Love Lies Bleeding [Kindle Edition]

I'm going to have to gather my thoughts on this for a bit. (It took about twelve hours to mull it over before I could continue to write the review.)

This must also be mentioned, the cover is just gorgeous. I admit, zombies are not my usual thing but I couldn't pass this one up after reading the blurb and seeing the cover.

This novella reads very quickly, and even hard to put down at times. It was hard to follow at the beginning with the initial 'world building'. That was likely my biggest hurdle with the novella. Oh, and one other thing that I felt was unnecessary was the zodiac references (mostly early on in the story.) These are the two biggest reasons this didn't get a higher rating.

There are VERY different themes mashes together with zombies. Not what I was expecting at all. Girl loses boy, starts to loose a few screws, goes to the funeral in the wedding dress that represented a future that would never happen. Girl is depressed, and tries to kill herself. THEN the book really begins to get interesting...

I really enjoyed the use of multi-media within the book. Music was thrown in several times (one of my favorite songs, in fact, "Hold On") along with descriptions of the wedding DVD showcasing the back story of their relationship. Overall, the writing itself seemed almost poetic at times which took a moment to be comfortable with. The juxtaposition of the subject matter and the tone really worked for me by the end.

I almost worried I had the wrong book for a while because I kept thinking, "I thought this was a zombie book. Where are the zombies?" But then we reach it, and - oh boy - there are the zombies.

The end had be rooting for the very last people I expected to be rooting for. Kind of disturbing, in a good way. I would most definitely read more by this author in the future!

First and foremost, that cover is absolutely stunning!!! I mean, the minute I saw it, I knew that I wanted to read it, and as it's a novella and relatively short, that's exactly what I did.

Love Lies Bleeding is unlike any zombie novel that I've read, and, in fact, I forgot that it was about zombies at all, until the very end. This story is definitely not your normal, run of the mill zombie book. It's also not a traditional story about a girl pining away for the love she's lost, although that is how the story opens. Doidge sets the stage with the funeral of Grady, sending Pamela into a funk in which she wants nothing more than to die alongside Grady's grave. And this, my dear readers, is where the story begins to lift off. And get weird. Now, weird usually has negative connotations, but rest assured, I'm using it as a positive here--readers just need to know that this novella has a lot of twists and turns that might leave them scratching their heads, but it is a dark comedy, after all, and I definitely found a lot of the quirky elements, characters, and twists to be quite funny.

If you're in the mood for something unusual, this is definitely it. I highly suggest you pick it up!!

With Love Lies Bleeding initially being written as a screenplay, it started off a bit slow as there is quite a bit of world building and I was a little confused as to where things were headed. However, once the action started it was practically nonstop. I have to admit that no one character really struck me as fantastic. I am by no means saying this story had poorly written characters, Doidge has created several very interest and fun characters. I just didn't connect with them as much as another reader might. I was more taken in by the environment and action, which includes the actions and interactions of the characters amongst each other.

A few descriptor words I would use to give an idea of the range of feelings Love Lies Bleeding can leave you with would be: odd, funny, tense, confused, cute, disturbing, heartbroken, happy and the best adjective....quirky. It was a highly enjoyable read, definitely worth the time. It's not your typical zombie story, but there are definitely zombies in it.

Short review, but as Love Lies Bleeding is a novella I don't like to get too in depth, plus the synopsis above gives all the information that is needed. So go buy yourself a copy today!