Deadtown

by Nancy Holzner

Book Overview

First in a brand new urban fantasy series that's "fresh and funny, with a great new take on zombies" (Karen Chance) and "full of dangerous magic and populated with characters so realistic, they almost jump off the page" (Ilona Andrews).

If you were undead, you'd be home by now...

They call it Deadtown: the city's quarantined section for its inhuman and undead residents. Most humans stay far from its borders-but Victory...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0441018130
• ISBN13: 9780441018130
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Ace Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.1" x 6.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

loved it

In the crowded world of urban fantasy, Holzner creates a unique world. While inhabited by zombies, werewolves, vampires and shapeshifters, Holzner `s zombies bear no relation to the lumbering, slow, awkward, mute, largely non-sapient creates under the control of their master that has long been a stable of fantasy. Holzner's zombies are sentient, agile beings, albeit with a particularly bad junk food habit. If you are looking for yet more young, attractive sexually-overcharged, yet chaste, vampires, or their haunted, brooding kin, look elsewhere. Deadtown's vampires are avaricious, self-centered, humorless and manipulative with a penchant for watching bad television shows. They also make terrible roommates. Holzner's characters are never two-dimensional archetypes. The world she has created is too rich to provide room for white hats and black hats. Her characters are fully fleshed out -- although the nature of that flesh varies depending on the species of the character - all being flawed to a greater or lesser extent. The inhabitants of Deadtown, both the book and the eponymous ghetto set up for monsters or "Paranormal Americans " (PAs), are all flawed beings trying to navigate a hostile landscape. Victory `Vicky' Vaughn, the shapeshifting, demon slayer-for-hire, heroine is a tough-as-nails warrior. While Vicky is cool and assured on the job, inside she is a doubt-plagued twenty-eight-year-old who is, nonetheless, knowledgeable enough about her strengths and weaknesses to avoid descending into cockiness. Deadtown has all the action the reader has come to expect in urban fantasy, but if you are looking for the tired, generic "slash, hack, repeat" fight scenes that tend to be inserted needlessly throughout so much of the genre, this might not be the book for you. Vicky's fight scenes are carefully and thoughtfully spaced throughout the story, yet the intensity of the pace never wavers as the reader is allowed as little time to collect his or her breath as Vicky is. The fights themselves are refreshingly original with brute force, conventional weapons and supernatural weapons wielded alternatively with clever strategy or improvised desperation. Vicky is Cerddorion, part of a centuries-old line of Welsh shapeshifters who stretch back to the goddess Ceridwen. Unlike her sister, Gwen, Vicky embraces her heritage, but like most people in their twenties, Vicky is still working to find out who she is. Yet she has a greater sense of self than some might wish for her, surrounded as she is by family and friends who either don't understand, or, driven by their own fears, cannot or do not wish to see the realities of Vicky's life or, to suit their own agendas, try to convince her that she should be what she is not. Like her werewolf attorney and PA activist, kind-of boyfriend, Alexander Kane, Vicky is a workaholic. To what degree this is driven by the necessities of fighting the good fight or fighting to pay the rent or by a need to thro

Totally loved this book!

This book was a total surprise. I was expecting it to be all about zombies based upon the title. I have not read any zombie books completely through but I love Urban Fantasy so I gave it a chance. This book had everything a Dark Fantasy fan loves from exploring different supernatural types along with their powers to great action scenes with cool weapons. It also had a unique spin on relationships between "paranormals" and "humans". The author depicts the relationship between the the main character and her family dynamically and I look forward to seeing more about those relationships. I plan to follow this author's work and cannot wait for the sequel!

An excellent debut and I can't wait to read more in the series!

Nancy Holzner's urban fantasy debut is a fun, well-crafted story. I found the characters well developed and amusing. I laughed out laugh throughout the novel especially in several of the scenes with Tina, Vicky's teenage zombie apprentice. The series is based on the Mabinogi from Welsh mythology and Vicky's family is part of the Cerddorion, a race of shapeshifters. I thought that this was a very interesting premise for a series and I truly enjoyed the world building in the novel. I am definitely recommending this novel to all my friends!

From Steve at J. Kaye's Book Blog

"Deadtown", by Nancy Holzner, is a delightful, fresh, and funny, urban legend story. Vicky Vaughn is Boston's only professional demon killer, and she's also a shape shifter. Boston was the home of a plaque killed thousands of humans and turned them into zombies, about the same time that vampires, and werewolves were starting to come out of the closet. So Boston set up a paranormal zone, Deadtown, so all those not fully human to live openly. Holzner's universe has Welch shape shifters that only females are and can shift three times a month. Vampires are allowed 1 pint of blood from willing humans. Seems there bites are can be a psycho-narcotic and is addicting. Werewolves, who are required to be locked in their hunting preserves every full moon. And zombies. These zombies are pretty normal, except for their immense hunger, their strength, and their spongy grey-green skin, and extremely sunlight sensitive. They are nervous eaters. Witches are human, but really have magical powers that sometimes can interface with modern technology. Vicky, born Victory, is a late 20ish workaholic, hiring out to kill assorted demons for individuals. With her workaholic werewolf boyfriend lawyer, she battles a demon from hell and politicians to save Boston. It is a very cute and enjoyable read, although for older teenagers and adults. Holzner's world is very believable, and Deadtown residents have problems are similar to others. She is writing a sequel, but read this first because of the great background info woven in.

Fast, fun, funny - fantastic!

Shapeshifter Vicky Vaughn works killing clients' personal demons and lives in Deadtown, a section of Boston reserved for paranormal creatures like vampires, werewolves, and zombies. The zombies were created by a plague that swept through the city a few years before. Vicky has an teenage zombie as a demon-slaying apprentice, a sister who chose a human lifestyle and now lives in the suburbs, a vampire roommate, and a relationship with a werewolf lawyer who's fighting for civil rights for paranormals. When one of her clients gets killed by a Hellion, Vicky has to figure out who summoned the demon to Boston and how she can stop it before it kills again. Deadtown was great fun. It's fast-paced with plenty of action, and the characters feel like real people (even the monsters). The zombies are different than what I expected. Instead of staggering around looking for "braaaains" they're more like people. Nice touch. Tina the teenage zombie is a riot. Deadtown made me laugh out. This is a great book and I'll definitely read the sequel.