Book Review of Fiend by Peter Stenson

Goodreads Summary:
 When Chase Daniels first sees the little girl in umbrella socks tearing open the Rottweiler, he's not too concerned. As a longtime meth addict, he’s no stranger to horrifying, drug-fueled hallucinations.
   But as he and his fellow junkies soon discover, the little girl is no illusion. The end of the world has arrived.
   The funny thing is, Chase’s life was over long before the apocalypse got here, his existence already reduced to a stinking basement apartment and a filthy mattress and an endless grind of buying and selling and using. He’s lied and cheated and stolen and broken his parents’ hearts a thousand times. And he threw away his only shot at sobriety a long time ago when he chose the embrace of the drug over the woman he still loves.
   And if your life’s already shattered beyond any normal hopes of redemption…well, maybe the end of the world is an opportunity. Maybe it’s a last chance for Chase to hit restart and become the man he once dreamed of being. Soon he’s fighting to reconnect with his lost love and dreaming of becoming her hero among civilization’s ruins.
   But is salvation just another pipe dream?
   Propelled by a blistering first-person voice and featuring a powerfully compelling antihero, Fiend is at once a riveting portrait of addiction, a pitch-black love story, and a meditation on hope, redemption, and delusion—not to mention one hell of a zombie novel.
Goodreads Rating: 3.53 with 1,016 ratings
Genre listing: Horror, Zombies, Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Dystopian
Get the Book: Amazon, Book Depository

Review:

Edited 12/1/2016

  Disclaimer: I received a copy of Fiend by Peter Stenson through Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest book review. 

I've been eying this book for a while now. I kept seeing it on Blogging for books, and it was calling for me to request it, but I didn't. I finally did a few weeks ago and got it in the mail and instantly had to read it. This might not make sense to anyone but me, but the paperback cover feels like a book about Zombies and Meth should feel- grimy. It's just got this weird texture to it, and that fits with the story (at least in my mind). There's a comment on Goodreads that someone posted that I feel sums up the book perfectly. "An easy description of this book would be Breaking Bad meets Walking Dead. It's almost like AMC went out and commissioned someone to take advantage of two of their hit shows and mash them up."  I haven't seen Breaking Bad, but I assume this book is the love child of the two shows. 

If you can't tolerate vulgar language, this is not the book for you. I, however, thrive in vulgar language so this was right up my alley. This book is a view of what would happen if drug addicts were the only ones left in a Zombie Apocalypse. I don't know about other people, but for Chris and I, talking about how to survive a Zombie Apocalypse is a pretty reoccurring conversation topic. I thought that overall this was a fascinating take on a traditional entertainment trend. I feel like everything I've read in the Zombie genre has been either military-Esq types, hunter-types, or scientist-types surviving. It was kind of interesting to see a take with a group of people who I usually wouldn't think of as survivors. 

Sorry for the big spoiler here, but I like how this one doesn't necessarily end with a happy ending. This doesn't necessarily end with everyone dying, but it doesn't exactly give me the impression of ultimate survival either. It sort of leaves things hanging. Which I think is a more realistic approach to what would happen if Zombies were real. I feel like the book ends a lot like how it begins and comes full circle. I like that it's a stand-alone novel. I'm getting burnt out on series. 

Beyond the Zombies and gore, there's the drug story, and what it does to people. I have no idea if what was portrayed in the story as far as drug use goes is what it's like, but it felt believable to me. There's also a broken romance in the book, which I liked seeing a not-so-perfect love in a book. The relationship is just as unbalanced as KK and Chase's drug use. 

I enjoyed this book, and I'm already forcing Leslie to read it this weekend. We're meeting tomorrow for lunch since it's my birthday. I'm making her borrow it and read it because it's awesome. It's a quick read (about 300 pages), filled with zombies, drugs, and lots of swearing. Aside from the drugs, it's my type of book. Yay Zombies!

Five out of Five moons!