I’ve never been more disappointed in my life. This book was a complete mess, the plot was just insanely boring, dialogues dry and just badly written and the fact that the author was jumping from scene to scene like a freaking kangaroo was just making this book awfully confusing. Even the relationship between the main characters, which I loved in the first book, was just so, so bad. The moment I realised the plot is gonna be based on these two just refusing to talk to each other I mentally couldn’t push through any more pages.

Nonetheless, thank you NetGalley for this arc and apologies for reviewing it so late.

The follow up to timber lake and it is just as good. With zombies romance and dystopia it’s an all in one book

After reading Wranglestone, I wanted to immediately continue. A book where zombies can still continue to leave, and the Dead aren't technically.. dead?

Wranglestone had a pretty slow pace, but it was right for that story because there was so much worldbuilding to be done. This was different though, we know about the world, and we now know about the Dead. I didn't expect this story to be as slow paced, or even slower paced.

The other thing that I didn't really like, is that there was a lot of miscommunication.. I hate it when a book leans so heavily on that trope. It just didn't work for me as much as Wranglestone did.

I loved Wranglestone and while I enjoyed Timberdark it didn't live up to my expectations. I found it quite slow and a bit too dragged out.

With this, Darren Charlton has created an epic duology. Having been hooked on Peter and Cooper's journey in Wranglestone, getting to spend more time with them was such a joy. I loved the focus of this book, the exploring of the post-apocalyptic landscape is so compellingly told. Wonderful!

*I was sent a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.*

I gave the first book in this series two stars but, since it was a debut, I decided to give the sequel a go.

Some positives to start with:
-I am such a fan of the basic concept of these books: zombies, a queer love story, and the lake community setting
-I enjoyed some of the warm dialogue between the main characters, and the tension of the slightly scarier scenes

Whilst I like the concept of this series, the execution just didn’t work for me. I found the writing confusing and unclear. Sometimes I had to re-read a page a couple of times and still didn’t understand.

Regarding the plot, Timberdark felt a lot slower than Wranglestone. The story stumbled from one plot point to the next and felt a little lost at times. Progression in the plot also frequently relied on good luck or accurate guesses/hunches. It was also frustrating that many of their challenges could have been solved by the main characters having an open conversation with one another. The ending felt very rushed, and I was left with lots of questions. I also wasn’t a fan of the symbolism that is revealed at the end.

Overall, I think this series is a great concept that just wasn’t executed in a way I could enjoy. However, I am sure that many people will enjoy this book.

Sadly, I didn't enjoy this as much as Wranglestone, I wish the author had just left it as a standalone. This sequel felt boring and unnecessary. Although I enjoyed checking back in with the main characters, I found the story quite disappointing.

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read Timberdark.
I was super stoked to read this after finishing Wranglestone, a nice refreshing take on the zombie genre. The story started strong if slightly creepy which was perfect for an October read.
I liked how Peter came out his shell more in the second book whilst also keeping to his sweet side we saw in Wranglestone and how his relationship with Cooper developed.

Having adored Wranglestone, I spent a long time anticipating Timberdark, and I'm glad I finally got to read it. But while I definitely did enjoy it, I definitely enjoyed it less than Wranglestone. The writing was still beautiful, but I fel less immersed and invested in the story. After a very intense prologue, I was hoping for a little more action, but everything moved rather slowly, which didn't hold my attention.

Timberdark is one of the best development plot I've every read. The writing style itself looks like more beautiful than Wrangelstone. After all, it's such a pleasure to read queer representations in dystopian books.

I absolutely adored Wranglestone. A Zombie Western? What's not to love?

Unfortunately Timberdark eschewed a lot of what drew me to Wranglestone in the first place, replacing it with some rather boring domesticity that relies entirely on the "we don't talk" trope. It was a disappointing direction for the series.

This sequel to Wranglestone said ignore the zombies, the real evil is domestic bliss. I sort of understood the message that this story was trying to convey, but I felt like a lot of the actual heart racing, page turning horror was lost in this book.

Wandering around a bit before ending up in the small town designed to be a way to get the population used to capitalism again after living off the land for so long, Peter and Cooper start to drift apart, torn between what they believe each other wants.

And that's the problem I had with this story, the miscommunication trope is one of my least favourites, and I felt that had they just sat down and actually talked about their feelings, this tension could have been solved in under an hour, instead of me having to sit through the teeth clenchingly awkward scene of Peter following Cooper into the woods and watching him masturbate.

I think the book was trying to show us that the world as it is now is very bad and the true way of life is living off the land, but it didn't manage to portray this in a way I could understand. It's idea was to show a monotony of life under capitalism, but to a reader that's happy at home right now with their laptop and books, I also felt like a day to day of gardening and I don't know, sitting on a boat fishing also seemed monotonous.

I was sad to see the exit of a character I grew to love, in such a sudden way that never felt resolved. While the story itself was wrapped up well with a good, if somewhat slightly confusing, ending, I can't deny I was left with a few questions.

I enjoyed this book, it was easy to read and held my attention. I will be reading more from this author :)

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

Spoilers ahead.

I did like the idea of this series; a group of people live on a lake which is inaccessible to the zombies in the summer months, but when it freezes over the zombies can get to the islands they live on. However, I don’t feel it the author’s place to include graphic scenes in reference to a sl*ve trade. The author is profiting off of very real, lived experiences of many POC, and most would be unaware of this plot point as very few people in the reviews seem to be commenting on it?

In Timberdark, this then turns into a genocide plot point, where the government have sanctioned a genocide against the returned zombies/humans and the characters work this out over the course of the book. In book 2, we also have a derogatory term for Native Americans used and we have some very adult/explicit scenes and comments for a book marketed as YA.

There are very few references to the sl*ve trade in book 2, one of which being Peter’s father asking Peter what they are going to do now they can’t trade people for medicine. This suggests to me that the author could have left this whole topic out. The author has said the idea behind this series was to provide commentary on capitalism and materialism and how it ruins society. My point from earlier is one I want to reiterate: I don’t feel these issues and topics were handled appropriately. I don’t feel they should have been included in this book at all. Capitalism and materialism could have been discussed without bringing a sl*ve trade into it.

If you still do plan to read this book, I would highly recommend checking trigger warnings. I would also recommend checking out Bri’s (@hobbitslibrary) video and review on Wranglestone.

This is the first book i read by this author and won't surely be the last as I loved. it's gripping, moving, and well plotted.
A fascinating world building and complex characters.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you to NetGalley & Little Tiger for the copy!

Having found Wranglestone in the new school library I became Librarian at this year, and rapidly devouring it, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of Timberdark. So much so, that I’d preordered the stunning sprayed-edge version from Waterstones and still requested the proof, so that I could read it as soon as possible.

I’m always nervous going into a sequel, especially when it’s to a book that I was so incredibly fond of. I needn’t have worried. Yes, Timberdark isn’t perhaps quite as pacy as Wranglestone was but I enjoyed the time this gave us with the characters and to really examine the nuances of relationships, trust and what it means to live in a world rather than to simply exist.

Charlton beautifully captures the difficulties of a relationship and how trusting one should or shouldn’t be when you’re truly in love with a person. Peter’s conflicting feelings and second guessing of himself felt very real (I’m sure we could all relate!) I also enjoyed the way Charlton used this novel to examine the way we live our lives and what it means to exist in our world. Is existing enough? Should we all strive for me. It really felt like Charlton’s own experiences of being in the great American outdoors and the impact this had on him came through the page (yes, I may have done some light reading of his webpage!)

Don’t worry, fans of horror won’t be disappointed either. There are some truly creepy scenes that made me wonder how it was possible for some words on the page to make me feel so frightened.

I highly recommend picking up Timberdark and finishing this fantastic duology. And if you haven’t read Wranglestone yet, please read it. Read it now! Don’t miss out on the opportunity to meet Peter and Cooper!

Thank you Net Galley and Little Tiger Group for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought that this was a brilliantly written sequel to Wranglestone and I definitely enjoyed this book more. I loved the development and depth of Peter and Cooper’s relationship and the plot had a lot of suspense, which made it very easy to read. Once again, they tackle the challenges within Wranglestone and help the returned. The ending of this book was also, in my opinion, the perfect ending for the duology.

Darren Charlton has written the perfect sequel. The story continues and develops with this second book. Heartwarming and heartbreaking, but beautifully done.

Timberdark is the sequel and concluding part to Darren Charlton's YA zombie/romance novel Wranglestone. It picks up where we left Peter and Cooper, who must now deal with their transition to modern living after living away from civilisation for so long.

The most notable thing for me is a distinct change in pace from the first novel. Whilst the events of Wranglestone develop quickly, sometimes perhaps to its detriment, Timberdark has the opposite problem—not enough action and a distinctly slower pace. In a way, this is fitting, as the boys start working mundane jobs, trying to adapt to the banality of the modern life that is simply reality for us readers. However, this does make the story less engaging and the stakes seem much lower than the first book.

As the story develops, Charlton really hones in on an anti-capitalist agenda, which makes sense but feels heavy-handed. Whilst we had hints of this in the previous novel, Charlton really spells it out for us in Timberdark, particularly with a monologue towards the end of the novel. It's an interesting take, and fitting for a dystopian novel because it encourages us to question whether <i>our</i> reality is the real dystopia (as corny as that may sound). All in all, I'm glad this social commentary is developed but could have been executed with more nuance.

One thing Charlton gets right is Peter and Cooper's romance. The way he describes the experience of being in love, even when there are challenges, feels raw and real. It's just unfortunate that the main conflict is a drawn-out mystery that finally unravels in an almost non-sensical fashion, with characters making assumptions and revelations that didn't make much sense to me. This time around, the novel's strength definitely lies in the romance—and it's what you will be rooting for by the end of the book.

Many thanks to Little Tiger Group and NetGalley for providing me with a Digital Review Copy.

Timberdark is the sequel to the book Wranglestone which I stumbled across earlier this year (check out the review in my posts) I came for the zombies and stayed for the sweet relationship between Peter and Cooper. With Timberdark I loved the development of their relationship and their maturing. Peter actually got on my nerves a bit in this one because at times I found him to be quite selfish but I think that was in fitting with his age and was incredibly important to his growth as a character.

I really enjoyed the zombie element of this sequel and the surprising but solid twist and how that played out. The concept around how the zombies became zombies was really interesting and quite deep in a way.

Overall I strongly recommend giving this duology a go!

I preordered the waterstones edition this time (those edges 😍) so I really can't wait for that to get here!