Friday, June 5, 2009

Deader Still by Anton Strout (review)



Title: Deader Still
Author: Anton Strout
Illustrator: N/A
Pages: 303
Genre: Fiction
Dewey Decimal: F Str
ISBN: 978-0-441-01691-4
Cost: $7.99

The short review:

"Deader Still by @antonstrout is good without a doubt. How long can I rhyme in Twitter without becoming a wimpy quitter?"

The long review:

Anton Strout does it again. This time with vampires. Well, not really, but that's what you're led to believe. And for me, that was the biggest disappointment. No, not the lack of neck sucking vampires, but the reappearance of Simon's old nemesis. Make that nemesi (the plural form) since there were three of them that come back to haunt Simon.

The first half of the novel moves rather quickly and at 300 pages, it makes for an even faster read. Strout's work is light and airy and full of wit. I hate to say this, but it would make a great beach read. The only thing keeping it from being the perfect beach read is that the nerd and geeks likely to read it would get a sunburn. Or accidentally kick sand in someone's face from laughing so hard.

In the end, Strout does a good enough job to keep you reading and entertained. There is a hint of the dreaded sophomore slump, but the next book looks as promising as the first. Perhaps the next book will be even darker by moving the action to the dreaded land of New Jersey.

2 comments:

Mary J. said...

No lifesavers in the picture?

Neil Richard said...

You know, I scoured the house but couldn't find any. And of course I later realized I should have made a mini-stay-puffed marshmallow man to add some Ghostbusters flair. Oh well. Maybe I'll use that for his third book.