In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living. ~ Winter Break 2010

I'm not even going to give this post a "week" tag, because I have a mere four weeks of freedom from law school to read as many "fun" books as I can before I'm thrown back into the insanity of my 1L year. Despite all the craziness and endless amounts of reading that I've done this semester, all I could do was daydream about winter break when I'd be able to catch up on my reading. Yes, I am an uber-nerd.

But first...



In the past few weeks, I've read the whole Walking Dead comic series. I got interested after my husband and I started watching the AMC series (which is awesome I might add). I was immediately sucked in. The story centers around Officer Rick Grimes. He's a deputy sheriff in a small town, when he's shot on the job. Weeks later, he wakes up from his coma in a deserted hospital. As he stumbles out of bed and through the halls of the hospital, he realizes that he might've slept through more than he could've imagined in his wildest dreams.

The terror begins from the moment Rick enters the hospital cafeteria and is faced with a room full of the walking dead.

The good: You will not be able to stop reading this series. It is extremely addictive and highly action packed. From the first page, you are drawn in. The characters are extremely well-written and you find yourself empathizing with them. I could honestly feel the terror and isolation that Rick was feeling. What would it be like to wake up one day and realize that the world has completely changed? If you think this is some hokey B-movie-ish horror story, you are wrong. This story is based around the zombie apocalypse, but what it really focuses on is what it would be like if a disaster of epic magnitude was to hit the US. You can take out the zombie element and fill it in with something else: a natural disaster, bio-warfare, etc. It doesn't matter. Once civilization falls, what are we left with? What would you do if you needed help and when you dialed 911, there was no one there to answer? To me, the scariest part of this story is not the zombies... it's the regular, everyday people and what they become when faced with unimaginable horror.

The bad: Seriously, don't get attached to any characters. Kirkman has no problem offing one of his major characters. Usually it'll end up being someone that you were somewhat attached to. Don't bother. This is the darkest series I've ever read. Be prepared to have some freaky nightmares.

Also, if you get these comic books individually and not in the volume compilations, expect to read them in about 30 seconds. They are a quick read. I'd highly recommend checking them out from the library or buying the whole volume. That way you'll have six-months of comics all bound up in one book. Otherwise, you're going to finish one book and TRUST me, you are going to want more!

The verdict: If you like comics (or even if you don't), you will not be disappointed by The Walking Dead. A word of caution: Do not expect the comics and the TV series to line up. The show goes off on different paths and inserts characters that are not even in the comics. It's good in it's own right though, just don't expect it to mirror the comic exactly.