Review: Rise Again by Ben Tripp

Rise Again by Ben Tripp 

Published October 26th 2010

I’d seen Rise Again randomly on BookOutlet.com at the end of last year and I’d never heard of it before. The cover looked really awesome and I love horror and  post apocalyptic so this seemed like the perfect book for me. I was a little hesitant because I’d never heard of it before but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book.

Rise Again is about Sheriff Danielle Adelman who is suffering from PTSD from her time Iraq. She’s struggling to take care of herself and her younger sister when her sister runs away and dozens of people start to get sick. Danielle soon learns that the zombie apocalypse has started and she needs to find her sister and save a few survivors along the way.

I was a little unsure for the first 30 pages of this book. I rarely read books outside of YA and I’m always doubtful when I start anything that’s not Young Adult. But, after the first 30 pages, I could see that I was completely wrong. It was going to be really great. And it was.

To be honest, the first 20 pages didn’t really hit me right. I couldn’t relate to the main character, Danny, and I didn’t know her well enough to feel any sort of empathy. But right around page 50, when crap got real, I really started to get into the story.

Danny was a great main character. She kicked so much butt and didn’t get caught up in any stupid drama. She didn’t dwell on what ifs and how horrible everything was. She got crap done and she kicked butt while doing it.  And while I couldn’t even really relate to her, I really starting rooting for her and I liked her a lot.

I really liked how the story split off into two perspectives in the middle of the book. It sounds like a weird thing for the author to do but it really worked well for the story.

The writing style and all that good stuff was awesome. I couldn’t believe that this was a debut book. Ben Tripp knows how to write a great story.

The plot was so well thought out! I think that’s my favorite thing about this book. It was clear that Tripp had really thought about where he wanted to story to go and how to get it there. Some books, it feels like the writer was just making it up as they went, with no real end game. But Rise Again had a great story line. It was amazing.

I also really loved how this book didn’t have any romance. It was purely about Danny and her trying to save herself and others. Danny got to be the main character and nothing took away from that.

I really liked the zombies that Tripp created. They were fairly original, I thought. Not to the point of being weird and dumb but just a fresh take on zombies.

I live fairly close to where the last half this book takes place so that was so creepy and scary! As I was reading, I was like, Oh my gosh I know where that town is! It really added to the realistic writing.

Overall, I was tremendously impressed with this book. It was well written with a new take on an old idea. If you’re looking for a really good horror and/or zombie book, I recommend this book. And after an ending like that, I have a mighty need for book two!