The Hotel Baktun is an exclusive vacation complex that is about to open on the coast of Acapulco, Mexico. Owned by a mysterious multi-millionaire businessman, it is shaped like an ancient Mayan pyramid and its halls are lined with rare and expensive artefacts.
For Stacy Keenan, the hotel’s new Head of Security, things are already chaotic as the locals continue to put the finishing touches to the festivities while VIPs begin to arrive for the grand opening. When a Russian cruise ship turns along the shore and disgorges its cargo of flesh-eating zombies, the guests and staff soon fragment into various factions as they struggle to withstand the spread of HRV (Human Reanimation Virus).
As the armies of the dead conquer all that stand before them, and the human survivors prepare for a final battle against an unstoppable enemy, a horror even more ancient and terrible is revealed when ‘The Death’.
Dark bleatings, my shambling tribe! Despite the fact that I have never once correctly pronounced the title of this novel, I really enjoyed it. If you’ve ever read the novelisation of Dead Island (by Mark Morris), you might find shades of that here (only the stories are entirely different and – somewhat unbelievably – there is even more utter carnage in this novel than in that one. So really, they’re not similar actually, apart from that they both make me want to go on holiday).
We have a few characters but we generally follow Stacey, who works security at this very unusual, exclusive resort, who finds herself having to deal with a sudden onslaught of zombies. I never knew so much fun could be had being immersed in a fancy holiday where everyone’s faces are being munched off.
My dudes, my tribe, my bleating peeps…the absolute, bloody, unrestrained carnage in this novel. Of all books set in this universe (there are 6!), THIS contains the greatest scene of violent, undead chaos. And that’s saying something, because they all contain profuse, great scenes of zombie madness, but this one – THIS ONE – really gets the crown, as far as I’m concerned. I have read dozens, if not hundreds, of zombie stories, so believe me when I tell you I honestly thought I’d read every description of people being eaten that could be conjured by a human mind.
But I was wrong. I already really liked the author, Alison Littlewood, but now she has become my messiah. Not only does she go all out with these scenes (and let’s face it, that’s what we’re mostly here for in zombie stories), but her creativity in how she kills off the living is, frankly, fantastic. Oh, how I admire her.
Additionally, this is the only book in the series that contains moments and descriptions that genuinely frightened me. This isn’t any sort of criticism towards the other books in this universe, it’s just that I love zombies too much to be scared of them, generally speaking. I was delighted to be scared in moments reading this. Alison managed to get right to the root of why watching someone turn into a zombie before your eyes, and she twisted it so effectively.
I loved this novel and would definitely recommend it to zombie fans. If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: ACAPULCALYPSE NOW
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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