The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury is a 2012 post-apocalyptic zombie horror novel written by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga, published by Thomas Dunne Books.  The story follows Lilly Caul who gets caught up in a zombie apocalypse and finds herself in Woodbury, Georgia, a town led by the ruthless man called the Governor.

Positives:

• Descriptive writing
• Deep characters
• Highly suspenseful
• Good paced
• Intense action
• Good story

Negatives:

• Some flat characters

Plot:  The book focuses on Lilly Caul who is caught up in the zombie apocalypse.  In her travels she finds herself in a rural town, called Woodbury, that is barricaded and walled off to separate the living from the undead. Seemingly the perfect sanctuary, life appears idyllic, with plenty of food, shelter and security provided to its residents. Lilly however, begins to suspect all is not as it seems. Philip Blake, the man running Woodbury and who relishes his title as The Governor, has disturbing ideas about law and order. Lilly and a group of rebels band together to fight The Governor and open a Pandora’s box of mayhem and destruction when they challenge his reign.

The novel is split into two halves: the first being Lilly’s life before coming to Woodbury and the second while being in Woodbury.  The plot is what you’d expect from a Walking Dead novel.  It’s simple and has a good pace. There is this love story between Joshua and Lilly that evolves into strong developing arc for Lilly who becomes less of a victim and more confident.

Didn’t feel as if it dragged making a perfect balance between the human threat and the zombie threat.  Loved how the story emphasizes that zombies aren’t the only threat and that humans can often be worst.  The ending was actually really good in my opinion.  A massive storm brings hundreds of zombies to Woodbury and we get a pretty intense action sequence.  I thought the story was enjoyable. (4 out of 5)

Characters:  There are several characters that the book focuses on but the main character is named Lilly Caul. Lilly is one of many survivors in a world overrun by zombies and ragtag group includes the slutty Megan Lafferty, Joshua Lee Hamilton, Megan’s lover Scott Moon, and the drunk Bob Stookey.

Lilly is a pretty deep character but her inability to act when things jumps off can be quite frustrating.  I did like her guilt over treating Josh, a man who liked her and risked his life for her several times, wrong and over his eventual death. Joshua was a cool character who liked Lilly and wanted to help her overcome her fears and its unfortunate that his character was killed off in the manner that he was.  However, this is the event that helps push our poor Lilly into action and I like the confidence she develops, even going as far as starting a rebellion.

I did like Megan, although she was slut (seemingly every scene she was sleeping with someone), she definitely had her share of issues she was dealing with.  However, I did appreciate the depth and insight of the character.  I also liked Scott and Bob and thought they brought some well-rounded features to the group.

Next to the zombies, of course, we’ve got to have a human bad guy and it comes in the form of Philip Blake, the Governor, a man who is running Woodbury who isn’t all that he seems.  The guy is a damn dick, but the story does show how he is evolving into this bad guy and yet, like Darth Vader shows a small sliver of hope. (3 out of 5)

Writing:  I thought Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga did a great job with the writing, and liked how they complimented each other in terms of writing style and pacing.  The quality of the writing is of good presentation.

The characterization is good enough to make the main characters stick out but the characters were kind of the weak point of the book.  This is were the writing can feel amateurish.  The characters do make some pretty dumb decisions.  For example, they put up a circus tent as a means of “shelter” but wouldn’t take shelter in a Walmart.  News flash, a building offers more protection than a tent.  A majority of the side characters feel one dimensional or just even canon fodder status.

The action, violence, and gore are handled well enough to keep tension and suspense quite high and is highly descriptive.  The world-building is handled well enough to paint a vivid picture.  How and what Woodbury is is explored and we get to see what’s going on in the background and how things work. (3 out of 5)

The Verdict:  In the end, The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury is good read, especially for fans of the The Walking Dead series.  I did have an issue with some of the supporting cast and how one dimensional they were.  However, I did like the writing, the characters, the story, the action, and the world-building.  The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury gets 3 out of 5.