Review: Dead Fall by Meredith Russell

Title: Dead Fall

Series: Dead Things: Book Two

Author: Meredith Russell

Publisher: Love Lane Books/Kindle Unlimited

Length: 237 Pages

Category: Sci-Fi, Dystopian

At a Glance: Dead Fall feels a lot like the author chumming the waters to see what will come out to play with its food. The storytelling is precise and articulate, and I’m looking so forward to seeing how this series resolves.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Since the events in Chicago, Devin and Noah dare to believe that a future is possible, and there is hope. For them and humanity.

Noah struggles to find his place at Devin’s side. Stricken with survivor’s guilt and a driving need to make a difference, Noah leaves his lover to investigate the only lead he has to stop the undead. Himself.

Devin has fought to stay sane in a world of horror for too long and his one shining light is Noah. When Noah heads off on some misguided venture to search for answers, Devin knows he can’t bear to be the one left behind again.

They are two men who have nothing, and everything, to lose.

Review: I’ve been waiting years for this book. Years. Was the wait worth it? Youbetcha.

The zombie apocalypse has destroyed life as we know it, a familiar story concept, yes, but one author Meredith Russell has put her signature on, and she has done so with no small amount of precise and articulate storytelling. The world building has been accomplished through descriptive language and shown through character action and interaction, and her freaks are just the right amount of deadly and disgusting enough to up the adrenaline factor at every encounter. There’s a prison within a prison aspect to the story that lends just the right amount of claustrophobia to the atmosphere. There’s nothing quite like being the lesser animal, caged in and understanding that humans are no longer at the top of the food chain, and that there are things roaming free on the outside that source you as prey.

One of the things I appreciate about this series is that Russell made a point to avoid the easier romantic answer to Devin and Noah’s relationship. This is not an insta-love story in spite of it perhaps having been a temptation to lean on the love-conquers-all trope to contrast the depth of dystopia in their new world order. Instead, the expected losses and fears of investing emotionally in a relationship in a hellscape where the basics we take for granted are now a precious luxury are presented in a realistic way, the way one would expect if we were to lose everything we loved and held dear. The resistance in Devin in particular to make himself vulnerable again to the grief he experienced when he lost the man he loved is believable and something I appreciated within this setting’s chaos and the characters’ dubious future.

The search for answers plays a major role in this installment of the series—not to figure out what’s caused the dead to rise and walk again, but how to stop it, and how Noah may hold the key to unlocking those answers. The theme of sacrificing for the greater good is a mainstay among heroes in our fiction, and that’s no less true in Dead Fall. Noah’s unilateral decision to strike out on his own causes its fair share of problems, but it also introduces a new group of characters and new options, which introduces the complicated issue of trust and in what ways humans might become as monstrous in their actions and betrayals as the real monsters in the story are monstrous in their savage hunger for human flesh.

There are no pat answers or resolutions to the problems in this installment of the series. This isn’t the end, there’s more story to tell, and this book feels a lot like the author is chumming the waters to see what will come out to play with its food. It’s a transition book that offers a connection between what was and what’s yet to come. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing how Russell resolves this series, to watch Noah and Devin continue to grow closer now that they’ve acknowledged their feelings for each other, and, of course, more zombies is always a fun reason to stay tuned.

You can buy Dead Fall here:
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