her for them.
There is love between certain characters, including Allison but it's written with sensitivity. It's understated romance - there are no sexual scenes and hardly any kissing, it's all shown through Allison's words on her blog and it's believable, tender and heartwarming. There's a lot of heart to this book and I enjoyed it immensely.
VERDICT:
'Allison Hewitt is Trapped' is an emotional rollar coaster and the ending was so perfectly bittersweet it brought tears to my eyes. It's a fast-paced read with believable characters and convincing story that will move you and because of this you will Allison, and the other characters, to succeed and survive. This is no ordinary zombie novel. It's fresh and original and I just loved it.
This book is a must read for fans of horror, urban fantasy and zombie fiction. It's a story that stayed with me for many days after I'd finished it, and a book like that stays on my shelf forever.
April 8, 2011
Cement and concrete are not the same thing, Madeleine. I know you have an MFA, but surely you can learn the distinction.
Well, it's petty obvious I've switched from reading to vivisecting the book as of last night somewhere around page 80 or so. For a zombie novel, there's a hell of a lot of Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility "Oh, I simply cannot marry Ted, for he only wants to marry me because of the zombies and does not truly love me." ACK. That and for some reason our "motivated take-charge" narrator is just fine with "mom" walking the ten blocks to the store even though mom is... old... and a cancer patient. Wait, what? Beyond that, after the first fifty pages, Allison Hewitt is not Trapped.
Five chapters of blabbity blab. (Can you believe they're actually "decluttering" the apartment they're staying in? What's next, putting out Christmas Decorations? Knitting doilies? Five chapters--not a zombie in sight.)
Some zombie novel. Hrmf.
There's a second sequence of chapters sans zombies, and frankly, an overall zombie deficiency, although there is a reasonably decent climax.
Well, it's petty obvious I've switched from reading to vivisecting the book as of last night somewhere around page 80 or so. For a zombie novel, there's a hell of a lot of Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility "Oh, I simply cannot marry Ted, for he only wants to marry me because of the zombies and does not truly love me." ACK. That and for some reason our "motivated take-charge" narrator is just fine with "mom" walking the ten blocks to the store even though mom is... old... and a cancer patient. Wait, what? Beyond that, after the first fifty pages, Allison Hewitt is not Trapped.
Five chapters of blabbity blab. (Can you believe they're actually "decluttering" the apartment they're staying in? What's next, putting out Christmas Decorations? Knitting doilies? Five chapters--not a zombie in sight.)
Some zombie novel. Hrmf.
There's a second sequence of chapters sans zombies, and frankly, an overall zombie deficiency, although there is a reasonably decent climax.
March 28, 2011
When the zombie apocalypse happens, Allison Hewitt is working her regular shift at a local bookstore. Allison and several co-workers hide inside the book store's office, complete with a security monitor and Allison's laptop. As zombies wander the store, Allison and the rest of the survivors must band together to survive and consider their next move as they wonder if help will ever arrive.
Told in the form of blog entries, "Allison Hewitt is Trapped" takes a page from "The Walking Dead" and concentrates less on the hows and whys of the zombie apocalypse and more on how it impacts the characters and civilizations that survive. The story is a personal one for Allison as we watch her grow and develop from those first days, huddled together with fellow book store survivors in a back room to a grizzled veteran whose chosen instrument of zombie destruction is a fire axe.
And while it seems as though zombie novels are a dime a dozen these days, "Allison Hewitt" proves there's still enough life in the genre to keep things interesting and that the genre isn't getting stale just yet. Most of this success stems from the first-person perspective of Allison. By fashioning the book as a series of blog entries, we get to see a bit of self-reflection by Allison on not only the zombie uprising but also how she is changing over the course of the book. Over the course of the story, Allison changes as a character and person, reacting to the on-going situation.
Madeline Roux wisely starts the story small, allowing us to get to know Allison and her fellow survivors a bit before expanding the novel's universe over the course of the story. The journey Allison takes feels authentic and the story rises and falls on her emotions, her victories and her defeats.
Told in the form of blog entries, "Allison Hewitt is Trapped" takes a page from "The Walking Dead" and concentrates less on the hows and whys of the zombie apocalypse and more on how it impacts the characters and civilizations that survive. The story is a personal one for Allison as we watch her grow and develop from those first days, huddled together with fellow book store survivors in a back room to a grizzled veteran whose chosen instrument of zombie destruction is a fire axe.
And while it seems as though zombie novels are a dime a dozen these days, "Allison Hewitt" proves there's still enough life in the genre to keep things interesting and that the genre isn't getting stale just yet. Most of this success stems from the first-person perspective of Allison. By fashioning the book as a series of blog entries, we get to see a bit of self-reflection by Allison on not only the zombie uprising but also how she is changing over the course of the book. Over the course of the story, Allison changes as a character and person, reacting to the on-going situation.
Madeline Roux wisely starts the story small, allowing us to get to know Allison and her fellow survivors a bit before expanding the novel's universe over the course of the story. The journey Allison takes feels authentic and the story rises and falls on her emotions, her victories and her defeats.
December 29, 2014
I wanted to like this book but it was just painful. Alison does all sorts of ridiculous things, she isn't trapped except for the first 5% of the book, her idea of getting along with her fellow survivors is everyone just doing what she says and shutting up, and lastly she is extremely unlikeable. I don't mean imperfect or simply flawed. I mean I wanted to punch her in the face. I wanted her eaten. Just as an example, she has an affair with a married man twice her age (even he admits there is no reason to believe his wife is dead) and then when the wife does show up alive and well Allison has the nerve to be snotty about and to the poor woman. She stops barely short of wishing the wife dead. Alison also flits all over town for various reasons but can't be bothered to go help her sickly cancerous mother instead waiting for her mother to come to HER. She even revenge kills a guy by basically torturing him to death. Did he kill someone she loved and she lost it? Nope. He took some of her stuff. I get shooting looters etc in this circumstance but this grisly death was completely unwarranted.
Also there are some religious women at a camp and guess what? Yep, they're evil. Shocked aren't you. Alison is basically bigoted against the religious women from day one. Really? They were suspicious because they were trying too hard to be helpful and asked people to pray with them GASP! Of course they should be shot immediately! I'm not even a religious person but I have friends and family who are and Alison (and perhaps the author) are just flat out offensive anti-religious bigots. She's rude and snotty to and about basically everyone in the book - even those who were her supposed friends. She's a TERRIBLE person and for me this ruined the book.
Also there are some religious women at a camp and guess what? Yep, they're evil. Shocked aren't you. Alison is basically bigoted against the religious women from day one. Really? They were suspicious because they were trying too hard to be helpful and asked people to pray with them GASP! Of course they should be shot immediately! I'm not even a religious person but I have friends and family who are and Alison (and perhaps the author) are just flat out offensive anti-religious bigots. She's rude and snotty to and about basically everyone in the book - even those who were her supposed friends. She's a TERRIBLE person and for me this ruined the book.
February 15, 2011
I became quickly enamored with Allison Hewitt is Trapped. It was such a humorous, nerve biting read that kept me engrossed from start to finish. I often caught myself wondering what I would do in similar situations, would I be brave enough to fight off a zombie with nothing but an axe and my own strength? How desperate would I have to be to even attempt to flee my safe hidey hole? And most importantly, how would I cope with being trapped with fellow human beings not of my choosing for indefinite periods of time and without everyday luxuries such as showers, deodorant and working toilets?! Oh the horror.
I was pleased to discover that Allison Hewitt is Trapped was not at typical zombie tale. Allison is a quick witted, sharp tongued heroine that proves that extraordinary strength of will and character can lie within the most ordinary of individuals. She even had me laughing during an apocalypse. Furthermore, Roux did a remarkable job of creating an ominous world, filled with foreboding and impending doom, while also hi-lighting the mundane details that often make life worth living. Great debut.
I was pleased to discover that Allison Hewitt is Trapped was not at typical zombie tale. Allison is a quick witted, sharp tongued heroine that proves that extraordinary strength of will and character can lie within the most ordinary of individuals. She even had me laughing during an apocalypse. Furthermore, Roux did a remarkable job of creating an ominous world, filled with foreboding and impending doom, while also hi-lighting the mundane details that often make life worth living. Great debut.
September 18, 2013
This book started very strong. It was at a fast pace and it made you want to know what would happen next. Allison gives a female voice to a genre that is heavily skewed to the male action hero/everyman type. That was a refreshing change. I did knock one star off for the mid part of the book where Allison just got a bit too soupy over the older man...but the story was still VERY solid.
However, it was at around the midpoint when I believe she got a bit too "girly" for how her character had been reacting up to that point. All of a sudden, we get the "schoolgirl crush" version of what had been a strong female lead. I am not against tossing in the romantic tension angle, but Allison just did not seem "in character" when she was pining over the older (married) man.
However, it was at around the midpoint when I believe she got a bit too "girly" for how her character had been reacting up to that point. All of a sudden, we get the "schoolgirl crush" version of what had been a strong female lead. I am not against tossing in the romantic tension angle, but Allison just did not seem "in character" when she was pining over the older (married) man.
May 7, 2017
Read: December 2016
Rating: 5/5 stars
I had been in a weeks-long reading slump before I picked up this book and it turned out to be exactly what I needed. Zombies, blogs, a cute dog, literature references, pop culture references, blood, gore, and a little romance too. Perfect.
Rating: 5/5 stars
I had been in a weeks-long reading slump before I picked up this book and it turned out to be exactly what I needed. Zombies, blogs, a cute dog, literature references, pop culture references, blood, gore, and a little romance too. Perfect.
December 18, 2023
"Sie kommen!: Ein Blog vom Ende der Welt" ist der erste Teil einer neuen Zombie-Buchreihe von Madeleine Roux. Weiter geht es dann mit "Sadie Walker is Stranded". Der deutsche Titel ist noch nicht bekannt. Die Bücher hängen aber nicht wirklich zusammen. Ich habe gehört, dass man sie auch einzeln lesen kann.
Dieses Buch ist in Blogform geschrieben. Diese Idee finde ich grandios! Die apokalyptische Geschichte spielt im Jahr 2009. Der Großteil der Bevölkerung ist mit einem Zombie-Virus infiziert. Die Protagonistin Allison Hewitt erzählt ihre Geschichte anhand von Tagebucheinträgen auf einem Blog in der Gegenwart. Gerade das hat mich besonders verwirrt. Warum schreibt sie die Blogeinträge nicht in der Vergangenheitsform? Das Erlebte ist ja schon passiert. Richtige Spannungsbögen kommen bei mir dadurch leider nicht auf, da ich eigentlich immer weiß, dass Allison nichts passiert ist, da sie ja gerade einen Eintrag schreibt.
Unter den Blogposts kann man dann immer die Kommentare anderer Leute lesen. Der trockene Humor des Buches gefällt mir gut. Allison, die trotz Zombie-Invasion die Idee hat, einen Blog zu betreiben, finde ich als Charakter recht interessant, mit der Zeit wird sie mir aber leider immer unsympathischer. Einige Entscheidungen von ihr kann ich absolut nicht nachvollziehen.
Leider hat mich dieser Roman nicht überzeugt. Die Geschichte beginnt wirklich gut, man denkt sich nur: Wow - endlich einmal etwas Anderes! Bedauerlicherweise verlor ich dann aber schon nach etwa 100 Seiten die Lust, weiterzulesen. Anfangs ist das Buch spannend und sarkastisch, später leider etwas langwierig und verworren.
Die kleine Liebesgeschichte finde ich total unpassend. Plötzlich ist Allison verliebt, was leider eher plump und wortkarg dargestellt wird. Ich kann mir diese Situation gar nicht richtig vorstellen. Manchmal fragte ich mich sogar, ob in meinem Buch eventuell Seiten fehlen, die gewisse Entscheidungen und Situationen besser erklären. Trotzdem habe ich es natürlich zu Ende gelesen. Der Schluss gefällt mir leider gar nicht. Ich finde, dass die Geschichte rückblickend kaum Sinn ergibt. Schade! Vielleicht hatte ich aber auch einfach nur zu große Erwartungen an dieses Buch. Diese wurden leider nicht erfüllt.
Dieses Buch ist in Blogform geschrieben. Diese Idee finde ich grandios! Die apokalyptische Geschichte spielt im Jahr 2009. Der Großteil der Bevölkerung ist mit einem Zombie-Virus infiziert. Die Protagonistin Allison Hewitt erzählt ihre Geschichte anhand von Tagebucheinträgen auf einem Blog in der Gegenwart. Gerade das hat mich besonders verwirrt. Warum schreibt sie die Blogeinträge nicht in der Vergangenheitsform? Das Erlebte ist ja schon passiert. Richtige Spannungsbögen kommen bei mir dadurch leider nicht auf, da ich eigentlich immer weiß, dass Allison nichts passiert ist, da sie ja gerade einen Eintrag schreibt.
Unter den Blogposts kann man dann immer die Kommentare anderer Leute lesen. Der trockene Humor des Buches gefällt mir gut. Allison, die trotz Zombie-Invasion die Idee hat, einen Blog zu betreiben, finde ich als Charakter recht interessant, mit der Zeit wird sie mir aber leider immer unsympathischer. Einige Entscheidungen von ihr kann ich absolut nicht nachvollziehen.
Leider hat mich dieser Roman nicht überzeugt. Die Geschichte beginnt wirklich gut, man denkt sich nur: Wow - endlich einmal etwas Anderes! Bedauerlicherweise verlor ich dann aber schon nach etwa 100 Seiten die Lust, weiterzulesen. Anfangs ist das Buch spannend und sarkastisch, später leider etwas langwierig und verworren.
Die kleine Liebesgeschichte finde ich total unpassend. Plötzlich ist Allison verliebt, was leider eher plump und wortkarg dargestellt wird. Ich kann mir diese Situation gar nicht richtig vorstellen. Manchmal fragte ich mich sogar, ob in meinem Buch eventuell Seiten fehlen, die gewisse Entscheidungen und Situationen besser erklären. Trotzdem habe ich es natürlich zu Ende gelesen. Der Schluss gefällt mir leider gar nicht. Ich finde, dass die Geschichte rückblickend kaum Sinn ergibt. Schade! Vielleicht hatte ich aber auch einfach nur zu große Erwartungen an dieses Buch. Diese wurden leider nicht erfüllt.
June 7, 2016
Allison Hewitt was hard at work in a bookstore when the zombie apocalypse broke out. Now she's trapped in the store room with her boss, a few coworkers and a couple of the store's regular customers. For now, things seem okay because they have a few supplies but Allison knows that they cannot afford to stay in the store room. As she and her compatriots look for someplace safe to live, Allison cannot stop thinking of her mother who has cancer. When Allison learns that her mother may have moved on to a place called Liberty Village, Allison must choose between staying with her fellow survivors or heading out on her own to find her mother.
What drove me to read Allison Hewitt Is Trapped, is the fact that the book is written in a series of blog posts. For me, this amounted to a unique device to tell a story. Unfortunately, the blog concept didn't really work and left me wondering if Roux had actually read a blog? If you are writing a blog post about something which happened, it should read like a recollection and not like the events are current. Furthermore, writing about past events should evoke some kind of personal introspection which these supposed posts were absolutely lacking. The only way in which Roux stayed true to the blog format was by having comments at the end of each entry. The comments became the only real representation of a blog post; however, they also served to pull me out of the story because they included brief snippets from what I would call less than side characters and their peril.
It has to be said, Allison's ability to keep her laptop safe and continue to find free wifi to post as the world falls apart really made no sense to me whatsoever. Why would someone prioritize this as a form of record keeping in a zombie apocalypse?
Chick-lit is a guilty pleasure of mine but after reading Allison Hewitt Is Trapped, I'm not sure that it lends itself well to a dystopain zombie setting. The very nature of a zombie apocalypse means darkness and suffering juxtaposed to Allison's upbeat attitude really felt at odds; it made this apocalypse seem so sanitized. I was particularly irked by Allison's love life. She doesn't know if her mother is alive or dead, is fighting for food and shelter, yet somehow she manages to fall in love with an older married man. Given the threat to her life and safety, am I really supposed to find her drama as the other woman believable or even interesting? Every time Allison went on about how much she hated Collin's wife, I couldn't help but shake my head. Who the hell would be worrying about this shit now? Worse still, Allison stopped just short of wishing his wife dead on several occasions and then had the nerve to wonder if she is a bad person.
I think it would have helped had the characters had any depth to them whatsoever. Allison throwing snark and shipping people eg, "Hollianted", does not make up for the fact that none of these characters felt like real people to me. The religious cult which developed on campus just felt like a silly segue that went nowhere. Sure, I can get behind people seeing an apocalypse through a religious lens but the way this cult of women functioned simply didn't make any sense to me. It all felt like a really crappy version of The Handmaid's Tale.
If all of that is not enough, there's the purple prose.
Somehow the radio the didn't quite convey the loveliness of his reading voice. It distorted it, as if all the death and ugliness hanging between us in space had corroded the quality of his voice until ti was a thin imitation. Even then, even with Zack next to me, it had been beautiful; but now, seeing him, being in the same room as the text and the man and the voice, it's incandescent.
Potential.
There are times when out potential grows weary of trembling in shadow and comes suddenly, violently, to the fore. Like a song forced through our pores, or water crashing over a broken dam. that potential arrives, determined, demanding out attention. Maybe there are other thing in that locked vault-maybe there's more than just violence and deception and coldness. Maybe there is a radiance, love, a kind of longing that singes you inside. (pg 121-122)
For all the faults of Allison Hewitt Is Trapped, erasure is not one of them. Renny is a lesbian who is captured by the religious cult for the purposes of reproduction. Allison manages to help her escape and from that point on, Renny and Allison are pretty much ride or die friends. I like that Renny is very clear about who she is and what her sexuality is. Prior to the apocalypse when dealing with her homophobic mother who thought that Renny's lesbianism was a fad, Renny made it clear that not even at the end of the world would she be interested in a man. When the end of the world does happen, Renny decides that for the good of mankind she might be willing to procreate but that doesn't change her sexuality. When Allison jokes that if she were "into pussy" that Renny would be her first choice, I love that Renny responds, "you should be so lucky." This really is a stab at the idea that LGBT people will just sleep with anyone and don't in fact have a type. Later, Allison even acknowledges that she's out of Renny's league.
Read More
What drove me to read Allison Hewitt Is Trapped, is the fact that the book is written in a series of blog posts. For me, this amounted to a unique device to tell a story. Unfortunately, the blog concept didn't really work and left me wondering if Roux had actually read a blog? If you are writing a blog post about something which happened, it should read like a recollection and not like the events are current. Furthermore, writing about past events should evoke some kind of personal introspection which these supposed posts were absolutely lacking. The only way in which Roux stayed true to the blog format was by having comments at the end of each entry. The comments became the only real representation of a blog post; however, they also served to pull me out of the story because they included brief snippets from what I would call less than side characters and their peril.
It has to be said, Allison's ability to keep her laptop safe and continue to find free wifi to post as the world falls apart really made no sense to me whatsoever. Why would someone prioritize this as a form of record keeping in a zombie apocalypse?
Chick-lit is a guilty pleasure of mine but after reading Allison Hewitt Is Trapped, I'm not sure that it lends itself well to a dystopain zombie setting. The very nature of a zombie apocalypse means darkness and suffering juxtaposed to Allison's upbeat attitude really felt at odds; it made this apocalypse seem so sanitized. I was particularly irked by Allison's love life. She doesn't know if her mother is alive or dead, is fighting for food and shelter, yet somehow she manages to fall in love with an older married man. Given the threat to her life and safety, am I really supposed to find her drama as the other woman believable or even interesting? Every time Allison went on about how much she hated Collin's wife, I couldn't help but shake my head. Who the hell would be worrying about this shit now? Worse still, Allison stopped just short of wishing his wife dead on several occasions and then had the nerve to wonder if she is a bad person.
I think it would have helped had the characters had any depth to them whatsoever. Allison throwing snark and shipping people eg, "Hollianted", does not make up for the fact that none of these characters felt like real people to me. The religious cult which developed on campus just felt like a silly segue that went nowhere. Sure, I can get behind people seeing an apocalypse through a religious lens but the way this cult of women functioned simply didn't make any sense to me. It all felt like a really crappy version of The Handmaid's Tale.
If all of that is not enough, there's the purple prose.
Somehow the radio the didn't quite convey the loveliness of his reading voice. It distorted it, as if all the death and ugliness hanging between us in space had corroded the quality of his voice until ti was a thin imitation. Even then, even with Zack next to me, it had been beautiful; but now, seeing him, being in the same room as the text and the man and the voice, it's incandescent.
Potential.
There are times when out potential grows weary of trembling in shadow and comes suddenly, violently, to the fore. Like a song forced through our pores, or water crashing over a broken dam. that potential arrives, determined, demanding out attention. Maybe there are other thing in that locked vault-maybe there's more than just violence and deception and coldness. Maybe there is a radiance, love, a kind of longing that singes you inside. (pg 121-122)
For all the faults of Allison Hewitt Is Trapped, erasure is not one of them. Renny is a lesbian who is captured by the religious cult for the purposes of reproduction. Allison manages to help her escape and from that point on, Renny and Allison are pretty much ride or die friends. I like that Renny is very clear about who she is and what her sexuality is. Prior to the apocalypse when dealing with her homophobic mother who thought that Renny's lesbianism was a fad, Renny made it clear that not even at the end of the world would she be interested in a man. When the end of the world does happen, Renny decides that for the good of mankind she might be willing to procreate but that doesn't change her sexuality. When Allison jokes that if she were "into pussy" that Renny would be her first choice, I love that Renny responds, "you should be so lucky." This really is a stab at the idea that LGBT people will just sleep with anyone and don't in fact have a type. Later, Allison even acknowledges that she's out of Renny's league.
Read More
May 31, 2017
This book was a little different than I expected. First of all I should have read it online for free (even without the last chapters). That's point number one.
This is YA Zombie Fiction. Expect a women trying to survive a zombie invasion while dealing not only with their normal problems (food, shelter and security) and at the same time trying to work out her heart problems.
Praises:
1) Roux wrote a book quite different from other writers but at the same time there isn't anything new. Confusing? Ok, so you've got a main character that deals "Where do I go if I want to go the toilet?" Try to remember the last book where a character in a hostile enviroment had to go to it. No? Try to remmeber a post apocalpytic novel (there isn't any running water)... Not one, right? So how would they do it? Put their ass out of the window? Where in the walking dead they do it? Not mention right? Roux nail it.
2) The other good thing about it's the blog existence. It's quite interesting. Every couple of days the main character wrote on a blog and people (Who had access to the internet) wrote in it.
3) The Main character - Alisson. She is quite a good character that evolves. In the beginning she has way of being more submissive but as the days pass she turns to a full growth woman with opinions and strong. She makes her own decisions. I really enjoy the evolution until the end.
4) The Preface and the Epilogue. This two parts give a lot of information about the world. It seems that "nowadays" (decades after the incident in the novel) the zombie infestation is contained or irradicated. But the Epilogue made me mad. I didn't enjoy the ending (read my criticism) but the epilogue made me mad in a good way.
5) The writing. Fast but at the same time had moments of slow motion as our main character introspects.
Criticism
1) The Ending - I din't enjoy it. Quite frankly.
2) Other characters - They are not developed as good as Alisson. They are just there. Strange as half the book when she goes to the school to band with other members they accept her from the start and the commander or leader befriends her from day one.
Side Notes:
1) The existence of an working internet without password. Dubious but okay.
2) The zombies. They are just there. That's it. Not a criticism and neither a compliment. There are two types of zombies in the main character perspective and that's it. This novel if focus on our main character and her problems not on the zombies. You could take off the zombies from this novel and it would be a post apocalpytic fiction and only a couple of parts of the book would had to be change.
3) The Crazy People. The Wives...
4) The Dog. Good doggie. Nice Doggie.
Final Thoughts 7/10
In the end I like the book but I don't know if I am going to read the next one. It's a different character... Maybe if the book cost less than €6.
Advisable?
Yes. To people who like a strong main character and a different way of writing a book.
This is YA Zombie Fiction. Expect a women trying to survive a zombie invasion while dealing not only with their normal problems (food, shelter and security) and at the same time trying to work out her heart problems.
Praises:
1) Roux wrote a book quite different from other writers but at the same time there isn't anything new. Confusing? Ok, so you've got a main character that deals "Where do I go if I want to go the toilet?" Try to remember the last book where a character in a hostile enviroment had to go to it. No? Try to remmeber a post apocalpytic novel (there isn't any running water)... Not one, right? So how would they do it? Put their ass out of the window? Where in the walking dead they do it? Not mention right? Roux nail it.
2) The other good thing about it's the blog existence. It's quite interesting. Every couple of days the main character wrote on a blog and people (Who had access to the internet) wrote in it.
3) The Main character - Alisson. She is quite a good character that evolves. In the beginning she has way of being more submissive but as the days pass she turns to a full growth woman with opinions and strong. She makes her own decisions. I really enjoy the evolution until the end.
4) The Preface and the Epilogue. This two parts give a lot of information about the world. It seems that "nowadays" (decades after the incident in the novel) the zombie infestation is contained or irradicated. But the Epilogue made me mad. I didn't enjoy the ending (read my criticism) but the epilogue made me mad in a good way.
5) The writing. Fast but at the same time had moments of slow motion as our main character introspects.
Criticism
1) The Ending - I din't enjoy it. Quite frankly.
2) Other characters - They are not developed as good as Alisson. They are just there. Strange as half the book when she goes to the school to band with other members they accept her from the start and the commander or leader befriends her from day one.
Side Notes:
1) The existence of an working internet without password. Dubious but okay.
2) The zombies. They are just there. That's it. Not a criticism and neither a compliment. There are two types of zombies in the main character perspective and that's it. This novel if focus on our main character and her problems not on the zombies. You could take off the zombies from this novel and it would be a post apocalpytic fiction and only a couple of parts of the book would had to be change.
3) The Crazy People. The Wives...
4) The Dog. Good doggie. Nice Doggie.
Final Thoughts 7/10
In the end I like the book but I don't know if I am going to read the next one. It's a different character... Maybe if the book cost less than €6.
Advisable?
Yes. To people who like a strong main character and a different way of writing a book.
February 14, 2016
*This review is based on a copy of the book I won through Goodreads FirstReads Giveaways.*
Wow! Loved this book!
Having not ever heard of the "Allison Hewitt is Trapped" blog (apologies, Ms. Roux!), I had no idea what to expect, but the synopsis sounded interesting, so I entered to win the book.
I am ever so glad I did.
Allison's story unfolds as a series of blog posts, complete with commenters from others struggling to survive post-zombie apocalypse. I wasn't sure if I'd like the blog-style approach to the narrative, but it worked really well. I think the short chapters really heightened the tension/excitement, and the blog-like formatting complete with comments actually lent the book a touch of realism in the internet driven world we live in today. I know I check online first to find news before even considering checking anywhere else.
I like the fact that the book delves not only into the larger aspects of what could happen to what's left of society in the aftermath of a catastrophic event--people banding together, others turning to looting or stealing, religious fanaticism, and rogue militias--but the more mundane, and certainly less glamorous aspects of human life that we all take for granted everyday. Things like no running water means no way to bathe, and plumbing that does not work leads to humans who probably don't smell or look all that spiffy...and I'll just stop there, because I'm sure you all get where I'm going with this.
Moving on, Allison is a great heroine, really well written with great characterization. I really grew to care about her and her friends and could not stop reading until I knew what happened (which is why I'm writing this review at 2:20 am, heh.) The book itself is fast paced, and action packed. It's also laugh out loud funny, but also made me tear up a couple of times.
It's just a really, really good book, and I think even those who aren't into zombies and the like would still enjoy it because it's more about how we as humans react to cataclysmic events, and the struggle and urge to survive and retain some sense of normalcy than it is about zombies. I know as I was reading the book, I often thought about how I'd react if placed into a similar situation as Allison and her friends.
Lastly...if this review seems a little choppy and incoherent, I apologize profusely, and will blame it on the fact that I am writing this in the wee hours of the morning. ;)
Wow! Loved this book!
Having not ever heard of the "Allison Hewitt is Trapped" blog (apologies, Ms. Roux!), I had no idea what to expect, but the synopsis sounded interesting, so I entered to win the book.
I am ever so glad I did.
Allison's story unfolds as a series of blog posts, complete with commenters from others struggling to survive post-zombie apocalypse. I wasn't sure if I'd like the blog-style approach to the narrative, but it worked really well. I think the short chapters really heightened the tension/excitement, and the blog-like formatting complete with comments actually lent the book a touch of realism in the internet driven world we live in today. I know I check online first to find news before even considering checking anywhere else.
I like the fact that the book delves not only into the larger aspects of what could happen to what's left of society in the aftermath of a catastrophic event--people banding together, others turning to looting or stealing, religious fanaticism, and rogue militias--but the more mundane, and certainly less glamorous aspects of human life that we all take for granted everyday. Things like no running water means no way to bathe, and plumbing that does not work leads to humans who probably don't smell or look all that spiffy...and I'll just stop there, because I'm sure you all get where I'm going with this.
Moving on, Allison is a great heroine, really well written with great characterization. I really grew to care about her and her friends and could not stop reading until I knew what happened (which is why I'm writing this review at 2:20 am, heh.) The book itself is fast paced, and action packed. It's also laugh out loud funny, but also made me tear up a couple of times.
It's just a really, really good book, and I think even those who aren't into zombies and the like would still enjoy it because it's more about how we as humans react to cataclysmic events, and the struggle and urge to survive and retain some sense of normalcy than it is about zombies. I know as I was reading the book, I often thought about how I'd react if placed into a similar situation as Allison and her friends.
Lastly...if this review seems a little choppy and incoherent, I apologize profusely, and will blame it on the fact that I am writing this in the wee hours of the morning. ;)
October 22, 2015
As a blogger, I presume that if the world ended my blog would go bye-bye but Allison Hewitt, the kick ass, axe weilding heroine of this novel shows that not only can you survive a zombie apocalypse you can also maintain your blog presence and get new readers too, awesome!
Seriously though, this is a "bloody" great book, Allison works in a book store and when the dead start kicking off and picking off people, she holes up behind a great big thick door with some of her colleagues.
Nothing tests a work friendship more than being stuck together with limited food and toilet facilities, oh and clashing personalities, thankfully Allison seems to be the most level headed out of her colleagues. She keeps going and she keeps a record on her blog, documenting each day and event, and in the process keeping in touch with fellow survivors.
The comments coming in from fellow survivors paint a bleak picture and the more she reads, the more she realises they can't stay in the bookshop. The story follows Allison and her friends as they try and survive, as they find shelter and provisions, as they try and avoid the zombies all around but of course there are much worse things out there than zombies - other people.
Other people are a bunch of shits, some are good but a lot are just plain crazy and Allison meets her fair share. To be honest though I think I would be more worried about my ass than my laptop but communication is the key to survival in this story and on each post you not only get a view of what Allison goes through you get to see how others are fairing via her comments.
I forgot to mention she picks up a dog on her travels too which I love and hate because I worry about the dog, will it survive, will it turn in to a zombdog....you get the idea, dogs in any books are a bad idea for me as it will make me flick to the end to make sure the dog is still alive. I mean I have seen Independence Day more times than I would care to admit and I still get tears in my eyes every time that dog jumps from the car with the fire ball behind him....anyway I digress.
This is a great addition to your zombie bookshelf, yes it has the usual blood and gore, but it also has humour, real issues like going to the loo when zombies are about, well written characters with personalities that come to life on the pages and it has a decent story with characters you can actually care about. Well worth a read!
Seriously though, this is a "bloody" great book, Allison works in a book store and when the dead start kicking off and picking off people, she holes up behind a great big thick door with some of her colleagues.
Nothing tests a work friendship more than being stuck together with limited food and toilet facilities, oh and clashing personalities, thankfully Allison seems to be the most level headed out of her colleagues. She keeps going and she keeps a record on her blog, documenting each day and event, and in the process keeping in touch with fellow survivors.
The comments coming in from fellow survivors paint a bleak picture and the more she reads, the more she realises they can't stay in the bookshop. The story follows Allison and her friends as they try and survive, as they find shelter and provisions, as they try and avoid the zombies all around but of course there are much worse things out there than zombies - other people.
Other people are a bunch of shits, some are good but a lot are just plain crazy and Allison meets her fair share. To be honest though I think I would be more worried about my ass than my laptop but communication is the key to survival in this story and on each post you not only get a view of what Allison goes through you get to see how others are fairing via her comments.
I forgot to mention she picks up a dog on her travels too which I love and hate because I worry about the dog, will it survive, will it turn in to a zombdog....you get the idea, dogs in any books are a bad idea for me as it will make me flick to the end to make sure the dog is still alive. I mean I have seen Independence Day more times than I would care to admit and I still get tears in my eyes every time that dog jumps from the car with the fire ball behind him....anyway I digress.
This is a great addition to your zombie bookshelf, yes it has the usual blood and gore, but it also has humour, real issues like going to the loo when zombies are about, well written characters with personalities that come to life on the pages and it has a decent story with characters you can actually care about. Well worth a read!
October 2, 2011
When the zombie apocalypse first begins, Allison Hewitt is at work. Trapped with a couple of coworkers and shoppers in a bookstore, she starts a blog. Many years later, when the heroes of the outbreak and it's aftermath are being studied, Allison and her blog are looked at for their possible inclusion in the history books. Allison Hewitt is Trapped is the the blog and comments in their entirety.
The thing I loved most about Allison Hewitt is trapped is the tiny, but realistic details. What do you do when trapped in a room without bathrooms? What happens when you finally get access to bathrooms, but without electricity you can't flush the toilet? Zombie stories always focus on the carnage and chaos, which Allison Hewitt is Trapped does well, but often forget about the small inconveniences along the way.
Allison is a great character, strong and able to think on her feet, but still possessing the capacity to make truly stupid decisions based on emotion. Stranded, safe but surrounded by zombies, she does what most of us raised on the internet would do - she tries to reach out to others online through a blog.
The premise of being able to access the military's wireless internet is farfetched (like that thing isn't going to be password protected), but it's necessary for the plot to work and doesn't distract from the story at all. In most instances, Allison blogs like a blogger. This seems like an unnecessary statement, but most books written claiming to be blogs are written like a novel and just formatted to look blog-like. She responds to comments, mentions her readers, and gives real-time advice, making the experience feel more authentic.
Allison Hewitt is Trapped is quite the adventure. It's thrilling, yet emotional. It's not extreme in its gore and manages to keep an air of humor throughout the experience. Allison Hewitt is trapped is a not to be missed zombie novel.
The thing I loved most about Allison Hewitt is trapped is the tiny, but realistic details. What do you do when trapped in a room without bathrooms? What happens when you finally get access to bathrooms, but without electricity you can't flush the toilet? Zombie stories always focus on the carnage and chaos, which Allison Hewitt is Trapped does well, but often forget about the small inconveniences along the way.
Allison is a great character, strong and able to think on her feet, but still possessing the capacity to make truly stupid decisions based on emotion. Stranded, safe but surrounded by zombies, she does what most of us raised on the internet would do - she tries to reach out to others online through a blog.
The premise of being able to access the military's wireless internet is farfetched (like that thing isn't going to be password protected), but it's necessary for the plot to work and doesn't distract from the story at all. In most instances, Allison blogs like a blogger. This seems like an unnecessary statement, but most books written claiming to be blogs are written like a novel and just formatted to look blog-like. She responds to comments, mentions her readers, and gives real-time advice, making the experience feel more authentic.
Allison Hewitt is Trapped is quite the adventure. It's thrilling, yet emotional. It's not extreme in its gore and manages to keep an air of humor throughout the experience. Allison Hewitt is trapped is a not to be missed zombie novel.
August 3, 2012
Amazing...simply amazing...
Review to come. :)
Review to come. :)
July 17, 2016
Just like the walking dead.
I enjoyed reading this one. Madeleine have a different approach here. Hilarous! Awesome!
Recommended to everyone!
I enjoyed reading this one. Madeleine have a different approach here. Hilarous! Awesome!
Recommended to everyone!
June 20, 2024
I like reading stories where the everyman/woman type has to deal with extraordinary situations. Allison is a grad student who works part time at a bookstore, and she fit that everywoman mold. The first half of the book was definitely the strongest, but it doesn't take long for Allison to morph into Rambo, and the more kills she racked up, the less engaged in the story I became. The entire story takes place over about two months and I just didn't buy that Allison would change that much. I also didn't like the romance aspect, especially since the guy was old enough to be her father.
There was some good humor, and I liked the blog angle. The comments to Allison's blog were some of the best parts. I was wanting their stories!
There was some good humor, and I liked the blog angle. The comments to Allison's blog were some of the best parts. I was wanting their stories!
Shelved as 'dnf'
December 31, 2021DNF page 109. Wasn't enjoying. Not a bad book, just didn't care.
February 7, 2019
Fun zombie read ;) Like the touch of the Midwest, an of course, the bookstore
April 13, 2012
A woman fighting zombies with an axe in a bookstore? How could I not be curious after just looking at the cover? I saw this one getting decidedly mixed reviews, but honestly, I found it to have nearly everything I was looking for in a zombie apocalypse book. Granted, there are a few things that I think could have been done better, but generally speaking, I had a great time reading this.
The title aptly describes the framework and entry point of the book: Allison Hewitt, a literature major and bookstore employee, finds herself locked in her place of employment after the zombie apocalypse spills across her town. Against all odds, she manages to find a wireless Internet connection near the bookstore, through some kind of emergency network called SNet. Allison begins to record the daily horrors of her new existence, initially as a way of staying sane and embracing something that seems normal. Eventually, however, the detached snark of her entries evolves into something else, as she moves to increasingly tenuous sanctuaries and her circumstances grow more desperate. Meanwhile, a community of survivors grows out of the blog's comment threads. Her new, faceless audience provides solace, warning, and advice as she decides to risk everything and strike out on her own to find her mother.
The story progresses exactly as one would expect, and though it contains plenty of familiar tropes, it feels distinctly like homage rather than retread. The secondary characters are just fleshed out enough to avoid being cardboard cutouts, but honestly, Allison has such a strong voice that I was largely fine with focusing mainly on her. The current example of a contiguous ensemble piece in the zombie genre is The Walking Dead comic, and that has rapidly devolved into a histrionic melodrama; comparatively speaking, I find the focus on one character to be refreshing. Her constant sarcasm does threaten to get in the way of the dialogue and action from time to time, especially when Roux puts especially elaborate one-liners in her mouth. However, it’s a fair price to pay for the creepy sense of whistling in the dark that it provides. Naturally, there’s plenty of wading through zombie gore and battling past sinister human survivors, and the book never gets boring, despite the various claustrophobic settings in which Allison finds herself trapped.
I do think that the book’s gimmick falls a little flat, or at least falls short of what it could have been. Telling the story of the zombie plague through a blog is a really neat idea, even with the vague and unrealistic setup it gets here. The comments, especially, are an intriguing way to move the story along. While Roux does some interesting things with this in the beginning, it eventually tapers off in favor of long-winded posts that look suspiciously like book chapters, with a few repetitive “good to see you’re still alive” comments tacked on. It doesn’t feel like Roux fully commits to the idea of this story being a blog. Between the weird present-tense delivery and the gradual inclusion of very specific narrative detail, the posts just don’t seem like posts. Nobody writes a blog like that, even if they have nothing else to do. There are a few instances of awkward writing that I choose to attribute to Allison instead of the author, but I wanted more consistent dedication to the format.
That particular failure to suspend my disbelief didn’t take away from my enjoyment, though. Terror, humor, violence, and romance are deftly mixed, and I found it genuinely hard to put down. Though this book isn’t particularly elegant, it’s still going up on my zombie pantheon shelf alongside Max Brooks.
The title aptly describes the framework and entry point of the book: Allison Hewitt, a literature major and bookstore employee, finds herself locked in her place of employment after the zombie apocalypse spills across her town. Against all odds, she manages to find a wireless Internet connection near the bookstore, through some kind of emergency network called SNet. Allison begins to record the daily horrors of her new existence, initially as a way of staying sane and embracing something that seems normal. Eventually, however, the detached snark of her entries evolves into something else, as she moves to increasingly tenuous sanctuaries and her circumstances grow more desperate. Meanwhile, a community of survivors grows out of the blog's comment threads. Her new, faceless audience provides solace, warning, and advice as she decides to risk everything and strike out on her own to find her mother.
The story progresses exactly as one would expect, and though it contains plenty of familiar tropes, it feels distinctly like homage rather than retread. The secondary characters are just fleshed out enough to avoid being cardboard cutouts, but honestly, Allison has such a strong voice that I was largely fine with focusing mainly on her. The current example of a contiguous ensemble piece in the zombie genre is The Walking Dead comic, and that has rapidly devolved into a histrionic melodrama; comparatively speaking, I find the focus on one character to be refreshing. Her constant sarcasm does threaten to get in the way of the dialogue and action from time to time, especially when Roux puts especially elaborate one-liners in her mouth. However, it’s a fair price to pay for the creepy sense of whistling in the dark that it provides. Naturally, there’s plenty of wading through zombie gore and battling past sinister human survivors, and the book never gets boring, despite the various claustrophobic settings in which Allison finds herself trapped.
I do think that the book’s gimmick falls a little flat, or at least falls short of what it could have been. Telling the story of the zombie plague through a blog is a really neat idea, even with the vague and unrealistic setup it gets here. The comments, especially, are an intriguing way to move the story along. While Roux does some interesting things with this in the beginning, it eventually tapers off in favor of long-winded posts that look suspiciously like book chapters, with a few repetitive “good to see you’re still alive” comments tacked on. It doesn’t feel like Roux fully commits to the idea of this story being a blog. Between the weird present-tense delivery and the gradual inclusion of very specific narrative detail, the posts just don’t seem like posts. Nobody writes a blog like that, even if they have nothing else to do. There are a few instances of awkward writing that I choose to attribute to Allison instead of the author, but I wanted more consistent dedication to the format.
That particular failure to suspend my disbelief didn’t take away from my enjoyment, though. Terror, humor, violence, and romance are deftly mixed, and I found it genuinely hard to put down. Though this book isn’t particularly elegant, it’s still going up on my zombie pantheon shelf alongside Max Brooks.
July 30, 2015
This review was originally published on Book Blog Bird
Allison Hewitt, along with a few of her colleagues, is trapped in the staff break room at the book shop where she works while the zombie apocalypse takes place outside. When the first zombies started marching through town, taking a bite out of anything with a pulse, she and her work buddies barricaded themselves in (I don’t think it’s specifically mentioned, but I get the impression that they left the customers to fend for themselves, which shows an admirable level of pragmatism and cold-heartedness) and now leave only to empty the stinking toilet and to forage for food. Soon they must venture out into the outside world to see what’s left, but do they do it before or after the toilet finally overflows and they run out of teriyaki beef jerky?
I quite liked this book. It was by no means perfect, but the good definitely outweighed the not-so-good.
Probably my favourite aspect of the story was Allison herself. Having an MC who you can really get behind can make up for any number of leaps of logic you might need to make about a plot (and you need to do a few of these in this book). She is utterly pragmatic and almost sociopathically cold-hearted but I loved that about her. She has no compunction about killing a zombie, even if it wears the face of a person she used to know.
I enjoy a zombie novel and nothing irritates me more than the female MC going to pieces or getting all sentimental about stuff that doesn’t matter any more. Sorry love, it’s the end of the world so no, you can’t go back across town to pick up your childhood teddy bear. If the zombie apocalypse were to really happen, I think a lot of people would react like Allison. You’d see so much awful stuff that you’d harden up and come to appreciate the benefits of a nice sharp axe.
The plot moves along quite quickly, and although the reader has to make a few leaps of logic here and there and it sticks to the zombie-novel-formula (plenty of encounters with the undead, family members that may or may not be dead, insubstantial rumours of a safe haven, and a road trip across country) the fact that it was written in the style of a blog made it fresh and interesting because you never knew if Allison was going to live or die.
One thing that confused me about this book - and I might be nit-picking here - but at no point in the story do any of the people Allison is knocking around with turn to her and say, ‘Allison, will you put that damn laptop down and give us a hand fighting off the zombie hoards?’ Because over the space of just under two months, she managed to blog an impressive 100k - ish words. That’s over 1,500 words a day, which would be impressive in normal circumstances, let alone when you’re struggling to find food, when there’s no reliable electricity or internet source and you’re generally dealing with the end of the world. But yeah, maybe that’s just me being picky.
There is some romance in the book and it’s kind of sweet and doesn’t detract from the main action. The very, very end of the book explains what happens to humanity after the apocalypse and although the resolution is basically a bottled form of deus ex machine, it’s kind of nice to be able to speculate if not a happily ever after then at least an ever after for the characters who remain.
Allison Hewitt, along with a few of her colleagues, is trapped in the staff break room at the book shop where she works while the zombie apocalypse takes place outside. When the first zombies started marching through town, taking a bite out of anything with a pulse, she and her work buddies barricaded themselves in (I don’t think it’s specifically mentioned, but I get the impression that they left the customers to fend for themselves, which shows an admirable level of pragmatism and cold-heartedness) and now leave only to empty the stinking toilet and to forage for food. Soon they must venture out into the outside world to see what’s left, but do they do it before or after the toilet finally overflows and they run out of teriyaki beef jerky?
I quite liked this book. It was by no means perfect, but the good definitely outweighed the not-so-good.
Probably my favourite aspect of the story was Allison herself. Having an MC who you can really get behind can make up for any number of leaps of logic you might need to make about a plot (and you need to do a few of these in this book). She is utterly pragmatic and almost sociopathically cold-hearted but I loved that about her. She has no compunction about killing a zombie, even if it wears the face of a person she used to know.
I enjoy a zombie novel and nothing irritates me more than the female MC going to pieces or getting all sentimental about stuff that doesn’t matter any more. Sorry love, it’s the end of the world so no, you can’t go back across town to pick up your childhood teddy bear. If the zombie apocalypse were to really happen, I think a lot of people would react like Allison. You’d see so much awful stuff that you’d harden up and come to appreciate the benefits of a nice sharp axe.
The plot moves along quite quickly, and although the reader has to make a few leaps of logic here and there and it sticks to the zombie-novel-formula (plenty of encounters with the undead, family members that may or may not be dead, insubstantial rumours of a safe haven, and a road trip across country) the fact that it was written in the style of a blog made it fresh and interesting because you never knew if Allison was going to live or die.
One thing that confused me about this book - and I might be nit-picking here - but at no point in the story do any of the people Allison is knocking around with turn to her and say, ‘Allison, will you put that damn laptop down and give us a hand fighting off the zombie hoards?’ Because over the space of just under two months, she managed to blog an impressive 100k - ish words. That’s over 1,500 words a day, which would be impressive in normal circumstances, let alone when you’re struggling to find food, when there’s no reliable electricity or internet source and you’re generally dealing with the end of the world. But yeah, maybe that’s just me being picky.
There is some romance in the book and it’s kind of sweet and doesn’t detract from the main action. The very, very end of the book explains what happens to humanity after the apocalypse and although the resolution is basically a bottled form of deus ex machine, it’s kind of nice to be able to speculate if not a happily ever after then at least an ever after for the characters who remain.
August 13, 2013
I bought "Allison Hewitt is Trapped" by Madeleine Roux while I was on vacation in Boston. I was checking out all the bookstores I could get to and this book was one of my spontaneous buys. I bought it because I liked the cover, I mean Zombies + books = must be awesome. Right?
Well, no. As I opened the book I got my first warning sign of this, as the title is decorated with comically draw skulls. Now, I have nothing against skulls. It's just that I was under the assumption that this was a horror novel, not a Young Adult novel (Note: the book was far away from the YA section in the Harvard book store and on display next to "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis).
I ventured on and thought my worries had been for naught when the story and characters turned out be entertaining and interesting. Allison Hewitt, the main character, was relatable, likable and brave.
This, however, all changes at the 100 page mark
Another thing I realized should have been a warning sign for me are the four quotes on the cover, praising the book. These quotes are all written by fellow female authors, not critics (and that is never a good sign). These authors are all the writers of teen supernatural romance series and when reading the quotes one even gets the feeling that they never read "Allison Hewitt is Trapped".
This book should clearly have been placed in the YA section, where horror fans, such as myself, could have avoided it and people looking for zombie YA books could have enjoyed it.
Well, no. As I opened the book I got my first warning sign of this, as the title is decorated with comically draw skulls. Now, I have nothing against skulls. It's just that I was under the assumption that this was a horror novel, not a Young Adult novel (Note: the book was far away from the YA section in the Harvard book store and on display next to "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis).
I ventured on and thought my worries had been for naught when the story and characters turned out be entertaining and interesting. Allison Hewitt, the main character, was relatable, likable and brave.
This, however, all changes at the 100 page mark
Another thing I realized should have been a warning sign for me are the four quotes on the cover, praising the book. These quotes are all written by fellow female authors, not critics (and that is never a good sign). These authors are all the writers of teen supernatural romance series and when reading the quotes one even gets the feeling that they never read "Allison Hewitt is Trapped".
This book should clearly have been placed in the YA section, where horror fans, such as myself, could have avoided it and people looking for zombie YA books could have enjoyed it.
January 4, 2014
So often scoffed at by the uninitiated, blogging has become a pivotal way in which we as a society spread our news and views. With the medium now so prominent, it makes sense that, if an apocalypse ever was to dawn, at least some survivors would turn to the blogosphere for some much-needed advice and guidance.
And in Madeleine Roux’s novel, Allison Hewitt is Trapped, that is exactly what the eponymous heroine decides to do. The book begins with Allison and a small group of survivors trapped in the backroom of a book store. Roaming the main shop and the dishevelled streets outside are swarms of shuffling undead, each of them as hungry as they are gruesomely described. In the face of such relentless horror, Allison turns to the mysterious SNet, a surviving internet connection, in order to document her group’s ordeal and to seek help from other users.
The novel’s, written-as-a-blog format certainly makes for a fresh take on the zombie genre, and the comments at the end of Allison’s posts from other survivors really add to the appeal, and to the book’s ability to draw the reader in. However, the format is far more than a gimmick; giving Allison a way to vent her inner most feelings really adds to the experience, and, interestingly, it even feeds into the plot when other characters realise she’s using precious power to run her laptop and to write about them.
Allison herself is an excellent character; determined yet caring, ruthless but saddled with a conscience. The supporting characters are also developed beautifully and are undeniable proof that Allison Hewitt is Trapped is an excellent idea, brilliantly executed.
And in Madeleine Roux’s novel, Allison Hewitt is Trapped, that is exactly what the eponymous heroine decides to do. The book begins with Allison and a small group of survivors trapped in the backroom of a book store. Roaming the main shop and the dishevelled streets outside are swarms of shuffling undead, each of them as hungry as they are gruesomely described. In the face of such relentless horror, Allison turns to the mysterious SNet, a surviving internet connection, in order to document her group’s ordeal and to seek help from other users.
The novel’s, written-as-a-blog format certainly makes for a fresh take on the zombie genre, and the comments at the end of Allison’s posts from other survivors really add to the appeal, and to the book’s ability to draw the reader in. However, the format is far more than a gimmick; giving Allison a way to vent her inner most feelings really adds to the experience, and, interestingly, it even feeds into the plot when other characters realise she’s using precious power to run her laptop and to write about them.
Allison herself is an excellent character; determined yet caring, ruthless but saddled with a conscience. The supporting characters are also developed beautifully and are undeniable proof that Allison Hewitt is Trapped is an excellent idea, brilliantly executed.
July 20, 2011
What can I say about a book that started as a blog and continued on into publication as if the main character was writing said blog? Not much good.
I did not like Allison, I did not like her ideas, and I did not like her whining about wanting her Mommy then snarking about a man (Phil) wanting his wife and children. Allison was too much of a (w)itch to make me like her or her plight. She wasn’t hard enough to pull it off, I never believed her as a real person and I couldn’t get over her attitude of ‘I’ll be the hero because no one else will.’ She also lost many points when she had information and withheld it from the group because she was so freaking selfish yet complained when anyone even mentioned doing something for themselves (think previous apartment tenant and radio).
I also can’t understand why in a part of the book someone dies due to zombie squirrel attack and then throughout the remainder of the book we have no concern of animals. Either animals can become zombies and we are all screwed or they can’t and we’ll all be ok. Make up your mind!
We can’t forget the, now required in all zombie books, mad hatter group of crazies that start like a clique then become a cult.
I didn’t hate this book, but I didn’t like it a whole lot either. I found it juvenile and the character unbelievable; I could never quite bring myself to cheer her on, only those that had the unfortunate job of helping her on her mad dash across the country to try to find her Mommy. Urgh.
I did not like Allison, I did not like her ideas, and I did not like her whining about wanting her Mommy then snarking about a man (Phil) wanting his wife and children. Allison was too much of a (w)itch to make me like her or her plight. She wasn’t hard enough to pull it off, I never believed her as a real person and I couldn’t get over her attitude of ‘I’ll be the hero because no one else will.’ She also lost many points when she had information and withheld it from the group because she was so freaking selfish yet complained when anyone even mentioned doing something for themselves (think previous apartment tenant and radio).
I also can’t understand why in a part of the book someone dies due to zombie squirrel attack and then throughout the remainder of the book we have no concern of animals. Either animals can become zombies and we are all screwed or they can’t and we’ll all be ok. Make up your mind!
We can’t forget the, now required in all zombie books, mad hatter group of crazies that start like a clique then become a cult.
I didn’t hate this book, but I didn’t like it a whole lot either. I found it juvenile and the character unbelievable; I could never quite bring myself to cheer her on, only those that had the unfortunate job of helping her on her mad dash across the country to try to find her Mommy. Urgh.
June 3, 2014
I keep saying that I don't like zombies and yet I keep coming back to zombie books. I may need to examine my opinion more closely. In any case this deserves a solid four stars for being a perfectly balanced and well paced survival story. I don't think you can call it a romp in any sense of the word because the stakes are just too high but I enjoyed this with the same excitement and feel-good factor as a family film. ( possibly that says more about me...) Allison kicks ass but is very low key about how awesome she is, so much so that it's only when a character later lists her deeds that you realise that yeah this girl rocks and is not a pathetic, beaten down victim but a survivor in the true sense of the word.
She's also flawed and vulnerable and makes mistakes. Who wouldn't in that situation? Despite one or two acts that many would find inexcusable, I found myself thinking 'I'd have killed them cleanly but I get why she did that'. Best of all she doesn't lose her compassion and courage through it all, just finds better ways to direct them.
This is a book for anyone who likes a strong female lead, a great survival story or is a bit of a zombie fanatic, I already have the next book - hope it's as good.
She's also flawed and vulnerable and makes mistakes. Who wouldn't in that situation? Despite one or two acts that many would find inexcusable, I found myself thinking 'I'd have killed them cleanly but I get why she did that'. Best of all she doesn't lose her compassion and courage through it all, just finds better ways to direct them.
This is a book for anyone who likes a strong female lead, a great survival story or is a bit of a zombie fanatic, I already have the next book - hope it's as good.
July 17, 2014
Allison Hewitt and her five colleagues at the Brooks and Peabody Bookstore are trapped together when the zombie outbreak hits. I expected this to be kind of fun. It starts out a bit that way, Shaun of the Dead-esque but quickly evolves into this dark drama.
It is worth a read, imho, but don’t let the cartoonish cover fool you. For every light moment, there are a half dozen more dark moments. Every good character is flawed and some are downright awful. I liked the blog format and the comments from the readers to break up the horrors of the everyday happenings. There are loose threads all over this story, because occasionally you just won’t ever find out what happened to character “X”. Told in a first person perspective, it seems that you are told in an almost dispassionate way about murder or what have you because Allison has become removed from the student/daughter/bookstore employee she once was.
Its not all doom and gloom but I didn’t see enough of the humor some of the other reviewers did and I don't think I enjoyed it like I would've had I known what I was getting into.
It is worth a read, imho, but don’t let the cartoonish cover fool you. For every light moment, there are a half dozen more dark moments. Every good character is flawed and some are downright awful. I liked the blog format and the comments from the readers to break up the horrors of the everyday happenings. There are loose threads all over this story, because occasionally you just won’t ever find out what happened to character “X”. Told in a first person perspective, it seems that you are told in an almost dispassionate way about murder or what have you because Allison has become removed from the student/daughter/bookstore employee she once was.
Its not all doom and gloom but I didn’t see enough of the humor some of the other reviewers did and I don't think I enjoyed it like I would've had I known what I was getting into.
July 24, 2012
It has been a great pleasure to discover that women can in fact write not only good horror, but good zombie books as well. After the ridiculous and fairly lame As The World Dies trilogy and the cheesy Married With Zombies trilogy, I wasn't sure, but Madeleine Roux has proven this to be the case. This book is well written, nicely paced,fun, with good action and great characters and most importantly totally kickass heroine. Already got the second one from the library. Highly recommended.
Want to read
November 3, 2014Was reading zombie books in November, but I've been dying to do my Harry Potter reread so I'm doing that in November instead of December. HP is more important than zombies... :P
I'll do my zombie marathon in December for sure. :) Zombies and Christmas go well together anyway.
May 20, 2018
Not my usual choice of book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I read a couple of the reviews not in favour of the book being written in the style of a blog along with comments at the end of each chapter/post from other 'users'(in the book). I actually felt it worked just fine and was nice to read a book written in this style, not something I have read before.
Allison Hewitt is a fantastic main character, she's the kind of woman is want to be or be in a survival group with during a zombie apocalypse! She's badass , sarcastic but so brave.
Each chapter definitely leaves you wanting to read more and I found myself hooked pretty quickly.
I wasn't quite happy with the ending, it was just so abrupt and left me hanging.. but perhaps that was the desired effect.
A great read
I read a couple of the reviews not in favour of the book being written in the style of a blog along with comments at the end of each chapter/post from other 'users'(in the book). I actually felt it worked just fine and was nice to read a book written in this style, not something I have read before.
Allison Hewitt is a fantastic main character, she's the kind of woman is want to be or be in a survival group with during a zombie apocalypse! She's badass , sarcastic but so brave.
Each chapter definitely leaves you wanting to read more and I found myself hooked pretty quickly.
I wasn't quite happy with the ending, it was just so abrupt and left me hanging.. but perhaps that was the desired effect.
A great read
Displaying 1 - 30 of 512 reviews