Big ol’ trigger warning for animal death in this book. Also trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault.
Though this started out as decently fun and a little silly, I did not ultimately enjoy reading this book and I can’t honestly recommend it.
The main character is a crow named Shit Turd (aka S.T.), pet to a guy in Seattle called Big Jim. When the zombie apocalypse strikes, Shit Turd sets out to survive in this new post-human world along with Big Jim’s other pet, a bloodhound named Dennis. S.T. and Dennis eventually end up on something of a crusade to help the pets, zoo animals, and livestock that the death of humanity has left in dire straits.
The good: this was silly and fun. S.T.’s internal commentary and views of the world (which mostly seem to have their origins with trash television and the things Big Jim would yell at it) is great, and the book is funny. It’s a bit too much on the pop-culture-referential humor of the type the Scary Movie guys do, but it’s fun.
So why do I not recommend this book? Mostly because of unnecessary, brutal animal death. I’m ok with characters dying, and in books where all the living characters are animals any deaths that occur are naturally going to be animals dying. But I have no taste or patience for authors killing off characters (human or animal, though admittedly it’s easier to deal with it when it’s humans dying) for cheap, manipulative shock value. Deaths should be earned and relevant to the story being told.
More minor, but still upsetting, was a scene where a female dog in heat is being chased by a pack of male dogs. If you’re going to personify your animals, what would just be mating behavior turns into gang rape really fast.