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Welcome!! My name is Paul Lappen. I am in my early 60s, single, and live in Connecticut USA. This blog will consist of book reviews, written by me, on a wide variety of subjects. I specialize, as much as possible, in small press and self-published books, to give them whatever tiny bit of publicity help that I can. Other than that, I am willing to review nearly any genre, except poetry, romance, elementary-school children's books and (really bloody) horror.

I have another 800 reviews at my archive blog: http://www.deadtreesreviewarchive.blogspot.com (please visit).

I post my reviews to:

booklore.co.uk
midwestbookreview.com
Amazon and B&N (of course)
Librarything.com
Goodreads.com
Books-a-million.com
Reviewcentre.com
Pinterest.com
and on Twitter

I am always looking for more places to post my reviews.

Friday, July 7, 2017

Expect Civilian Casualties

Expect Civilian Casualties, Gary Bonn, Firedance Books, 2012

Jason is a teenager living alone on a secluded beach. There are hints of abuse and time in an institution. One night, a young woman joins him at his fire. She doesn't have a name, so Jason calls her Anna. She is wild and vivacious, and they have a great time hanging out together on the beach. That is, until the day that Jason sees Anna eat another person.

She sucks the other person down her throat, like a Hollywood special effect, instead of consuming flesh like a zombie. Anna immediately takes off, closely followed by a large group of soldiers and scientists. They are trying to get a handle on what Anna is doing, and are trying to stop Anna and the others (she is not the only one) by any means possible. When a report is received on their location, the intention is to kill them, instead of capturing them.

Later, Jason tries to convince Anna to give herself up (her answer is an emphatic No). Jason learns that Anna, and everyone in her group, are compelled to each consume 1000 people, and then they will leave. Is this the first step in some sort of invasion?

As Jason gets to know some of the soldiers, he realizes that he could consider them to be his friends. But they also want to kill Anna, with whom Jason has fallen in love. Taking matters into his own hands, a scientist has decided to do something about climate change. It involves doing something extremely illegal to Anna and the others. Do Anna and Jason ever get back together?

This story is told from Jason's perspective, so it may seem rather dry reading. It is also a really well-done story, combining love and chaos. This is very much worth checking out.

1 comment:

  1. You have so much deep insight to judge the things and its a great hobby of reading and getting the main idea. Its a great way to write a review on these books and its a nice story you have shared.

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