Book Review: This Is the End by Eric Pollarine

Jeff Sorbenstein has everything, thanks to creating the most important app on the market, one found in every smart phone, computer and almost every technological gadget in the world. The app even helped him earn Time Magazine's "Man of the Year". All that fame and fortune -- and a cigarette habit -- also snags him a fairly aggressive case of cancer, according to his doctor. So Jeff does what anyone in his position would do: decides to use cryogenics, to freeze himself until a cure for his type of cancer is found. Only he also plans to let the public in on a few secrets before disappearing into his cold sleep.

When he wakes from his cryo sleep, he slowly realizes something must have gone wrong. No one is around -- no techs, no lab coats, no security guards. The room is empty, everything covered in a thick layer of dust. He stumbles to the door, gathering all his strength to carry him to his office upstairs. But he's not prepared for what awaits him behind the stairwell door and it takes all his failing strength to fight his way past the misshapen creature, missing an arm and bent on sinking its teeth into Jeff. Things get worse when he finally reaches his office only to come face to face with two soldiers, both of whom blame him for the destruction of the world outside his office.

This Is the End provides a nice twist from the standard zombie tale. Instead of focusing on the gore, the biting, the infecting that is normally associated with zombie tales, this tale uses the zombies more as a backdrop to a story of one man wanting to exact revenge on the person who did him wrong. What makes it even better is the character of Jeff Sorbenstein. At first, you hate him. He's arrogant, elitist, and an all-around asshole. But after waking up and realizing that he'd been lied to, manipulated, made a scapegoat, you reluctantly being to feel for him, and as the story nears its conclusion, you're rooting for him.

I found the cause for the zombification very interesting and unique in its own way. It's biological and based on real facts from the animal kingdom, making it a very believable catalyst for the demise of the human population. (I just hope no one reading the story gets any ideas.)

And the story still provides all the zombie goodness a fan expects: hordes of the re-animated mindlessly trying to spread their infection to every last living human on the planet; a small group of people trying to make their escape from the city; buckets of gore as the zombies battle against the humans in the parking garage -- GREAT scene, too!

I highly recommend Eric Pollarine's This Is the End, a great addition to the zombie genre.

This Is the End
by Eric Pollarine
May December Publications
ebook, 166 pgs.

ebook and image received directly from author