Love for Mistakes I Made…

I’ve had many a rough night this past year, especially within the last three months. And on a particularly dark one recently, when I couldn’t see any light in my small world, I decided to check the reviews on my books. It’s a dangerous choice that could potentially hurt me more, depending on who has happened to read and review my work. But through tears on that night, I read this five star review for Mistakes I Made During the Zombie Apocalypse:

Down to Earth Tale of a Young Man’s Mistakes…

To start, I rarely read books as often as I used to -as often as I should, really- and it takes something unique to pique my interest enough to enjoy literature. This novel managed to grasp its own identity and stand out in some great ways in a time where entertainment is filled to overflowing with zombies in the way the ocean is filled with water.

Ian is a young man who is at the end of the line, broken down by all the missteps and mistakes he has made during his time spent in a world filled with undead and unkind people. We follow along as he recounts each of his follies, from his most recent to his first.

With that, I found my first hook; the reverse-chronological order in which we read this story was immediately a stand-out trait and one which was amazingly well implemented. Throughout each chapter we are given subtle hints as to past events. This kept me wanting to get to the next chapter quicker so I could find out what had happened earlier that led the story to where I had seen it earlier

The writing was no less interesting than the order of events. Another great stand-out feature. Kilmer’s manner of writing characters and story is simple in the most relateable and true-to-real fashion I have read in a long time. But not just simple, it is also clever with great pacing and complex with great perspectives not often touched by other similar zombie media. And it doesn’t always have to be (un)deadly serious as I even found myself chuckling at points during Ian’s mishaps.

I have not read any previous novels or writings by her, but after I found myself unable to put this books down until I finished it, I will most certainly be checking them out.

Thank you, reader, for helping lift my spirits

do you like my skeletons?
you kept asking them to dance
often pulled them from their closet
in all their morbid elegance

‘twas not enough to see their structure
‘twas not enough to view their bones
you had to tap, and tug, and bend them
document each creak and moan

and when I told you that you knew them
assured you of your notes
you’d pull those monsters out again
to grimace and to gloat

‘twas not enough to know them outside
‘twas not enough to know them in
you had to pull each one apart
reconstruct each trial and sin

and now they stand between us
ivory relics, stiff as stone
and you cannot look around them
you only see me through their bone

do you like my skeletons?
I hope, for they live with you now
at your behest, at your commanding
cages you cannot disavow