Review of Lockdown by Samie Sands

Title: Lockdown
Author: Samie Sands
ISBN: (ebook)
Original Publication: 2014
My rating: 2/5

To be honest, I didn't go into Lockdown with high hopes. It was free on Kindle Unlimited, and it sounded better than the cheap romance fare that makes up most of the selection there, so I decided to give it a try.

It wasn't terrible. I'll give it that. The whole thing gives the impression of just being a really long, relatively good-quality creepypasta you could find on the internet somewhere. Sands has potential. The concept had potential.

The Pros

- Interesting concept, done slightly differently from your average "zombie" story. Rather than being in the thick of things throughout, the main character initially doesn't take the threat seriously, and the situation seems to develop around her in the background for some time.

- Unprepared, inexpert lead. Leah isn't a badass, tough-as-nails, yank-out-the-bullet-with-my-teeth survivor type. She doesn't even know that hardcore end-of-the-world "preppers" exist until well into the story. She needs a huge amount of help from others and frequently makes stupid but realistic decisions. While I'm no huge fan of Leah's, I can appreciate the novelty of placing a more average human into a zombie story.

- A somewhat realistic depiction of what might happen if something like AM13 were to really break out. Not everyone follows the rules; people behave like people and do stupid things rather than obeying orders. Not everyone takes the threat seriously even once it's well upon them.

The Cons

- Leah is annoying. You're forced to see the story through her eyes, but you're not going to like her. You really won't feel that bad for her despite the horrible things going on. She's an airhead, plain and simple, with very little depth of character. She spends a lot of time crying or wanting to cry.

- The narrative is rushed and sometimes feels disjointed. Time passes in weird ways within chapters. Leah frequently goes to sleep and wakes up within two sentences. Days pass in a single paragraph.

- The characters, including Leah, are shallow and go through very little development. Or maybe they are deeper than they seem, but you spend so little time with them that it's hard to tell. Many characters had the potential for good dialogue and conversations that might have helped the reader to empathize with them more, but Sands doesn't delve into this at all.

- The way in which the virus threat comes to light and the government responds to it is just... weird. Why is Leah's boss so desperate to get the story out there when it's clear Leah herself doesn't even believe it? Why does anyone go along with this like it's no big deal? Why does no one seem especially scared? It's as though all of the characters know what's going to happen and just go along with the story. I know I said earlier that some people not taking things seriously made the story more realistic, and that's true, but certain characters who should have known better also seemed oddly calm about the whole thing.

- Plot holes/unanswered questions (of which I can't write too much because they would all be spoilers). Clearly, Sands is trying to set up her sequels, but it takes away from the quality of the book at hand and makes it feel unpleasantly unresolved and rushed.

- First person, present tense. This is just a pet peeve of mine. Don't like it and never did. It always makes the writing sound amateurish, which contributed to the aforementioned creepypasta feel.

The Final Verdict

Lockdown isn't horrible. If you get it for free, especially, it's worth it if all you want is a fairly quick, fairly mindless read. It's like a subpar action movie--it's fairly entertaining and you won't likely feel like you entirely wasted your time on it. It's just rather disappointing to see a concept that could have been really engaging and interesting fall flat because of shallow, static, and sometimes annoying characters, lack of meaningful dialogue, and overall rushed writing.