The Walking Dead: Book Four/ Robert Kirkman

The Walking Dead: Book Four by Robert Kirkman. graphic literature, zombies, survival horror, adventure. 304 pages

I have to say that although I have loved the series thus far, I had mixed feelings about book four of Kirkman's epic zombie graphic novel series. There were certain things about it that I really loved and certain things that i despised. I'm gonna try my best not to ruin anything for those that haven't read the books yet, but there are certain things that i'm gonna have to piss and moan about. I'll do my best to warn you when these are coming up.

The best way to explain the split in my opinion of book four is to simply split it into halves. The first half, I liked. The second half, I didn't.

My biggest problem with the first half is that considering it was about 150 pages, only one huge event happened. The birth of Rick and Lori's (or possibly Lori and Shane's...guess we'll never know) baby was inevitable and we've seen it coming since book one, so with that being the major point of action in the first half of the book, I was a little disappointed. I understand that Kirkman wanted to build tension while preparing his characters for the inevitable invasion of the survivors from Woodbury but still...give us a little something more to work with, please.

Now I'm gonna get into some spoiler stuff about the first half so skip the rest of this paragraph if you haven't read the book yet...................................alright, so now that all the losers who have yet to read the book are gone I can bitch about my two major problems with the first half. First of all...Carol killing herself by letting the pet zombie bite her? Weak...We get it, Carol is a very damaged person and she's been rejected by a majority of the remaining survivors, but you've got a KID, lady...Zombie apocalypse or no, practice some responsible parenting. There are already some orphans, why add to that list? I think Kirkman could have come up with a more creative way to kill of Carol if she had to go. Second of all, Dale losing his leg? I get it, Kirkman wanted somebody to survive a zombie bite, and yes, I was totally thrown for a loop because I thought Dale was dead, but the fact that they cut off his leg just seemed to steal Rick's armless thunder. One gimp is understandable, but two gimps is just pushing it.

Alright, so now this section is for everyone again and it includes my thoughts on the second half of the book. I can't say much about the content of the 2nd half without ruining the plot, so all i'll say is that it was extremely exciting yet truly heartbreaking at the same time. I got to see the return of one of the most well-developed characters in the series as well as mourned the losses of a few key characters. The second half of the book is extremely exciting, but if you've grown attached to Kirkman's characters like I have, it could get extremely tragic.

While this has probably been my least favorite book as a whole, it did also feature some of the best moments of the saga thus far, so obviously it's a must-read, because nobodys gonna skip over such a crucial chapter of the saga, but just prepare for a little frustration.