Tuesday 21 July 2015

Book Review: Love's Curse by Darren Gallagher

Read: July 14 - 21    Verdict: 2.85 Stars

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
I'll admit that I did waver between giving this book between a 2.5 stars and 3 stars. I think to compromise, I'll give it a 2.85. Overall, I enjoyed the novel and it's the first zombie novel I've read based in Ireland which is fantastic.

Love's Curse centres around Justin who is living in a Post Office warehouse following the zombie apocalypse. One day, Justin gets a call from Camille, the girl he's loved from afar since, well, forever. She needs his help and Justin finally gets the chance to be her knight in shining armour.

From the get go, we can tell that nothing is going to go as it seems for Justin. And, of course, it doesn't. While this is mainly suppose to be a zombie novel, I think I have to describe it as a not-your-typical romance novel set in the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse. There wasn't quite enough detailed scenes of zombies for me. I would have liked a few flashbacks too - something that would broaden out the story a bit more and take away from Justin's plentiful moments of pining after Camille.

I enjoyed Justin as a character. While he was quite weak-willed around Camille, though it's understandable as he believes himself to be in love, he proves himself to be a very kind and considerate guy when meeting Abbie and his care and love for his friends and family such as Belle and Ken are very evident. He's also pretty funny and a dab hand with his hurley skills.

I also enjoyed the dynamic between the group back at the depot. Again, I would have liked more scenes, finding out a bit more about the characters and how they knew each other. How they ended up at their hideout. Maybe even possibly finding more survivors.

Now, the major problems I had with this book was mainly to do with areas regarding Camille. Though one other thing was the frequent use of the c-word. I HATE that word. I can' stand to hear it or read it, and I would never choose to read it. It's an ugly word and, for me, there's a reason people don't use it in normal conversations. I'd much rather people use 'asshole' or even 'bitch' if they have to cuss at all. I just really really hate that word and everytime I read it in this book, i couldn't help but feel a flare of anger. But that's just my personal opinion. I'm sure there's other people out there that have no problems with it.

I would have preferred less 'slut-shaming' in this book. Camille has a boyfriend, she's going to kiss and have sex with her boyfriend. Now, Justin. She may have kissed you but she genuinely, at this point, believed Vic to be dead. She was grasping on survival strings, and calling her a slut, isn't helping anything. Not to mention the amount of times Belle and Ken also called her one. I see it used as a casual insult way too often in normal society so I don't like to read it in my book as well.

The main thing that angered me was the point when Abbie told Camille that her 'acting like a dirty little slut' caused Vic to turn violent. No. There is never a valid reason or excuse for anyone in a relationship, male or female, to turn emotionally and physically abusive. It's domestic violence, and it should never be okay. While I whole-heartedly agree that neither Vic or Camille were good people, and both were ill-mannered, petty, and manipulative...it's still not okay for there to be an excuse. 

I would love to read some kind of sequel eventually and to see how Abbie, Justin, Belle and the others are doing and how they're getting on in the zombie apocalypse. Overall, it's a fast-paced enjoyable read.

No comments:

Post a Comment