Book Review: Hunter of the Dead

Hunter of the Dead

By:  Katee Robert

Published By:  Mundania Press

Publish Date:  June 26, 2012

Format:  Print 201pgs, 5" x 8"

Genre:  YA Urban Fantasy

Series:  First in series

Recommendation:  Oh Yes!  Killer read, with zombies lurking around to hunt along with making the mind wonder why things are happening.

Synopsis:
Eighteen-year-old Eden Rosenberg knows how to kill and she's damn good at it.  Until recently, her life was pretty easy -- get a call from her team's mysterious employer, jet off to a new location, kill some zombies.

But the most recent call is different from the others.  Instead of being an isolated incident in the middle of nowhere, it's an entire village at risk.  By the time the team shows up, the village is empty, leaving only a handful of infected wandering the streets.  Or so it seems until they're ambushed by far too many zombies for their five-person team to deal with.

On the run and trapped within the valley, Eden is separated from her team when she tries to save a little girl from the inevitable fate of the bitten.  To make matters worse, she's forced to rely on Alejandro, the one man she swore never to trust again, to watch her back.  She hasn't seen him since he walked away from the team -- from her -- a year ago and she's not even sure what he's doing in the valley in the first place.

As Eden races to reunite with her team, she'll have to deal with a homicidal priest who's more than what he seems and a group of survivors she's pretty sure are too stupid to live.  But things are more complicated than she realized and soon Eden's forced to confront the truth about the infection; it isn't an accident and those responsible will do anything to ensure no one gets out of the valley alive.

First Sentence:
Eden watched the child in her scope, her finger poised on the trigger.

My Thoughts and Summary:
Eden and her team just finished their assignment in Costa Rica.  The jungle is making Eden restless and melancholy  missing the man who took off on her in a jungle and missing her father who made her feel safe before killed by a mugger.  Frustrated as her sister wants a normal life for Eden but Eden likes this life, of hunting and killing the infected, or zombies.  Shocked to receive a new call for a new assignment, Eden is excited to keep going and the team goes to Peru.  This case of zombie infection feels odd to Eden.  A town of two hundred is where it's starting, usually starts out in no where and comes to town for food.  As Eden, Jordan, Kaede, Taro, and Oz get into this assignment, things don't add up right.  The team gets in to deep with the mass number of zombies this time even losing one of their own.  They end up trapped here, more and more seeming on purpose and way to many infected for their liking.  But, the one they pick up again could spar lots of questions of their system on getting the assignments and the infection itself.  Edens weakness, little kids, brings Eden question the infection and saving people when she saves a little girl, that brings up her history, just to learn the little girl is infected and Eden does everything she can to try to save and still have her turn.  Being separated and trapped with the only entrance/exit to the valley blown shut Eden decides to seek revenge on the person behind killing her team.

We start right off with shooting zombies.  Seems zombies are becoming more and more lately for Eden and her sisters team.  A job they are good at.  Great action and movement in the story with the zombies.  Eden is a sniper on the team.  Her sister won't let her come down into the thick of the action on the front line with zombies.  Eden thinks it's that Jordan doesn't think she's ready, but part of me thinks it's a safety thing, along with being an amazing sniper.  Eden is one tough determined girl!  She's eighteen and started cleaning up the infected at fourteen, but traveled with her hunter father for many years prior.  She doesn't take kindly to being approached wrong in a bar, puts that man in his place.  She doesn't like being touched, and reacts to it.

The assignments are mysterious.  No one knows who the employer is.  Jordan gets a call and she calls the team together, they go, and supplies and a map when get off the plane are waiting.  Almost a Charlies Angels take on the employer.  And I'm more curious about this employer now.  I can't wait for the next book to learn more!

Eden lives in a different reality and world where life can end at any time in her profession.  This is a YA read, sixteen plus.  Eden is eighteen and she drinks ~ tequila, and had sex ~ only once, but she remembers that the man left her right after, a year ago and not seen or heard of since.  What needs to be remembered, Eden lives in a different reality.  One where zombies exist and she kills them and could die at any moment on an assignment.  In these countries, drinking alcohol at this age is okay.  But the man (as he's only a few years older than her) does come back and claim to never leave her again.  Eden shows great strength in resisting him and doing the "right thing" in the end.  There is great potential here for a strong relationship to grow, and I want to see that.

Okay, so...this is a zombie read.  And as many of you know, I don't do zombies.  Well... I LOVED this one!  It's a hunt, we are going in knowing we are going to find infected, and plan to kill them.  This I can handle.  And do with great ease.  There is a growing mystery here, and as the story goes.

I LOVE Eden, she's strong, smart and takes action.  I'm curious about where next we will go and learn with the employer and what Alejandro knows and has to share.  Oh so much to come!  I CAN NOT WAIT!!

Did I mention how much I loved this book? ;)

I say go get this one, for YA and Adults alike, you will enjoy it!

Want to purchase it?

I think you will really like this one.

If you purchase it in eBook format, it's only $4.39 at this time. (Usually $4.99)

I read this book for an honest review from the publisher.