Book Review: The Walking Dead Vol 3: Safety Behind Bars (95 Books #1)

So here I am in the middle of February and I’m only just now posting about the first book I’ve finished in 2011. Clearly I’m not going to reach 95 books, but I’m still confident that I’ll finish more than I did last year, especially now that I have my Kindle.

The first book that I’ve both started and finished this year is the third in Robert Kirkman’s series The Walking Dead. I’m sure a lot of you have heard about it since some of it was turned into a show on AMC that is, by all accounts, great if gory.

It’s kind of weird to talk about a book that’s partway through a series I haven’t reviewed before, but here’s the deal: The Walking Dead is about a group of people who are trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. But unlike most zombie fiction, there’s no end in sight to the zombies; this is life for them. The cast numbers are constantly fluctuating as survivors join the group or are killed by zombies or the various pitfalls of life in a post-apocalyptic setting.

In this particular book, the group has come across a prison. There are benefits to living there once the zombies are cleared out, namely that it has a good sturdy perimeter and space to grow food. However, there’s a catch: how will they live with the four prisoners who were already there, holed up in the cafeteria?

I really liked this one. It’s brutal and dark and excellent. If you liked the first two, you’ll like this one. But do I feel bad that my first book of the year is a graphic novel? No, because I have plans to read some tomes this year (Atlas Shrugged and Ulysses, I’m looking at you).

The Walking Dead Vol 3: Safety Behind Bars
Book dimensions: 10.3 x 6.5 x 0.4 inches
Page count: 136
Total pages read in 2011: 136