Tori's Review: Dearly Departed by Lia Habel

Released: October 18, 2011
Hardcover: 480 pages
Price: $16.99
Publisher: Random House
Source: Amazon Vine
Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Gone With the Respiration
Buy: Amazon

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Love can never die.

Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?
 

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune, and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.
 

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.
 

In Dearly, Departed, steampunk meets romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.

My Rating:

This book has received The Faerie of Honor (what's this?)

My Opinion:
A hilarious, spine-tingling novel, DEARLY DEPARTED has completely blown my mind. I was expecting a so-so 3-star book when I requested this on Amazon Vine. The back cover summary made it sound fairly interesting, and I figured zombies, steampunk, and some sort of dystopian-ish storyline might be the perfect change of pace from all the YA love triangles I've been drowning in. Never in my wildest dreams did I envision that this book and its characters would capture and hold my undivided attention for 400+ pages. I willingly stayed up until 3AM to read the first 300 pages, and only pure exhaustion had the ability to pull me away. But not for long! Once I woke up, I was reading again. I am amazed, and I cannot speak highly enough of Lia Habel's sheer genius.

The voice in DEARLY DEPARTED (DD) is fairly unique and takes some getting used to. While we are catapulted into the future, it would seem that society has progressed backwards in some ways, while also making advances we could only dream of living with. The United States no longer exists; Britain and numerous other countries have also perished as nature evicted humanity, forcing survivors to band together into tribes and relocate closer to the equator. Now, instead of cultures and nationalities, we have people like Nora who have reverted back to a Victorian-ish society... and then we have the Punks. You'll have to read the book to learn more about both.

I absolutely loved the contrast between Nora and Bram. I'll admit that as the novel progressed, it was sometimes difficult to differentiate between the two POVs and I think some may take issue with this. However, in the beginning, before the duo grow used to each other, this contrast--the way Bram viewed Nora--completely enamored me. While Nora sounds like a typical teenage girl, upon viewing her through Bram's eyes we see a sophisticated young woman. It doesn't sound like such a big deal, but I loved the contrast and I thought that the differences between these two cultures and characters shined beautifully in this regard. I wasn't too bothered by the similarities in voices further into the novel because I viewed it as a kind of... merging. Think about it: when one falls in love with a significant other, when that person spends almost every waking moment with his or her lover, it's almost impossible not to adopt certain behaviors, attitudes, or tones that were unique to that other person.

The humor in DD was another element that pleasantly surprised me. It wasn't a consistent occurrence; instead, random lines shocked a laugh out of me throughout the entire story. Even when shit hits the fan, I still found something to laugh about.

Another thing I loved were the characters--both primary and secondary. Each and every individual in DD is exactly that: an individual. And boy are there a lot of characters. It may take some time adjusting, but you will learn who each person is, and if you're anything like me, you'll learn to love them all. Nora and Bram are of course my favorites, but someone who completely took me by surprise was Pam. Here we have a nit-picky, semi-annoying best friend. Secretly, I was hoping zombies would kill her because she seemed so superficial.

But then something happened. As I was bemoaning my fate of having to read in Pam's POV, she transformed before my very eyes and became someone I could relate with--someone I wanted to defend. And as I kept reading, my respect for her continued to grow and grow until I realized that she transformed into a kick ass young woman. Ohh the imagery when you see her in her home and confronting her family... I loved it!

And now while I'm talking about imagery, I must say that Lia did a wonderful job with descriptions. Every so often, there was a line that jumped out and resonated with me (I posted one on my Goodreads status). These brief moments truly made my reading experience that much more enjoyable. I also loved the way Lia described the circumstances for both the characters and their environments. I could feel how desperate and desolate Pam's situation was becoming as more and more time passed. The stark contrasts in atmospheres took everything to a whole new level, and captured/displayed a uniqueness that a lot of debuting and established works lack.

What impressed me the most, however, was the way Lia handled the dialogue in this book. Each character has a unique way of speaking and interacting with those around him or her. I particularly loved the banter between Nora and Bram--it was not only hilarious, but also moving. Speeches, which I normally detest in novels, were actually interesting. Upon delving into science, I felt like I was listening in on an interesting biology lecture about proteins. When listening to a political speech, I actually felt as if a politician--or some sort of government official--was addressing me. Me, not the characters.

I don't think that's ever happened in a novel before.

There aren't many weaknesses in DD, but I thought I would mention two things: one is an issue that weakened the book in my eyes, and the other is something that may make readers initially lose interest. The story did not pick up for me until chapter 4, which is about 50 or so pages in. I thought that the Prologue in Bram's POV was excellent and caught my attention, but setting up Nora's world may bore some. Please do not give up until you at least finish Chapter 4. If, by that point, you are still not interested, fine. You'll regret it if you stop any sooner.

As for my issue... well, I was not happy with the Epilogue. Here we have a novel that was so incredibly witty, fun, dark, dire, and heroic that I would be silly not to fall in love with it. Ending DD at the last chapter left me satisfied. By including the epilogue, which focused more on the HEA-for-now (happily ever after), I felt that I stumbled into foreign territory. It did not ring true with the rest of the novel... and what purpose did it serve, aside from simply setting the scene for book 2? (and not too strongly, at that).

I can't complain too much about it because I cannot properly voice my dissatisfaction with it, but I will say that in this case, I believe the novel would have ended on a much stronger note if there was a cliffhanger. Instead, I was kind of let down, as this seemed more like an afterthought than anything else.

Aside from that minor complaint, I will proudly declare that Lia Habel is now one of my top authors. While DEARLY DEPARTED did not outshine Ann Aguirre's ENCLAVE, I feel that this is the second best book I have read in 2011. I will auto-buy any and all of her books--in fact, I just pre-ordered this particular novel from Amazon so that I could keep a HC on my bookshelf. DEARLY DEPARTED deserves all the praise and hype it gets, and then some. Cannot wait for book two, and I HIGHLY recommend this zombie novel to everyone who loves YA, Steampunk, Romance, or Dystopian novels!


Book Order:
1. Dearly, Departed
2. Dearly, Beloved (Tori's Review)