Book Review: The Fall – Reversion by S.T. Campitelli

Finally!

It’s been more than two years since I read the first book in this excellent series – the review of which you can find here – and I’m so happy to finally have this in my hand.

I remember when I read the first one, thinking it was one of the best indie book I’d ever read. I never knew indie books could be so awesome. The short rundown of the plot is that it’s the year 2052, and Australia has fallen to a virus that turns people into a kind of terrifying zombie-vampire monster. Those that haven’t turned, try their best to survive, and the majority of our cast lives inside the Kulin Wallcom, a great big safe harbor for the people of Melbourne (those that are left anyway).

I’m not going to say much more about what happens in book 2, because I don’t want to spoil the first one, but we pick up pretty much where we left off and it’s amazing.

It’s weird that I like zombie books so much, because I don’t care much for movies or TV shows of the same kind. But one of my favorite book series is The Passage by Justin Cronin, and this is a strong contender for the top of the list. Campitelli knows his stuff, no doubt, and there’s ton of research that has gone into this.

There’s also an incredible amount of world building, and Campitelli makes it looks so easy. Even when he has bits of modern technology that conveniently sorts out the protagonists problem, it’s done in an immersive and integrated way so that you don’t feel cheated. I love it.

The downsides, if there are any, is perhaps that I loved book 1 too much. The first in the series was so excellent, that book 2 has to work really hard to compete. It’s a good position to be in, albeit a difficult one, and it’s perhaps the reason I felt book 2 was a bit slow off the ground, to get the ball rolling so to speak.

I also struggle a bit with getting into Campitelli’s writing style (though I really like it), due to the amount of phonetics and Australian slang, but that probably speaks more of me than the author I guess.

I realize that this book might not be everyone’s cup of tea in the middle of Covid-19 and all that is happening in the world, but if you’re anything like me and find yourself drawn toward that kind of thing, then I HIGHLY recommend this book.

HIGHLY.