The Breadwinner: Haven review

    The Breadwinner Trilogy is a self-published trilogy of novels which is being reprinted up by Permuted Press. Here, I'll be reviewing the original version of the novel sans edits.

    The second book starts with Samson, Veronica, and Ben sailing away from their doomed hometown in order to find a new location. Deciding to take refuge in a luxurious high-rise apartment complex, the trio come across another group of survivors and merge their two groups.

    Anyone want to guess there will be trouble?

    Haven does have one large problem at the start and that is the fact it jumps right into the action, which normally wouldn't be the case but I'd forgotten who was who from the previous volume. I had to get out my copy of The Breadwinner in order to figure out what was going on since Haven takes place immediately thereafter.

    Once I managed to get past this stumbling block, though, I applaud Stevie for showing some real courage in throwing wrenches into the story. People talking about The Walking Dead being courageous in killing off characters but Stevie is up there with the comic. When one such death occurred, I was hooked.

    The majority of the book, like the previous volume, chronicles the adventures of the previous band of survivors. Led by the mysterious and dangerous Michelle, they attempt to live out the apocalypse in their apartment before deciding to try the Dawn of the Dead thing. Take over a shopping mall? What could go wrong!

    I really bonded with the character of Michelle and she swiftly became my favorite character in the series. Unfortunately, halfway through reading, I mentioned this to Stevie Kopas on Facebook only to get sniggering from her. You'll find out what I mean later. I must say I'm kind of disappointed but the twist was, nevertheless, shocking.

    Then again, I've often liked characters like that.

    In conclusion, Haven is a good continuation to the characters' journey of the previous books with a couple of surprise twists. Some of which are truly shocking. The book suffers because Samson was, hands down, the most interesting character in the series and moving away from him is problematic.    
    Likewise, I felt annoyed at the twist with Michelle. Otherwise, it's a fairly straight zombie adventure which succeeds on its merits as a typical example of the genre with the aforementioned surprises livening things up.

    Buy it when it's re-released in Spring 2015.

7/10

Buy at Amazon.com