Your Brother's Blood (The Walkin')

by David Towsey

[celinenyx]

3.5 Stars

Your Brother's Blood might feature zombies (called the Walkin') but it's not a zombie novel in the traditional sense. It's an ambitious debut, mashing up Western elements with a literary background into a readable adventure novel.

Thomas should be dead. Yet he can walk, think, talk... He has become one of the Walkin', the abominations against God his pastor has always warned him about. Meanwhile in the village of Barkley, the wife and daughter he left behind are in constant danger because of his existence.

I think what Mr Towsey is trying to accomplish in his debut is admirable. He truly has created an innovative and new world, which he furnished with believable and loveable characters. I liked the way he handled the Walkin', the way he incorporated a dysfunctional town crippled by a fanatic religion that doesn't even allow any written word except the Good Book. The story is engaging, and I felt for plenty of his characters.

That being said, I do think Mr Towsey might have tried to put too much in his book. The main plot is sometimes drowned out by side plots and the main action loses speed because of it. Moments that are supposed to be branded in our brain lose their urgency because of the at places staccato writing. Your Brother's Blood is clearly well thought-out, but not everything the author has intended with his book will reach the reader because of what I think is simply lack of experience.

Your Brother's Blood is highly original and has a lot of heart, but does suffer from being this author's first book. It does make me very curious for his next writing though, David Towsey is an author I will make sure to watch the upcoming years.