The course of true love never did run smooth…

Having defeated the zombie horde that had invaded London, vampire and playwright William Shakespeare is on to his next plot. Wishing to rid his true love, Katherine Dymond, of her overbearing husband, the two concoct a plan where she will fake her own death via a potion he acquires. Once she is “dead” all he need to is wait, break in to the crypt where she is to be entombed and the two can live happily ever after.

True love, however, has other plans for the two. Knowing his wife is being cuckolded by a lowly playwright, Katherine’s husband instead takes her body with him when he leaves for America. When their ship is wrecked and all hands believed lost, William immediately goes after them only to find himself wrecked on the same mysterious island.

It is an island that is on no known map and is ruled by a mad wizard. Zombies run rampant and there is more afoot than simply survival.

Zombie Island picks up almost immediately where Shakespeare Undead leaves off.  However, while Shakespeare Undead was a wholly original story with only brief mentions of Shakespeare’s plays, Zombie Island is the opposite. It is based heavily on the play The Tempest, even featuring quotes from the play at the beginning of each chapter.

There were numerous issues I had with Zombie Island, but I believe the most profound one came because of the dialogue. At times it felt clunky and awkward. Also, while the addition of actual Shakespearean quotes as dialogue was nice, because the characters didn’t speak like that constantly it only served to pull one out of the story.

I must admit, dear reader, that I didn’t enjoy Zombie Island as much as I enjoyed Shakespeare Undead. There seemed to be something missing and it just did not hold my attention as well as the first one. Sadly, I can’t recommend this one for every reader.