Playing Through Every Choices Book, In Order (Part 93: Wake the Dead)

Hey! Today we navigate the world after the zombie apocalypse has ravaged it!

Next time, we get struck by lightning and discover we now have the ability to...read minds?!

Link to previous reviews: https://www.reddit.com/user/stresseatingdog/comments/sj3s3m/all_choices_reviews_megapost/

Wake the Dead

M/C: Kenzo Yamamoto

Final Love Interest(s): Troy, Eli

Favorite Characters: Troy, Eli, Shannon, Angel, May

Least Favorite Characters: Dirk, Marcus Blackstone, The Zombie Queen

Rating: 9/10

Review:

For reference, my M/Cs sister was named "Jun", and the lodge/commune was named "Haven".

This book tried so many new things, and I have to applaud the people at Pixelberry for it. After the debacle that was Across the Void, it seemed as though books that really shook up the typical formula were few and far between. This book changed that, with varying results.

I enjoy the concept of hard choices, but honestly half of them feel meaningless or have an objectively "good" option. For instance, you can either let Shannon get traumatized in a box and get a few measly lines in future chapters about her PTSD, or you can literally save the life of Minna, who appears more often than Shannon's PTSD gets mentioned. Similarly, you can either kill the traitors and get a stun baton, or spare them and...they all die anyways, with Dirk and Trent sacrificing themselves for you. You can see the issue, right? So many of the "hard" choices are ridiculously easy to decide on, completely nullifying their entire purpose. I appreciate the idea, but the execution is just flawed.

Now, onto the love interests. I love the four you have from early on, and they all feel like well-thought out characters. There's not as much focus on romance in this book, but when we get it, it's pretty sweet. I love my friends-to-lovers with Troy, and my grumpy yet loving romance with Eli, and I love Angel and Shannon as characters. There's also Sledge, who in my opinion feels very tacked-on and sidelined compared to the others. That's not to say she's a bad character or even a bad love interest, but I personally felt little to no investment in her, and her becoming a part of the main group felt kind of forced.

The plot itself is really engaging. Exploring the world post-apocalypse, getting to see remnants of the old world, all of it so, so fun, and you can tell the writers put a lot of effort into the world-building here. I like the idea of building up your own commune and getting together a large group of survivors, and the various groups you align with are all fun on their own accord.

Dirk betraying you was expected, but still was infuriating. I hate how Blackstone is defeated in a singular chapter...what a non-threat lol. The Zombie Queen, similarly, is defeated in the last chapter not even by M/C, but I'm honestly fine with that. The twist with Jun/"Brynn" was intriguing, and it was sad to see her sacrifice herself twice for M/C's sake.

The various armor/weapon sets are a neat idea, and I like that you can mix-and-match them. I do wish you weren't stuck in that god-awful knight chestplate as your only defensive option for as long as you are though.

The various commune points (Food Supply, Morale, etc.) were a fun concept, and I loved planning out what to build to make sure all my scores were even across the board. Also, the kill counter and zombie-slayer rank were also fun additions.

The ending is open-ended, and while I think it works pretty well, I would have liked to see a sequel, or at least a mini-sequel to book, just to give us a glimpse at M/C and co. after a few years of building up their commune.

Overall, I think Wake the Dead is a refreshing, interesting book that uses a lot of new concepts. While it does falter in some areas, and I think we could have used more time with the LIs just to build them up more as characters, I think this book still accomplishes what it tries to do well.

And bonus points for being GOC, of course.