| Title | : | The Road of the Dead |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 043978624X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780439786249 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 368 |
| Publication | : | First published February 13, 2006 |
| Awards | : | Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Jugendbuch (2009), Carnegie Medal (2007) |
The Road of the Dead Reviews
-
Well written and also dark and creepy. A very entertaining read and finally I have found a y/a writer that I really enjoy. There are plenty that I like, but Brooks definitely writes with a confidence that I haven't seen from a lot of Y/A writers. The writing is strong and he doesn't "dumb-it-down" like a lot of y/a writers seem to do. He packs a punch. I've noticed that some Goodreads readers said there was a lack of character development. I completely disagree. I thought Cole and Rueben were fully developed, along with plenty of interesting side characters. It just proves my point that no writer can please everybody.
-
A highly competent and well-written Young Adult read. A Dartmoor based thriller sees a half-Traveller woman raped and murdered; and this terrible crime investigated by her two brothers going over her final steps. 6 out of 12
-
re-read on 25 June 2023
...yeah, I still love this book.
***************************
The Road of the Dead is one of my favourite books of all time.
I'll paint some pictures from the book for you: two brothers on a road trip, a murder in the moors, a shifty town with a secret and a low-class organized crime with unstable henchmen and investigations a la Supernatural. Oh, and there's also mysticism.
Overall it's pretty dark and gritty, but I read this as a teenager---and I have never felt so excited about a setting like this. I admired everything, from its storytelling, how the characters were drawn, the cheeky humour that hits and misses the characters in the book, the protective nature of the two protagonists and the adventure overall.
It could have tried to exude bravado and macho mucho, tried to make everything look cool, but instead, it was down to earth, honest and warm.
By now I think it's clear I cannot make this review without sounding in love. Kevin Brooks does have a mind for great realism, in my opinion. His other books are impressive as well--it's what I think young adults should be reading instead of all the vampire/werewolf/romance stuff that fills the shelves now. -
An intense, thrilling, and dark YA thriller, The Road of the Dead, was riveting. It, at times, reminded me of Sadie, but this one is on a whole different level. There’s also a supernatural element that gives the book more depth. Very well written by Kevin Brooks, the book is a fast read, and the author kept me hooked from start to the end.
-
De ongelezen boeken in de kast lezen #2
Dit is een YA thriller. Er zitten wat (onverwachte) bovennatuurlijke stukken in het boek, waar de omslag van het boek niets over had laten blijken. Dat, samen met de zigeuner herkomst van de familie, zou ik graag wat meer uitgewerkt zien in de ontwikkeling van het hoofdpersonage. Ik denk dat als ik hem gelezen had toen ik hem gekocht had, zo'n tien jaar geleden, ik het heel interessant en spannend had gevonden. Mijn beoordeling komt dus ook voort uit de gedachte van young-adult-Anniek. -
-
Ruben knew exactly when it happened. He was sitting in the backseat of an old Mercedes in his family's salvage yard when the feeling came over him. Ruben often left his own body and could attach himself to others. He could sense their thoughts and emotions. This is what happened when he felt his sister, Rachel, get attacked and murdered. He knew exactly the moment Rachel's life was taken from her.
Even though he knew it had happened and knew the Dead Man killed her, Ruben didn't say anything to his family. He hoped he might be wrong. He realized he wasn't when the police contacted the family. The details were simple, Rachel, nineteen-years-old, was visiting an old school friend in the small village of Lychcombe on Dartmoor. After her visit was over, she left and made her way toward London to return home, but never made it. Her body was found the following morning strangled, raped, and battered.
The most important thing to the family was to get her back. They wanted to bury her and put her to rest. After a trip to the police station to find out how long her body would be held, the family found out that the police would keep her until the case was closed; meaning the murderer had to be caught. The problem with that was, Ruben knew the murderer was already dead and buried and the case wouldn't be solved anytime soon.
Ruben's older brother, Cole, wasn't going to sit around and wait. He planned to go to the village to find out what happened himself and he planned to go alone. He didn't want his younger brother going along to worry about. Ruben knew what Cole was thinking though and his mother wanted him going along to make sure Cole didn't get himself hurt. Cole's temper tended to get him in trouble. He took after his gypsy, bare-knuckle fighter father who was sentenced to a prison term for killing someone.
Even though their mother was worried about Ruben and Cole going away to look into the murder, no one could foresee the trouble in store for them once they started digging into Rachel's murder. As soon as they arrived in the village they knew they weren't welcome. Secrets were everywhere and didn't want to be dug up. Secrets that involved the entire village. Secrets that would lead them to pain, torture, death, and eventually the truth.
Kevin Brooks doesn't let us down. He has provides another heart-pounding, deeply emotional story with strong characters. THE ROAD OF THE DEAD is a great place to start if you haven't read any other books by this creative and unique author. -
From the very beginning I knew that I would hate this book. The writing style as well as the whole story were just disgusting. While reading I considered giving it 2 stars because I had one “okay” minute. But since I rated other books with one star that were a lot better than this one I just had to rate it with one as well.
-
as gripping, thought-provoking and emotion evoking as Kevin Brook's work is as a rule. It has his distinctive writing style, dealing with themes of human nature and connection but this time with an almost paranormal twist. It was very dark and gruesome in places. I would recommend
Sadie to anyone who enjoyed this thrilling book. -
I picked this up off the shelf in the library, where it was sitting next to a book that kept me up nights for a week (Life as We Knew It by Sarah Beth Pfeffer). I should have known then. This book in very well written and the story jumps off the page. But it is fundamentally about vigilante justice with no real consequences (other than being severely beaten up). While no one dies (at least not on the page), no one exactly survives either. By the end of the book, it felt like a lot of destruction just barely contained within the narrative framework. The story is hard and wrenching, but it felt like it was swimming in dangerous waters. I liked it a lot, but I won't recommend it to anyone.
-
While this book has good concepts, in my opinion it was poorly written. Two brothers, Ruben and Cole, go to search for the killer of their sister, Rachel. They meet some gypsies and thugs in the town during their search. Over the course of the book, Ruben can “feel” what others are thinking. This aspect took all of the mystery out of the book. When I read a murder mystery, I do not want to know what other characters are thinking. The fun part about it is figuring out when a character is lying or who the killer is. The book feels like there is no climax that the whole story leads up to. I usually love any murder mystery that I read, but this one left me wanting more mystery. The whole book felt forced in my opinion.
-
This is about the third or fourth Kevin Brooks book that I have read. They are all so delightfully creepy but this one left me sort of cold. I like the book less and less as it went on. The brother's arrival in the village, and the dark, desolate moors and the unwelcoming townsfolk and the whole gypsy thing made it very eerie, but it the end, the book just sort of descended into violence and bloodshed, and there were so many evil henchmen that I could not keep them straight. I was getting tired of descriptions of endless beatings, and a day after I finished it, I can't actually tell you why Rachel was murdered. But I'll read more of his stuff.
-
I didn't care much for this book; even after sticking with it through the very slow dark and broody beginning to where it gets suddenly very violent and action-packed (but still dark and broody!), I still just didn't like it. The mystical aspect of Ruben's trances/visions/whatever-they-were didn't seem to be consistent to me, especially when they became more like an out-of-body experience. There were aspects of the mystery that were solved suddenly with no real explanation, and although I thought I would enjoy the setting (English moors), it ended up just way too depressing and stark. Not my cup of tea.
-
This book was quite boring. I have read it a long time ago, but decided to re-read, because I have completely forgot what it was about. I gave up about 90 pages or so, as it completely failed to interest me. And I kind of remember not liking it the first time I readed. This book just really doesn't match my taste. Quite sad, because I just LOVED another book of this author. It's one of my all times favourites, called Black Rabbit Summer.
-
Took me awhile to read this.. Loved the story line not so much the ending and being in Ruben's head.
-
Esu skaičiusi beveik visas šio autoriaus knygas ir visos pasirodė labai stiprios bei vertingos. Šioje knygoje aprašoma jaunų žmonių esybės drama netekus jiems mylimo bei brangaus žmogaus. Autorius kaip visada savo lyrinį subjektą parodo iš blogosios žmogiškosios pusės. Visame kūrinyje jaučiama nostalgija,Rubenas vis bando susitapatinti su mirusia seserimi, jis įsivaizduoja lyg kalbėtų su ja, lyg vis būtų. Knyga išties įdomi ir nebloga, tačiau asmeniškai man labai keistai atrodė tas beribis smurtas, atsivželgiant,kad tai paauglių knyga, taip pat nelabai man patiko, kad Rubenas pavaizduotas lyg koks antgamtinių galių turintis veikėjas :? Trumpai tariant, viena iš silpnesnių Kevin Brooks knygų, 3/5.
-
3,5
¿Qué tiene este libro para dar? Tenemos a dos hermanos mitad gitanos intentando vengar la muerte y asalto de su hermana. Un pueblo con un secreto. El camino de los muertos, y bastante misticismo. En esta historia Ruben, un niño de catorce años con don extraño que le permite sentir de más, se dirige junto a Cal, su hermano mayor al pueblo donde violentaron a su hermana y la mataron. Ambos Estan decididos a encontrar al culpable para que Rachel pueda ser enterrada. En general me gusta mucho el área mística que aparece: tanto con Rub por su don como por la ubicación con el camino de los muertos (que es un tema que he leido con anterioridad). Tambien me ha parecido interesante ver cierta crítica de trasfondo a la exclusión y discriminación que sufren los hungaros. En general lo recomiendo si quieren un thriller sencillo y facil de seguir. -
La historia comienza una noche de tormenta cuando nuestro protagonista Rubén se encuentra adentro de un coche contemplando la lluvia, cuando algo extraño le pasa ya que él puede sentir cosas de la gente que le rodea tales como sentimientos, pensamientos y sensaciones, él y su hermana eran muy unidos gracias a esto estaba más “conectado” con ella y pudo sentir lo que le pasó en la noche de su asesinato.
Cole su hermano mayor no está satisfecho con el trabajo de la policía, ya que hasta que no encuentren al responsable del asesinato y no cierren las investigaciones, no podrán entregar el cuerpo de su hermana, y todo lo que quiere su madre es simplemente darle un entierro como se merece, pues ya está muerta lo demás no importa…
Es cuando acompañamos a estos dos hermanos al pueblo en donde ocurrieron los hechos, un pueblo pequeño alejado de la ciudad, donde todo es tranquilo pero nada es lo que parece, y Rubén lo sabe puede sentirlo, hay algo extraño pasando en este pueblo. Cole está decidido a investigar qué fue lo que realmente paso con su hermana, pero podrán contra lo que esconde el pueblo, ¿en quiénes podrán confiar aparte de ellos dos?
Un libro que me gustó y disfruté, no se dejen llevar por el nombre ya que no hay zombies, ni nada paranormal, lo único es el “sexto sentido” de Rob, nuestro protagonista, la historia está contada desde su punto de vista, con apenas 14 años decide acompañar a su hermano en éste viaje, puesto que este siempre se mete en más problemas de los necesarios. El autor logra meterte en la historia, con un principio algo lento, pues me tomo tiempo familiarizar con los personajes pero después de los capítulos se puede sentir la desesperación de los protagonistas y la angustia que siente Rob y su hermano, también es algo violento o crudo pero ésta es una de las características de este autor. Un libro en el que los intereses, intrigas y personajes con doble moralidad llevaran a estos hermanos a defender hasta su propia vida. -
The Road of the Dead is a dark and creepy portrait of vigilante justice gone bad. Ruben, 14, and his brother, Cole, 17 leave their home in London to search for their sister's rapist and murderer. Rachel,19 went to visit friend from school, but never came back. Abbie (Rachel's friend) and her husband, Vince know something but aren't saying too much.
Cole and Ruben find a town with greed, treachery, and malice on their minds. Their sister was an innocent casualty of one man's quest for power and money. Cole and Ruben enlist the help of travelers Jess and Uncle to avenge Rachel's death. They themselves travel down a bloody and violent road to get there. But, all they want is to bring their sister's body back to London...back to their mother's home where they can properly bury her. Her body and her murderer's body will tell too many clues about who is really responsible, and those people stop at nothing to prevent that from happening.
A chilling, bloody story of revenge at any cost. -
Ok, so I don't usually give below 3 stars, but I feel like I had to for this book. Don't get me wrong, the story plot was interesting, and the characters were fine, but I just didn't enjoy this book, as much as I wanted to. Everything was so repetitive. The same thing happened over and over again. The book's genre was mystery, and I really enjoy reading those types of books! When I choose a book, and I don't like it from the first page, I still carry on. I hate not finishing books. So I pushed myself to read the entire thing. The start was very slow. I read like 20 pages a day. I finish books in about 1-2 days. This one took me an astonishing 2 WEEKS! The only reason why I read 250 pages yesterday, was because I had to give it back to my school library (I take all of my books from the library). I didn't enjoy reading it. There were some parts that occasionally made me smile, but that happened rarely. I thought it would be a great book, judging from the title, but It wasn't. I'm not hating the book. This is just my honest opinion. Some people liked it; good for them.
~Maria -
Yet another fantastic read by Brooks. Never one to shy away from gritty and hard-hitting storylines (this one concerning rape, murder and gang fighting), Brooks has managed to create a novel that is disturbing in parts but one that is impossible to put down.
As with other novels by Brooks, he creates characters that are far from perfect, in fact, some of them are simply awful, but he always describes them with such affection that the reader can’t help but empathise with them.
This is not an easy read by far, it’s violent and dark so wouldn’t recommend to anyone with a weak stomach, or to those who are easily offended by strong language. For me, this is the direction the YA/teenage fiction genre should be moving towards. -
Una historia oscura que me parece muy bien escrita, la escritura es fuerte y te mantiene entretenido en la historia. Los personajes están muy bien descritos que te hace sentir que estas ahí con ellos. Siento que puedes aprender varias cosas de la historia, como puedes perder a alguien y las diferentes formas con las que las personas lidian con eso. La historia te mantiene junto con los personajes intentando resolver todo. Es un buen libro si te gusta el misterio.
"Nunca te sientas culpable por nada, la vergüenza y la culpa son una pérdida de tiempo, solo haz lo que haces y lidia con eso." -
2.5 / 5
Éste libro lo leí hace mucho tiempo en preparatoria, la verdad no recordaba absolutamente nada de ello. Creo fue una de mis primeras lecturas y de las que más me gustaron en ése entonces.
Aunque la escritura de Brooks no está mal, en la historia deja muchos puntos inconclusos, es por ello mi calificación. -
Una historia gitana de misterio entretenida y cruda, pero bastante irreal. Mi principal conflicto era leer que los padres permitan a un niño de 12 años fumar y tomar mientras que la hermana es sometida a la actitud y comportamiento machista.
Rachel, quien inicia todo lo trágico, muere y llama a sus hermanos a buscarla y resolver todo el embrollo... Sí, así las cosas.
