Dearly, Departed

Lia Habel

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Publish Date:  October 18, 2011

Version: netgalley e-book

Series: Gone With The Respiration

Real ladies can give orders, Real gentlemen can take them, and Real zombies don’t eat brains.

This series starts out by introducing us to Abraham “Bram” Griswold and tells of his death in the Celesto Mine with his best friend Jack on July 4, 2193 in “Punk-controlled Brazil.” 

After that, you are taken to Nora Dearly’s point of view and tells of the last day of school at St. Cyprian’s School for Girls.   This is not only the last day of school, it is also the first day that Nora is no longer in mourning.  She has mourned the death of her father, Dr. Victor Darling, for a year now.  Nora is waiting with her best friend, Pamela Roe aka Pamma, for their carriage to take them back home.  When the carriage finally arrives, they get in and are about their way.   A lag in traffic causes them to be at a standstill and Nora decided to walk.  She lives underground and is close enough to her home that she should make it safely.  While she is walking home, she encounters someone who wants to talk to her about her father and then insists that she come with them.  This scares Nora, she screams and is saved by two constables.  The constables take her home and after dealing with her Aunt Gene and guardian, Nora decided to get ready for the evening.

The next day, Pam came over to visit and Aunt Gene suggests that they accompany her while she goes out and visits people during the day.  This takes them to the Allisters’ house, where you first meet Michael Allister, who Pam is crushing on.  That evening, while Nora was watching war holos, she was kidnapped by undead soldiers and taken to Z Beta Base.  It is there that she learns more about the species of men who captured her, why they want her in the first place, about her father’s work and what is happening in New Victoria.

Nora is given just as much information as she asks for at first and this is a lot for her to handle.  Captain Bram Griswold or just Bram, is the one who primarily deals with her.  When Commander Wolfe is not on base, he is the commanding officer.  After days of being held captive, Nora finds out that her homeland of Elysian Fields was under attack and her aunt and Pamela might be in danger.  With her newfound friends, Renfield, Chas, Tom and Coalhouse, and Bram, they set off to rescue Pam. 

Meanwhile, Pam is trying to get her family to leave their home to go into hiding, so they won’t get the illness.  When she finally does, it might be too late as everyone is trying to get to where Pam wanted to hide out.  She runs into Michael Allister.  She leaves her family and goes to the roof with Michael and her brother Issy to get better phone reception.  Will Nora make it in time to rescue Pam before anyone gets hurts?  What will happen to the members of Company Z?

This book started out good with the backstory of Bram, but then slowed when it got to the history of New Victoria.  I understand that the history is crucial to any story; I just have never liked history.  It makes a book harder for me to read when there is a lot to go through.  Putting that aside, this was a really good book.  I like books that are full of action, has some G-rated romance and where the main characters learn something and Dearly, Departed has all of that.

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, 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.

"Boy, I am going to feed you to the infected myself," Michael growled. I think he almost made my brother cry. Good.

 

▪Nora Dearly.  I like how at the beginning, you are told the story of her father’s passing and that day represents the first day that she is out of mourning even though she still feels sad and doesn’t want to be what everyone expects her to be.  When she is taken to Z Beta Base, at first she has some fear and prejudices, but she works through them and truly shows her character.

▪Abraham “Bram” Griswold.  He initially takes on the task of watching after Nora when she is on his base.  You can tell by the things he says and does, that he is a gentleman.

▪Renfield, Coalhouse, Chas and Tom.  These are Bram’s closest friends inside the Z Beta Base.  Therefore, they are the soldiers that Nora has the most interaction with.   They don’t even hesitate when they are asked to help Nora.

▪Pamela Roe.  She is Nora’s best friend.  While Nora is gone, people tell her that she should use this opportunity to “move herself up in the world” as she was in the spotlight.  Pam wasn’t hearing it and was genuinely concerned for Nora’s safety.  She is a loyal friend.

▪The fact that manners and modesty have returned in civilization.  While reading this, I would occasionally get confused as to what time period I was reading from.  It was obviously written in the future, but some of the customs made it seem like it was from the past.

 

▪Company Major Dorian Averne.  He is the commanding officer of the punk army in Bolivia.  He is not averse to torturing people to get what he wants.

▪Vespertine Mink.  She is one of the kids at school who tease Pam about her situation and that she is on scholarship to the school. 

▪Michael Allister.  I don’t like him.  I won’t tell you why.  For the majority of the book, he is a gentleman.

▪Company Commander James Wolfe.  He is the commanding officer at Z Beta Base.  He doesn’t seem to like his situation very much.  He is always grouchy.  I don’t like the way that he handles things.

On the cover you see a girl, who I presume to be Nora, wearing a black dress and holding a black parasol while standing in what appears to be a cemetery.  Underneath the title, it reads “love can never die.”  When reading the story, you find out more about the parasol and so that makes sense.  The fact that Nora was wearing black also makes sense because she had to wear black for a year while she was mourning her father’s death.  I think that this cover is not only appropriate in what it contains, but the coloring of it also play up the book nicely.

I had to put this cover up there because I like that they not only have Nora on it but also what I presume to be Bram.  In the book, it says he looks very good in his captain's clothes and this represents not only that, but his and Nora's relationship.  I really like the zombies in the background and the fire.  All good points in the book.  I like the saying "Tall, Dark and...Dead?"  It fits the book well.

The only bad thing I have to say for this cover is in the title.  I know that this is a UK cover and the grammar might be different there, but in the US title and cover, it is Dearly (comma) Departed.  As in her last name is Dearly.  This cover doesn't have the comma.  Is that important?  I don't know. It might be.

On Habel's blog and on Goodreads, it says that there is an upcoming book in the series called Dearly, Beloved.  It doesn't show a cover or anything, just that it is expected out 2012.

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