Ashton Memorial by Robert R Best

Ashton Memorial is the 2nd book of a zombie trilogy that began with Lakewood Memorial. It carries on the story of the survivors of a zombie apocalypse that appears to have ripped a small community in America apart.

The story carries on straight after the events in Lakewood Memorial Hospital. Without spoiling it too much Angie Land and her children Maylee and Dalton, along with Parker decide to make their way to Ashton to find family, specifically Parkers two daughters. Along with the story of their road trip to Ashton we are also introduced to the characters in Ashton Memorial, a zoo where survivors have been locked up to protect them but where all is not what it seems.

As I said in my review of the first book, zombie stories are about the human experience and the journey the survivors must take to survive in the new world dominated by the undead. In this book we are introduced into the darker side of human nature, and this keeps the story refreshing. The zombies play their part to add to the chaos, and we even get action from the animals that in their hunger are also on the attack, but the real evil is in the form of the human nature.

It always seems to happen, when you get a group of people all trapped into one place a hierarchy is formed and it’s almost always the psychotic dictators who have the power of the gun who take over. This is what happens here. The zoo keepers led by the sinister Gregory are holding visitors to the zoo captive and treating them like animals, Gregory is far more dangerous than he seems though and has Parkers daughters with him. This of course leads up to the two stories coming together in an exciting finale.

As with the first book the characters really are good. We care about them and fear for them when they are put into dangerous situations. We even feel sad when tragic events take place during the story because Best has really put time into creating these characters and it shows. Gregory is the stand out character this time as his menacing and dangerous role as the dictator of his own little world. He believes the people are his “civilians” that he must control and look after, and he’ll do anything to protect his own little dominion, in short he’s crazy.

As the middle book of a trilogy this book does its job well. It’s exciting, it sets up events to be resolved in the final book and it actually manages to shock the reader, which of course is always a good thing. I will say at times it felt a little too long though. At almost double the size of the first book the difference in length is really noticed. This is only a small complaint though as the pages are so full of action it will keep you interested until the end. All I have to wonder though is we’ve had a hospital, now a zoo where next? I can’t wait to find out.

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Paul Metcalf

Paul can often be found on Twitter talking about his favourite movies, games, technology and books when he is not reviewing them and adding news to Pissed Off Geek. Be sure to follow him on Twitter and on the Pissed Off Geek Facebook page. As not only owner, managing editor and webmaster of the site he is also the owner of Pissed Off Geek sister site Truly Disturbing. He can be contacted by emailing here

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