Review: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
Series: Gone with the Respiration #1
Published by Del Ray on October 18th 2011
Pages: 546
Source: Purchased on Kobo
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My Rating:

CAN A PROPER YOUNG VICTORIAN LADY FIND TRUE LOVE IN THE ARMS OF A DASHING ZOMBIE?
 
The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the mores of an antique era. Sixteen-year-old Nora Dearly is far more interested in her country’s political unrest than in silly debutante balls. But the death of her beloved parents leaves Nora at the mercy of a social-climbing aunt who plans to marry off her niece for money. To Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses. Now she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting a fatal virus that raises the dead. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and thoroughly deceased. But like the rest of his special undead unit, Bram has been enabled by luck and modern science to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

Dearly, Departed starts off with two girls, Pamela and Nora who are on their way home from boarding school for Christmas break in a futuristic world. Upon arriving back in their city, Nora encounters a strange man who is warning her of impending doom.  Several nights later Nora realizes what he is talking about when she is attacked by zombies and rescued by another group of … zombies.

I’m going to start off by saying that zombies have never interested me. In fact I have been terrified of zombies. Anything that involves them I avoid-Walking Dead? Not for me, watched 5 minutes and that was it. Resident Evil? Have never seen one. They honestly make me sick and I didn’t think I would ever be interested in them. I also could never understand why many zombie books(from what I’ve read review-wise) also talk about zombie love interests. Really? yuck. They are dead. Flesh eating type of dead. I’m not sure exactly what happened that made me want to read this one but I’ve been trying to experiment with different sub genres and decided to give this a whirl-plus the cover is STUNNING!

The main character is Nora. I absolutely loved her. She was stubborn as an ox and had her own set of ideas and was definitely not scared to share them. She was bad ass when it came to the zombies and really fearless. I also loved Bram. Yes he is the main zombie but he was such a sweet guy, had his own insecurities but was a strong character and rock for Nora. I also loved Chas. She was probably my favorite of the entire book. She was such a bitch it seemed 😛 But in that catty, sarcastic, i-secretly-love-you type of way. She was hilarious and I loved her comments and snide remarks.

I loved the world building as well. I have never read a steam punk novel but the entire genre really interests me-never mind the fact that it is Victorian and beautiful. I loved how the author really went into detail what everything looked like without being over detailed.

Dearly, Departed is so fast paced-you won’t be able to put it down. I was really nervous that I wouldn’t like it but I got sucked in from page one. It is a beautiful story of love, lose and laughter. Gosh there are some funny lines in here. I expected all seriousness but Jeez… those zombies are a funny crew 😛

Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised. Obviously this book was like nothing I’ve ever read but in a way it was like nothing I expected either. The “good zombies” didn’t freak me out and surprisingly I loved Bram. And could see how Nora loved Bram. I kind of forgot that he was a zombie, with clouded over eyes and subconscious flesh-eating thoughts and fell in love with him as well.

I cannot wait to read Dearly, Beloved and see what happens next in Nora’s story!