Shana Festa's Time of Death: Asylum was published by Permuted Press in December 2014.
Information about Shana Festa:
Shana Festa was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on October 17, 1976 and grew up in Northboro, Massachusetts. She currently lives in Cape Coral, Florida with her husband and two dogs, Daphne & Casey.
Shana is a registered nurse with clinical experience in mental health, geriatrics, HIV and substance abuse. In addition to her clinical background, Shana possesses over 15 years of experience with project management and data analytics.
She has been heavily involved in the collection and dissemination of the ICD-10 clinical and coding analytics across multiple projects including the NCHICA ICD-10 Pilot, the HIMSS WEDI ICD-10 Pilot and commercial testing programs.
Under her alter ego, The Bookie Monster, Shana reviews horror and paranormal books, with an emphasis on (but not limited to) zombie fiction. With a background in Psych Nursing, Shay brings her unique perspective to the online reading community.
Introducing her own zompoc story to the genre, Shana's debut novel, Time of Death: Induction, was released in May 2014. The second novel, Time of Death: Asylum, was published in December 2014.
Click here to visit the author's official website.
Information about Time of Death: Asylum:
Surviving the journey is just the beginning.
The last two months have brought nothing but death and destruction for Emma Rossi. She survived the initial zombie outbreak with her husband, Jake, and their dog, Daphne, but the cost was steep: Sanibel has fallen.
In a world where the only constant is change, the group is pushed to their limits before reaching the gates of Asylum, a coastal stronghold in Sarasota, Florida.
Once again, Emma must navigate an apocalyptic wasteland filled with relentless hordes of the undead and other menacing horrors that threaten her survival.
Only thing is certain. No one is safe from what lurks on either side of Asylum's gates. Sanity will be tested; and many won't live to tell the tale.
A REVIEW OF SHANA FESTA'S TIME OF DEATH: ASYLUM
Shana Festa's Time of Death: Asylum is a sequel to Time of Death: Induction, which was published earlier this year. It's a well written, fast-paced, action-packed and entertaining zombie novel that offers plenty of gritty and emotional entertainment to zombie fans.
In my opinion zombie fiction is good and harmless entertainment, because it offers great light entertainment to horror readers (who could possibly resist reading about the malicious, dangerous and decomposing corpses that crave for human flesh?). I don't normally read much zombie fiction, but I do enjoy reading well written zombie entertainment, because every once in a while it's relaxing to read different kind of horror novels. I liked this novel very much, because it was good entertainment and an excellent sequel to Time of Death: Induction.
I think that Shana Festa's fans will be pleased to find out that Time of Death: Asylum is as good a novel as Time of Death: Induction. In my opinion this novel is actually a bit better than the previous novel, because the author has developed certain things further. The author seems to write out of love for storytelling and is enthusiastic about keeping up a brisk pace.
If there are any readers out there who wonder if this novel can be read as a standalone novel, I can mention that it can probably be read as a standalone novel, but you probably won't understand certain things and happenings well unless you're familiar with the previous novel.
Here's a bit of information about the story without spoilers:
- This novel begins with a brief introduction to past happenings, because the story picks up right where the first novel left off. Emma Rossi has survived the fall of Sanibel, but victory came with a heavy price. She has lost many people and her life has changed permanently, and she can't help thinking about the past.
- Emma and her family (Jake, Meg, Vinny and Daphne the dog) continue their journey and try to survive in the hostile world that's full of zombies. Soon they find out that there's an asylum in Sarasota that can possibly be a safe place for people...
This is all I'll write about the story, because it wouldn't be fair to reveal more about the happenings. I'll only mention that this is the beginning of an action-packed and entertaining zombie novel.
One of the best things about this novel is that Shana Festa has added a humane and emotional level to her story that many other authors lack in their novels. By writing about Emma and her life (and - of course - her problems and stress), the author manages to make her readers care about Emma's fate. In the previous novel Emma had to leave her whole life behind and flee from the zombies that overtook the town. In this novel her fight against the zombies and battle for survival continues and the stakes are higher now, because the world has become a dangerous place and it's difficult to trust other people and survivors (a wrong move could get you killed).
Emma is an interesting and well-created character. She was a nursing student, but now she is a survivor of zombie apocalypse. She has lost nearly everybody she cared about and she has had to adapt to a new world where you have to be prepared to fight for your life and where you have to plan your moves carefully in order to survive. The speed of the happenings surprised her, because everything spiraled out of control very fast and her world changed from a nearly perfect world to a threatening world full of zombies.
It's interesting how easily and fluently Shana Festa writes about Emma's nursing skills. The author's own experiences as a nurse have clearly been a source of inspiration to her, because everything that's connected to nursing feels authentic and natural. She has a natural way of writing about Emma's skills and ability to interact with people.
I think it's great that Shana Festa writes about Emma's dog, the Yorkshire terrier Daphne. Daphne has become an important part of Emma's family and Emma loves her dog very much. There aren't many zombie novels in which the authors write about dogs in this kind of a way, so this is something different and adds originality to the story.
It's also great how easily the author writes about character interaction and how well she has created certain characters. The dialogues between the characters feel surprisingly believable. There are a few conflicts and tensions between the characters, but the author handles them well and manages to surprise her readers with a few scenes.
The author isn't easy on her characters, because the characters have to deal with many things from losing people to surviving among the zombies. This is great, because it adds realism to the storyline. It's especially good that the author doesn't sugarcoat anything.
In this novel readers get to see what happens between Emma and Jake. I'm not going to reveal what happens, but I'll briefly mention that the situation is interesting.
When the characters reached Asylum, the happenings reminded me a bit of the happenings that I've seen in a couple of films and in The Walking Dead. It's possible that this may bother a few readers, but in my opinion the author handles these happenings well and kept the story interesting.
The descriptions about the zombies and their actions are as threatening, nasty and gritty as possible, which is good. In my opinion zombie novels aren't zombie novels unless you have this kind of descriptions about zombies in them.
It's nice that Shana Festa has also been able to add a bit of humour to the story, because it lightens the atmosphere at certain points and makes the story flow better. It's great that she doesn't overdo this, but manages to keep everything under control. For example, the scene in which the characters name their weapons contains delightful humour.
Although Time of Death: Asylum is a zombie novel that stays true to its roots that lie in zombie fiction and zombie films, it's a surprisingly original and well written novel that differs nicely from other similar novels. When I read this novel, I got the impression that Shana Festa is capable of using popular zombie elements and clichés to her advantage. She clearly wants to entertain her readers with a good and action-packed story, because she writes her own kind of fast-paced zombie fiction and pays homage to classic zombie films and stories.
If you're a zombie fan, Time of Death: Asylum is a must-read novel. It has all the necessary ingredients needed to entertain and thrill zombie fans. If you're a newcomer to the zombie genre, this novel and its predecessor will offer quite a lot of entertainment to you, so you couldn't find a better way to acquaint yourself with this genre.
Good, well written and addictive zombie entertainment!