Originally Reviewed at:Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: ARC Provided by Publisher
Reviewer: AimeeKay



I was sooo excited when I opened my mail and found this one!! What can I say I have a zombie problem. While I did have some issues with certain things, I did enjoy the story a lot overall.



I found Kate and William both highly entertaining. I laughed out loud at quite a few parts. I liked how the author worked in famous quotes. Plus I really enjoyed the different story ideas that would pop into Shakespeare’s head, especially when the ideas were for more modern stories. Then there was Ariel. I liked watching how she tried to figure out exactly what love was and seeing how she and Caliban worked out.



I loved the little quotes from The Tempest at the beginning of each chapter, and how Handeland made each chapter relate to its quote. I also liked the author’s style. Between her descriptions and her characters she really drew me into the story and I couldn’t wait to see where she would go.



The issues I had with the story…



My biggest problem was the timing of the story. One minute it would be nighttime, or have to be night since Shakespeare was awake, and the next minute it would be daytime. I got frustrated because I kept rereading parts of the story thinking I had missed something. I found that as long as I just ignored whether it was day or night I really enjoyed the story.



My second concern was the ending itself. It just seemed rather abrupt. Don’t get me wrong, it made sense, but there was all this excitement and rushing to save the world from the zombie menace, and then poof, it was just over. Maybe I didn’t like it because I was enjoying the book so much I didn’t want it to end. *Shrug* I just know that while the ending was logical, it just wasn’t very satisfying.



Because of the issues I had with the novel, it’s very hard for me to rate the finished product.



Zombie Island was funny; I think I laughed on almost every page. The novel enticed me to want to read the first book in the series, Shakespeare Undead. It also makes me want to read any other sequels the author might come up with. However between the concerns I had with the story seeming to jump between day and night and the way it just ended, I feel bad giving it 5 stars.



Would I read it again? Yep! Would I read more of the author’s work? Definitely! Would I recommend this book? Of course!



With that being said, I had I have to give it 3 1/2 out of 5 controllers. Yes I loved the book, but the issues were rather important ones and affected my overall enjoyment of the story, however I would still recommend reading Zombie Island if you get a chance. ( )

Fun twist on Shakespeare. Reading book 1 will help with understanding the series. ( )

I laughed through most of it; a fun book.

I loved how the author worked in famous quotes thru out the story and all the Tempest quotes. I found the novel to be a somewhat fast read. I laughed thru most of it and am looking forward to the next in the series.

I agree with others that the ending was rather abrupt. Maybe I just wanted to the story to continue on... ( )

Lots of fun. A nice nod to The Tempest.... ( )

Zombie Island is the 2nd book in Shakespeare Undead. Best if read in order so you get the build up of Shakespeare and Katherine's relationship but it's not necessary. It was a very fast and fun read. The love story is definitely the best part. ( )

A cute, quick read. I have enjoyed Handeland's style of writing in her previous books, and "Zombie Island" does not disappoint. Like others, I was sometimes jarred by Shakespeare's modern references, but not so much that I wanted to stop reading he book altogether. Definitely a fun read for by the pool or sitting on the beach.

I highly recommend reading the first book before tackling this one. There are several spoiler-y references throughout so it's just better to start at the beginning.

That said, I can't say this sequel was as good as the first book. I felt like it "jumped the shark" a lot of times. Also, Shakespeare's constant references to modern movies/books gives away that he's not going to become human, nor die, so the tension of that possibility, that Handeland tries to create, is useless.

The end of this book seemed rather abrupt. There is a lot of action in the last 20 pages and a very unsatisfying cliff hanger. Is there a third book planned? That's the only way this makes sense. If there is a third book, my prediction is that it will be based off of Macbeth - because it's basically shoved in your face that that's what will/should happen. ( )

Zombie Island: A Shakespeare Undead Novel was a quick and fun read. I've read most of Lori Handeland's books and I do like her style-but I really miss her darker Doomsday series. But Zombie Island was great for a little getaway read. ( )

I haven't read the first book of the series-but I will now. Zombie Island: A Shakespeare Undead Novel was just a plain fun, fast read. ( )

This book is like a B-movie inspired by the anachronistic touches of Moulin Rouge, only the sex scenes are outright un-sexy. It's a cheesy mish-mash of modern pop culture and Shakespearean English. It's both totally appallingly bad and yet sometimes brilliant, often funny and probably the strangest adaptation of The Tempest ever.

If you wanted anything remotely serious or delicate, this is not the book for you. (And what were you doing buying a book about Vampire Shakespeare fighting zombies with his Dark Lady anyhow?) I think it has the worst romance I've read in years (and I have a project with friends where we read terrible romance novels out loud) but if you read it all with the pacing and imagine the wooden acting of a low-budget film, it's worth a laugh. Recommended only if you like bad movies, silliness, and dubious mashups of pop culture and literature, since this rests on the knife edge of "bad" and "so bad it's good." I enjoyed it, but your mileage may vary. ( )

A fun little romp which sees vampire Shakespeare and his "Dark Lady" Kate reunited on Prospero's (yes, from The Tempest) island to fight zombies. Much of the fun lies with the word play; Handeland is brilliant in her mixing of contemporary and Shakespearean English. It's also fun to play "guess the work" as Shakespeare has so many ideas he wants to write - when he gets the chance.

This is the second in the series. I have yet to read the first (it's on my to read pile) but I didn't feel lost. This book stands alone well. ( )

I found this book to be enjoyable. It's a fast, fun read. As for the pop culture references, I couldn't help but like them. I read the first book in the series prior to reading Zombie Island (got it from the library after receiving notification that this book was being sent). I think I enjoyed the first book a bit more than this second book but maybe it's because this one did not really have a very satisfying ending and there are too many things left unresolved at the end of the book...I realize it's a series, but I would have liked at least some of the subplots to have been resolved.

It's a good, quick read, it's not deep or thought-provoking, but it's fun and I enjoyed seeing references to a variety of Shakespeare's plays. I will want to read future books in this series. Oh, I do have to say that the only thing I find difficult is seeing Shakespeare as a romantic lead in the series, only because the mental picture I have of Shakespeare is not that of a very attractive man...but that doesn't really take away from the book itself. ( )

This book, while enjoyable simplifies the tale of the Tempest, which is of course the point. So, if you are a die hard lover of Shakespeare, and get mad when his works are adjusted, then this book is not for you. However, if you love Shakespeare and adore the quotes, the characters and the bard himself then this is will be a happy book for you and a nice enjoyable read.

Vampire Shakespeare (who talks to ghosts and can sometimes peek into the future and quote from 20th-century movies) is trapped on a magical island full of zombies, a fairy, a sorcerer/necromancer, and a quasi-werewolf. It's a little too much. Plus the constant switching between Shakespearean- and modern-day speech was jarring and felt a bit cheesy at times. The love scenes also seemed a bit forced and out of place. Was this supposed to be an adventure novel, a romance novel, fantasy, horror, or what? It wasn't badly-written, but it didn't seem to have a clear vision of what it wanted to be or where it was going. Meh. ( )

This is the second book in a series, and it suffers from MBS (Middle Book Syndrome) -- there were some good plot elements, but it was clear that the story was meant to pick up from book 1 and set up the events for book 3, without really standing on its own as a novel. As a romance novel, I don't think it was very successful -- the 2 male "heroes" used in sex scenes were William Shakespeare (eww!) and a man who had been transformed into a dog-like beast (double eww!). Shakespeare alternated between quoting his own known works, which was nice, to "inventing" lines from well-known contemporary movies such as Star Trek, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Casablanca, which made suspension of disbelief difficult to maintain. Not recommended to any but fans of this author/series. ( )

I thought this book had a lot of potential - Shakespeare as a vampire! Zombies! What's not to like? Alas, I found I enjoyed this book about as much as Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, which is to say not much. While I can appreciate that is how Shakespeare would talk, the mix of current sentence structure and vocabulary and Shakesperean structure and such a bit uncomfortable (pick one or the other already!) I found it a bit of a slog through it read, which was extremely disappointing. Had I read the first in the series, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more, but I just couldn't seem to like this one.... ( )

Will Shakespeare is a vampire. Kate, his lover and dark muse is a zombie killer. And the zombie killer is married. The two plan to implement one half of the poison plot from the as yet unwritten Romeo and Juliet in order to trick Kate's brute of a husband and be together forever. Of course their best laid plans go somewhat awry, and the three of them end up shipwrecked on a mysterious island complete with airy sprite, mad sorcerer, and hoards of brain-devouring zombies.

Quirky and charmingly fluffy despite the gore it's unfortunately riddled with more than a few inconsistencies. (I read the ARC, so hopefully proofreading will catch the fact that Will can apparently run around in the sun without any problems, but sunrise causes him to die for once and for all - or sometimes just to drop in his tracks and appear dead.) It is the second in a series, but it was easy enough to catch up with the action plot-wise. I don't know that I'll run right out and buy the first one and the next to be published, but it was a pleasant enough way to spend an afternoon. ( )

Fantastically fun. This book is a rousing romp through a Shakespearean world the likes of which we've never seen in quite this light before. Lori Handeland is primarily a romance writer, and that does come through in this book, but it has a tough and sassy heroine and a lot of moaning undead to kill rather than revolving solely around the main couple's love life.

It made me giggle, it made me groan. The idea of William Shakespeare as a vampire brings to mind Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer, and similar titles. This one is even less serious, however. Take it with a grain of salt and just enjoy. The pop culture references made me facepalm on more than one occasion.

This was an early review book, and I have not read the first in the series. It IS an ongoing series. I may have to pick up the others now, just to find out how successful Prospero is with his zombie army. ( )

A monster mashup in the tradition of the now-classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the world of the Shakespeare Undead series has the immortal bard being, well, an immortal vampire passionately in love with the "Dark Lady" of his sonnets, the zombie hunter Katherine. The first book in this series apparently had Will and Kate meeting, defending Queen Elizabeth from a London overrun by zombies, and extracting Kate from her unwanted spouse. This second book opens with Kate faking her death à la Romeo and Juliet, only instead of waking up in a crypt with her beloved Will at her side, she finds herself washing up on a tropical island. Prospero's tropical island. Swarming with his zombie army.

(Review now stored offsite — Link.) ( )