Resident Evil: Zero Hour (Matt Smith)

v Title: Resident Evil Zero Hour
v Author: S.D Perry
v Publisher: POCKET BOOKS
v Pages: 273
v I found this book at Barnes and Noble

v Summary: The Raccoon City Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S) Bravo team, an elite police unit, is sent into Raccoon Forest to investigate a grisly string of murders that have been taking place over the last few months. On the way to investigate the helicopter crashes in the forest and leads to Bravo team splitting up. The story begins with rookie member Rebecca Chambers, the Bravo team’s new medic, investigating when she finds an abandoned train. Upon entering the train she finds all the passengers are dead and have become zombies! Rebecca soon teams up with Billy Coen, a criminal on death row for the murder of 23 people, whom she discovers is also on the train. The two of them quickly realize they must work together if they want to protect themselves from the undead and make it out alive!

v The audience of Resident Evil Zero Hour is anyone who is a fan of science fiction, horror, or zombies. Most fans of any of those will probably like this book! It has all the elements of a good science fiction or horror novel. Come on, who doesn’t zombies?

v S.D Perry writes with a lot of detail and makes it so you can clearly picture in your mind what is happening. “Two, three, shots the rounds tearing into the discolored flesh, the first two hitting his chest, the third blowing a hole just above his eye. With a third shot, the creature let out a mindless squeal, a sound of frustration rather than pain, and fell to the floor.”(34)
v “‘Wait! You’re under arrest!’ she said firmly. He turned to her, and saw that she hadn’t even upholstered her weapon. She was doing her damnedest to look fierce, but she couldn’t pull it off. If the situation would have been any less serious, any less bizarre, he would have smiled.”(42-43). I thought this passage was funny, and it struck me as weird, that an elite officer would confront a felon accused of murdering 23 people without drawing their gun.v “It might have been a Doberman, once—but as it bared dripping teeth at her, flaps of skin and muscle hanging from its haunches, she realized it, too, had been infected by whatever disease had struck the passengers. It didn’t just look dead, it looked destroyed, its eyes filmed with red, its body like some mad patchwork quilt of fur and bloody tissue.”(47) This quote struck me because I couldn’t imagine seeing that. I would be so scared, I can’t even fathom it; an undead dog with its body destroyed and bloody would be a pretty horrific sight.
v “Billy pulled her out of the hole, using his body as leverage, pulling her practically on top of him in a rough embrace. Instead of pushing him away, she let him hold her a moment, clinging to him, unable to stop the tears of gratitude, of relief. He seemed to understand what she needed, and held her tightly. She’d been so sure she was going to fall, to die, lost and forgotten in some stinking basement, her corpse picked over by diseased animals…”(154-155) I found this passage to be touching, and cute, that Rebecca, a member of an elite team from a police department, could be comforted by Billy, a felon who allegedly killed 23 people.
v I interacted with this book because I really enjoyed reading it. From start to finish it was very interesting and entertaining, always keeping me wanting to know and read more. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the book, being about zombies, I couldn’t actually relate to it very well. The parts in the novel that really spoke to me would be the development of Rebecca’s and Billy’s relationship. I found it very cute and enjoyable to see them go from hating having to work together to both enjoying each other’s company and depending on each other.