Play Dead

by Ryan Brown

Today's #1 New York Times bestselling thriller writers agree: Ryan Brown's compulsively readable first novel is unbeatable—a darkly humorous, rich and pungent zombie shocker that melds our national obsession with football and the newest wave of fascination with the undead. For the first time in Killington High School history, the Jackrabbits football team is one win away from the district championship where it will face its most vicious rival, the Elmwood Heights Badgers. On the way to the game, the Jackrabbits' bus plunges into a river, killing every player except for bad-boy quarterback Cole Logan who is certain the crash was no accident—given that Cole himself was severely injured in a brutal attack by three ski-masked men earlier that day. Bent on payback, Cole turns to a mysterious fan skilled in black magic to resurrect his teammates. But unless the undead Jackrabbits defeat their murderous rival on the field, the team is destined for hell. In a desperate race against time, with only his coach's clever daughter, Savannah Hickman, to assist him, Cole must lead his zombie team to victory…in a final showdown where the stakes aren't just life or death—but damnation or salvation. Boundlessly imaginative and thrillingly satisfying, Play Dead gives small-town Texas an electrifying jolt of the supernatural, and is unquestioningly The Zombie Novel of the Year!

The Comeback Story of the Season . . .

Genres: Horror, Zombies, Fiction, Thriller, Paranormal, Humor, Fantasy

352 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2010

About the author

Following his graduation from the University of Oklahoma, with a degree in film studies, he moved to New York, where he went on to study theatre at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Within months of arriving in New York, he was cast in the role of Bill Lewis on the CBS Daytime Drama, Guiding Light - a role he would play for the next three years.

Ryan relocated to Los Angeles and landed the role of Billy Abbott on CBS’s The Young and the Restless.

Following his tenure on The Young and the Restless, he returned to New York and continued working as an actor, appearing on Law and Order: SVU, and starring in two feature films for Lifetime Television.

It was also during this time that he decided to try his hand at fiction writing. It wasn’t long before he was writing full-time. Within two years, he completed the manuscript for PLAY DEAD, his first published title.

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope, not a book for me. It almost felt I was reading a cartoon trying to be edgy. The hero of the book, the chainsmoking brooding quarterback from the rough side of town, and the smart nerdy (pointedly not a virgin) school reporter out for a scoop! The evil opposing team, from the rich neighboring town that stole all of the poor folks from Killington's resources, have all been injecting themselves with some kind of monster Bane like serum. But that is not enough, even though Killington has lost every year, this time they have abovementioned fantastic quarterback and good team, under the coaching of school reporter's dad, who is nursing tragic secret, and not counting on just the steroids to work their magic, they waylay the QB and cut off some fingers.

But he still showed up to the pep rally! So of course the next thing to do is engineer an accident to push the team's bus off a cliff, drowning everyone (they couldn't get thru the windows in their shoulder pads and no one thought to take them off apparently), except for the coach and QB. The old witch lady next door brings back the entire football team, now as soulless ravenous zombies, because she really wants the town to win this year. At no point is this book ever grounded in an actual reality, people in the town are more concerned about the football game being cancelled due to entire team dying than the deaths themselves, and when the team wanders back, obviously grievously injured, shoving raw meat in their mounts, not being able to speak, no one kicks up a fuss.

The team all goes home with their parents, who apparently are also idiots. The cops meanwhile are busy bungling the investigation, but the big game finally, after much zombie wrangling, starts. Besides the raw amount of maiming and brutality, vast amounts of underaged drinking and drugs like out in the open, smoking everywhere, this is another book where practically each page I turned I sighed "That's not how any of this works" again to myself. Felt cliched.

[Giovanni Gelati · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Ryan Brown’s debut novel; reading the novel you would never tell though. I have to admit it is a shifting of the gears for me to go with this genre once a week at least, but I think the challenge is well worth it. Especially if there are more books of this quality out there. Fortunately I seem to be finding them. Saturday I will be dropping in a post on Jonathan Maberry’s The Dragon Factory, the novel rocked.

Play Dead boiled down is a basic story of the different types of lives in a small town in Texas; although I think the small town could have been just about anywhere. Bucks County, Pa. is serious about its High School Football also. In the small town, one never really knows what goes on behind closed doors. The great thing about the novel is what Ryan Brown does with the basic story. Instead of making it a tired same old same old storyline, he infuses it with enough texture and substance that we embrace the everyday stereotypes we find. The action is swift and constant, there is plenty of humor to go around for everybody, and the dialogue is engaging and pulls us in so we care about the characters and what happens to them. The edge Brown gives Play Dead with the Zombies is genius and that is really made the novel for me.

Ryan Brown’s Play Dead is a real gamer. Whether you are a novice Zombie novel reader like me or a veteran of this genre, this novel has it all. Great characters, humor, heart (do Zombies have them?), and plenty of action. Give it a go, put it in your -to read- list at Goodreads and enjoy. I think this novel is smart and enjoyable summer fun!

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[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

What we have here is a zombie vs. steroid high school cheaters football game. I looked at the photo of the author and decided that I didn't want to like this book. (He is blond and all American and has a cocky charming smile that makes teenaged girls tempted to buy this book only to sleep with the image of his face between their legs. Qualities I wish I have.)
But I do.(Not the qualities but the fact I liked this book)

The beginning is creepy with the description of the undead preparing listlessly for the greatest game of their eternal afterlife. The main character is a punk kind of a kid (Cole Logan) who is bitter about her mother who gets around for the rent money. The build up of the villian, a loud mouth cheater is funny especially when he lies about his success with girls in between the dialogues as he schemes against Logan. The supernatural element came too easily, and the showdown of bad guys vs. zombies kept being blantly obivious. I wish that Logan could have compromised himself by having the zombies eat some of the town folks and have him go, 'okay I guess they are probably headin' to hell along with me since I ain't calling the police cuz we got a game to play.')That would make for a more interesting character.

It is more of a football game with the kind of drunken argument of who gonna win, the zombies or the steroid induced players. It seems the author settles that with a good football Halloween tale.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a fatal school bus kills everyone on board except for the school quarterback, Cole, he knows deep in his bones that it was no accident. His team, the Jackrabbit's were determined to beat the Elmwood Heights Badgers and win the district championship. Their dreams were cut short in this tragedy but Cole isn't ready to give up. With a little help thanks to black magic, Cole resurrects his teammates. This is where the story gets really interesting.

I read a bunch of rave reviews about this book and I have to say that I agree with every one of them. Zombie fans everywhere will enjoy this fresh look at the undead.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killington’s high school football team, The Jackrabbits have played a good season. They are only one win away from becoming district champions. The town and the boys are pumped.

Cole Logan is the quarterback for the Jackrabbits. He is accosted by several of the Badgers. The Badgers are the Jackrabbits rivals from Elmwood Heights. Two of Cole’s fingers are hacked off. Cole refuses to go to the hospital. Savannah, the sheriff’s daughter drives Cole home.

Black Mona is rumored to be a witch. When one of her cats is gutted and brought back to life, it is Cole and Savannah, who find the reincarnated cat and bring him home. Mona is the biggest Jackrabbit fan. She offers Cole a way to get revenge.

The Jackrabbits were on their way to play the Badgers when the bus they were riding in, goes off the roads and sinks. The Jackrabbits with Mona’s help come back but at what price?

Play Dead is a zombie, feeding, frenzy good time. It is amazing that this book is Mr. Brown’s first novel. He writes like a pro. I really got into this book right from the start. I would put it down, only to tell me husband something interesting that was happening at that moment. There were some gruesome parts but nothing too over the top. I like that things were simple and not a cheese fest. Play Dead is a one sit read.

The only issue I had with this book was the naive ness that the town’s folks had with the boys. I found it a little unbelievable that they were really in the dark about what their sons really had been turned into. Overall, I liked this book a lot. I can’t wait to see what Mr. Brown thinks up next.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

As promised in a blurb, this debut novel by former TV and film actor, Ryan Brown, is very much like Friday Night Lights meets Romero's Dead films, but with a healthy dash of satire. Just imagine the works of Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey, Christopher Moore and you'll get what I mean. But toss in a spicy dollop of Texas horror-meister Joe Lansdale and you'll see what I mean. While the zombie-action doesn't begin to take place until about halfway through the novel, I found this novel easy to get through and very light reading. Nothing new was given here as far as adding a twist to the zombie mythology and growing popularity amidst horror readers, but I liked the book simply for its unique combination of football (albeit high school football) and the walking dead. Fans of Max Brooks may enjoy this lean-and-mean novel and I look forward to seeing what Brown does next.

[Darcy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one lost me around page 70. There was just too much football, too much of the kids doing whatever with no adult interaction. I mean come on, a pep rally at the school gym was fire bombed with pumpkins loaded with blood and not much was done. The sheriff was asking questions, but not outraged, the coach wasn't distressed, not what I expected. The quarter back get 2 fingers chopped off, no one makes him go to the hospital. The other football team is juicing with steroids for the whole season, yet no one has called them out on it, not believable at all. In the end this one just wasn't for me.

[Mary BookHounds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friday Night Lights with Zombies! This is a smart and witty debut with all of the pathos of almost adult high schoolers mixed with a horror fest that is football. Except that horror fest turns into a funny commentary on high school and sports. I am not a huge football fan, so I was a little worried when I started to read this, but just like Friday Night Lights, football is just a background for the real story here about a football team that turns into zombies. Brown gets right to the story within the first fifty pages so there is no waiting for character development and scene setting. Adults and teens will love this one. I could really see this one as a movie.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was everything I expected. It was like reading a B movie. I mean seriously, Texas zombie football players? No, it isn’t going to win a Pulitzer, or even be read by many folks for that matter. However, when approached as a work of mindless zombie apocalypse fiction set into the backdrop of the crazy world of Texas high school football, it is unsurpassed. Maybe it is unsurpassed because it is in a class all its own – at least I hope it is. There can’t be more books like this out there, or are there? Please let me know if you come across any similar mindless zombie tripe as I would love to expand my readings.

[Liza C · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a hokey story (as most zombie stories tend to be) but it just went a bit too far beyond hokey into stupid at points. The violence was pretty good, but I just couldn't accept that a whole town would be so dumb/gullible to believe their dead high school football team/sons could be walking around after a horrible crash, and NOT be more questioning and concerned. What kind of parents are these, anyway?

It was a very quick read though, so the pain of the bad didn't last too long at least.

[Tressa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pleasant if not groundbreaking book on zombies. There is NOTHING new in this book, but if you want to pass the time with a lighthearted story about a high school zombie football team, by all means read Play Dead. That's all I have to say about it.

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zombies, fun, football.

[Dlmoore83 Moore]

A zombie read I couldn't pass up. Started out slowly, but picked up speed towards the end. A movie I'd watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon on the sci-fi channel....

[S. Policar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a football fan. I read this book because my youngest insisted I should read it for Spooky Month. I mean, it doesn't get much more October vibed than football and zombies right? I was absolutely skeptical at first. I'm always skeptical when Micah suggests anything to me because if you knew my youngest you'd understand he makes me look normal more often than not lol. I don't regret reading this book.
Ryan Brown wove a story that's not only a horror, but manages to keep the humanity in it's pages that his zombie players are lacking. I'm honestly surprised this author hadn't released but this book and one other; his writing and his stories are good and there should be more of him in the world in my opinion.
This book does have some swearing because realistically teenagers cuss whether the adults in their lives like it or not. But if you censor your tweens and new teens, I would wait a bit before letting them read this.
However, even if you aren't a fan of football but enjoy a good zombie story, I encourage you to give this book a shot.
I give this book 5 of 5 Paws.

[Clint · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sophomoric novel is “Friday Night Lights” meets “The Walking Dead,” with stabs at black comedy. Wanted to quit this also badly narrated audio book several times but struggled through it to see if anything redeeming could be found. Nothing was. Basic plot has one Texas football rival sabotaging another, with the results going awry when a bus full of players goes off into a river and almost all drown. Of course, that is, until they’re brought back to life (walking death?) by the town’s mysterious sorceress for one game that will determine if the players live forever as zombies or go to their reward. Nuff said.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book a while back. I hadn't thought too much about it since I read it, but ever so often I'd see it sitting there in the stack it was in and think, that was a pretty good book. Today I got to listen to Sandra Brown at a book festival and she told us some about her family. She said her son had written a book and gave a brief description. I turned to the nice lady next to me and told her, " I have that book and have read it. I enjoyed it!" Thanks for the good read. Sorry I didn't do a review earlier. I'm new to this stuff. Hope you try another book soon.

[ALPHAreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Killington High School and Elmwood Heights have a long, nasty history. Their rivalry goes back to the town’s founding fathers – but in recent years the animosity has been taken out on the football field between the rival high schools.

Tensions are running especially high when victory is in sight. Three teams are left and for the first time in a long time the Killington Jackrabbit’s are close to a win, after a long dry spell. But the rumour around town is that the Elmwood Heights Badgers have a little more than just talent on their side . . . and these jacked-up hot-heads are willing to do anything to win.

Jackrabbit QB, Cole Logan, has two missing fingers to show just how bad the Badgers want this victory . . . but not even he can predict the killing lengths they’ll go to.

When the entire Killington team meets a watery end, it’s up to Cole and his coach’s daughter, Savannah Hickman, to reanimate the team and drag them out of their watery graves, to have their revenge and win the game. No matter the cost.

‘Play Dead’ is the debut horror thriller from actor turned novelist, Ryan Brown.

I was a little wary going into this novel. The zombie genre has exploded to the point of ridiculousness –flesh-eaters have rewritten classic literature, retold history and even shuffled into the romance department. I haven’t really jumped on the zombie bandwagon, and the fact that ‘Play Dead’ is a zombie football novel left me a little cold. I’m Australian, so American grid-iron holds little interest for me . . . beyond being addicted to ‘Friday Night Lights’, I know next to nothing about the game itself. Still, I was intrigued by the premise of ‘Play Dead’ and loved the front cover, so I soldiered on – and, boy, am I glad I did!

‘Play Dead’ is like ‘Friday Night Lights’ meets ‘Supernatural’ in a slice of Southern Gothic brilliance. The novel is told from a number of perspectives, but the narrative mostly shifts between QB from the wrong side of the trailer-park tracks, Cole Logan, and the coach’s daughter with journalistic aspirations, Savannah Hickman. In between we get narratives from various Killington town busy-bodies, football-mad parents and the ravaged meat-head QB of the Elmwood Heights Badgers. The various voices of Killington add to the small-town atmosphere – more to the point, they illustrate the small, Southern football-crazy town atmosphere. This is a Texas state that worship at the altar of the pigskin, and even when the dearly departed High School football team come back as slobbering, meat-eating zombies, the zealous football fans are happy to turn a blind eye for the sake of a hometown win. Killington’s determined ignorance also allows for some nice tongue-in-cheek observations of the teenage psyche;

“Let me ask you somethin’, Cleatus. Has your boy done much talking to you lately . . . I mean even before the crash?”
Cleatus thought about it, then shook his head. “Not unless he needs money.”
“See? It’s the same with my boy. They’re teenagers, Cleatus. They don’t want to talk to us. Let me ask you somethin’ else: What does Wyatt do most times around the dinner table?”
Cleatus shrugged. “I suppose he just sort of . . . stares off into space, eats.”
“So there you go. Wyatt’s right as rain.” Farley gave Cleatus a healthy slap on the shoulder.

Our main protagonist is Cole Logan – and he’s wonderful. Logan lives in a trailer and his mama is the town whore (even since his daddy skipped out of town last year, with the family funds). He smokes, drinks, has screwed every cheerleader and his arm is the main reason the Jackrabbits are close to winning the finals. He’s acerbic and dangerous, a good-looking bad boy with a grudge against the world. When he finds himself the last player standing after his teammates meet a watery grave, he feels the first burst of school-spirit – and with the help of his coach’s daughter, and school paper journalist, Savannah, the two of them set about reanimating the bodies of his teammates to snatch victory and gain salvation.

Savannah is a great, fiery, counterpoint to Cole’s acerbic wit. She’s the only girl in school who hasn’t batted her eyelashes at him, and the only person in town who won’t let his throwing arm endear him to her. As the two embark on a soul-saving football mission, they also begin a tentative and sweet romance. These two are great – swapping verbal barbs even as they start a slow-burning attraction. I have to admit, I would have liked a little more romance between these two to balance out the blood, gore and zombies – but their characters sparked on the page regardless of the lacking explicit scenes.

Towards the end my lack of football knowledge was a small hindrance . . . but Brown has written such cinematic action with heart-palpitating drama that my lack of football know-how mattered little for the edge-of-your-seat finale.

‘Play Dead’ is a book of Southern Gothic brilliance. Even if you don’t especially like the idea of a ‘zombie’ novel, the book has a lot more to offer – the story of a football-crazy small town, with a rebel protagonist, an unlikely romance and a game with souls on the line. Ryan Brown is like the male Charlaine Harris – using the dynamic South for a horror backdrop – and ‘Play Dead’ has ensured he is now a supernatural author to watch.

[Lorena :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book while looking inside of my mom’s closet & Wow...What an oddball of a book! It had a lot of crazy moments and I’m not the biggest fan of football 🏈 or Zombies 🧟‍♂️ at all but I actually did have a lot of fun reading this!

[Horror Guy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book was written about high school by someone who doesn't seem to ever have gone to high school.


Oh yeah, and there are some zombies too.

[Joel F · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story cause one, it was just ridiculously funny, two, it's an interesting story. Definitely recommend this book

[Graham Carter]

Sorry the author expects the reader to forget a page previous as events fast forwards. At time the story becomes too unbelievable to be taken serious

[Brandi Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very odd story about football and zombies.

[Zombie_Phreak · Rating 1 out of 5]

Zombie football players. That's right, this book has zombie football players in it. Look, I've said it before and I'll say it again. When you take two things that are awesome and mash them together you don't always get Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***

Okay so in this book we have our main character Logan Cole who is the star quarterback of a team called the Jackrabbits and he is in the process of leading his team to victory and become district champions or something.

Their rival team, "The Badgers" is all jacked up on some kind of steroids from Mexico that are having horrible side effects that are turning the team into violent psychopaths. The Badgers have a few of their team members jump Logan and tell him to throw the next game or else there will be trouble. Then they chop off a few of his fingers with a hatchet and then they run off.

So let me ask you this, if you are attacked by a few masked assailants and they chop off your fingers, what would you do?
A. Contact the police so they can find who attacked you and file criminal charges
B. Apply pressure to your wounds and try not to panic
C. Seek medical attention immediately
D. Go to a pep rally and give a rousing speech to your fellow students about tonight's game

Well in Logan's case the answer is D, go to the pep rally. He goes there and tells everyone they have to fight and win on the field. Then when the police are called and the paramedics arrive, he waves them off and tells them he doesn't need any help and isn't interested in giving a statement to the police. Yeah, this guy is our hero.

Later on the Badgers know that the Jackrabbits are going to a football game and they decide to sabotage a bridge that is on their way to that game. The bridge is sabotaged and the bus they are on is sent crashing into the river below. The Badgers then rejoice because that means that the Jackrabbits will miss their game and they won't have to face them for the championship. Ummm, guys, you didn't just make them miss a game. You just MURDERED like 30 people!

This causes Mona, the local cat lady and also apparently a voodoo priestess who is a football fan on top of all of that as well, to feel dark forces moving in the cosmos. What happened? Did she feel a disturbance in the Force or something?

Not to mention that the Badgers fired off a shotgun in order to signal the people to yank the supports of the bridge out. The shot actually hits someone in the face. Now that usually tends to kill some people when it happens to them. But the character "Booker" just gets upset and it causes him to get a few scabs and other than that he's just fine.

The main characters of Savannah and Logan go see Mona who starts to resurrect the team from the dead. When she starts her little ritual, it kicks up a breeze and Savannah says "What's that?" Ummm, I'm pretty sure that's the wind sweetheart. Most of us experience that phenomenon at least 10 times a day. You're in your late teens, I'd kinda expect you to be used to it by now.

So there are a few specific things I want to point out and then I'll wrap this up.

Page 165, in this book that has 344 pages, on this page we FINALLY see the zombies. The book is almost half over and we just now see zombies?

Page 266, a zombie FINALLY attacks a human! Isn't that kinda what zombies are supposed to do in a ZOMBIE novel!?!

Page 315, a cop broke into someone's house in order to use the phone, isn't that illegal? I know he's a cop and he's in a bind, but you can't just go into someone's house, even if you do need to call for backup.

Page 324, we FINALLY get a football game. In this book about football, we're 20 pages from the end before we actually play football. You'd think in a book that is about football and has a football player on the front of it, we'd have football introduced a little sooner in the book.

***END SPOILERS*** ***END SPOILERS*** ***END SPOILERS***

The game at the end of the book was just lame and boring to read about. Plus we all knew from the very beginning that Logan was going to end up with Savannah, the other main character. So that wasn't really a surprise.

The front of the book said, "A Thriller!" But the only thrilling part about this book was when it was over. Give this one a pass.

[Patrick D'Orazio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Play Dead is a story about a down and out Texas football team that has never been much to talk about...until a new Coach and a new quarterback turned their luck around. Now, with the help of Coach Hickman and Cole Logan, the renegade QB, the Killington High Jackrabbits are one game away from the District Championship and a meeting with the hated Elmwood Heights Badgers.
But apparently, the steroid guzzling badgers, led by Line Backer Booker Flamont, have decided that it would be best if they just took Killington out of the equation. So they take a hatchet to Cole's fingers and sabotage the Killington High pep rally. When that doesn't work out as expected, they decide to wreck the football bus on its way to Killington's last game before they're to meet up with Elmwood. Instead of wrecking the bus, their prank goes terribly wrong and the bus plummets over a bridge into a river where the boys and all the assistant coaches drown. Only Cole, who wasn't on the bus, and Coach Hickman, who escaped through a window, survive. That's where Mona, Cole's neighbor and a practitioner of Black Magic, comes in. Mona is a huge football fan and wants revenge as much as Cole does, and with the help of the Quarterback and Savannah, the Coach's daughter, the trio raise the team back to un-life so they can play their revenge game against the Badgers.

As a big fan of zombie stories, I have to admit that this one was different. The challenges faced by authors of zombie genre fiction these days are to not only create compelling characters but to also perhaps make the zombies either different or the story surrounding them different enough to keep the audience's attention when they've seen a lot of the same type of zombies apocalyptic tales. Ryan Brown certainly does that with his pack of voodoo cursed zombies that have a peckish side to them, just like the traditional Romero zombies, who also seem to still know how to play football despite the fact that the only other thing they're capable of is eating. The idea of zombies playing football is pretty interesting, and the author lines them up against another football team that is so jacked up on performance enhancing drugs that they're are almost inhuman in their blood lust. It makes for an interesting setting to play a football game. Overall, the concept is played both as scary and humorous, and I think it worked out pretty well.

I do wish that the game played a bigger role in the story. It is played near the end of the story, with the build up being highly entertaining as Cole and Savannah prickly but romantic relationship begins as Booker Flamont plots mayhem against Cole and the Jackrabbits while taking enough illegal juice to turn him into a raging maniac. I would have liked to see the game a lot darker or even more humorous way than it was portrayed. A vision of a game played on the precipice of hell, with players fighting for their very souls, would have been interesting, or the zombie players taking the occasional bite out of the opponents could have been rather funny. Still, the book as a whole doesn't suffer much for the brevity and straight forward nature of the game. This is an entertaining and unique read, especially for the zombie fans out there. If you are craving something different, this is definitely the ticket. I was never a big fan of high school football, but I love the college and the pros games so I could appreciate some of what transpires here and the passion that teams elicit in their towns...even to the point where some folks don't seem to notice or even care if their players are undead. They just want them to win.

Overall, a fun read and one to check out if you are looking for some new zombie stuff.

[Diane Ehlers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was originally posted on Paranormal Sisters: http://paranormalsisters.blogspot.com...

Go big or go home, that's what Texas is known for and this book doesn't fall short of that.

I honestly didn't know what I was getting myself into when I found this book at a thrift shop in 12'. But the cover was intriguing and the summary caught my interest, so for a $1, I said what the hell. If you don't take this seriously and take it lightly, you'll enjoy it.

Diving head first I was surprised by how many point of views we got, at least four- probably more. And it's an instant change between chapters so it'll take a little while to feel for who's point of view you're reading now. It was disconnecting sometimes. I was actually shocked that we also got to see the bus crash happen while being behind the heartless murderers eyes, though at the time not all knew the plan was to get rid of their rival team for good. It was crazy how serious everyone took football to the extreme that the opposing team would cut off the rival quarterbacks fingers so he couldn't play, well let's just say that back fired. Again, take this lightly because this whole book is filled with extreme situations that would never happen (at least I pray it'll never happen).

The Badgers, our main guy Cole's rival team is filled with a bunch of sore losers. They're afraid of losing this season and end up being tortured again by their couch because of losing (like I said, it's extreme). So they take to doing a new form of steroids to make sure they win every game but when they find out the Jackrabbits are in the finals they think of new forms of cheating, like cutting off Cole's fingers with a hatchet.

With so much craziness and gore, which you expect from a zombie book, you'd think a girl that loves this stuff could never get bored of it.

Well, there's a first for everything.

I think the main reason why I lost interest after a while of reading, when I would read this, was because of the extreme situations- it's just soo unbelievable! And some of it is just so stupid, not really the action but the thinking of some of these characters that bring them to do these stupid stuff. Like seriously come one, must be all those steroids the bad guys were taking.

And sometimes I would just lose interest in between the action. I don't know why but I did, which is why it took me half a year to read- because I just couldn't fully get into it. There was too much going on and again, it was extreme over the sport of football. Just don't get it.

Overall I liked it but once I finally finished it I was happy for it to end. Play Dead is an roller coaster of extremes after extremes and once I reached the last page, I just didn't get it. Sometimes I would get sucked in and sometimes I would laugh at the conversations between Cole and his love interest- whom I pictured Holland Roden the whole time. Complete description to the T and reminded me of her character on Teen Wolf too.

But I don't think I was 100% satisfied. I was happy Cole and her got together and that the team was able to move on (sorry for the spoiler) but just, what was the point? Maybe it's cause I'm not a huge football fan haha. I enjoyed the paranormal aspect, the zombies and the old hag. But the extremes for the football aspect, like why? Maybe if you're a huge football fan you'll get it.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on my review blog : http://fallingofftheshelf.blogspot.com

The Killington High School has never felt the glory of victory at the district championship. This is the first year that they have even come close to coming out victorious in the end. They are only one win away, and now they must compete against their most ferocious rivals, the Elmwood Heights Badgers. The two separate towns have been at each others throats for as long as the two towns have stood, and now it's time for one of them to take all of the glory.

Unforeseen events take the Jackrabbits to the bottom of the river, killing every player, except their star quarterback Cole Logan. Cole is positive that what happened to his teammates was certainly no accident, it was murder. The only thing that can bring him to this deduction is that he himself was brutally attacked by three men in ski masks earlier that day, leaving him injured beyond repair. Now Cole can only think of paying back the men who have hurt so many lives, so he turns to black magic to bring his team back from the dead. With only the coaches daughter, Savannah Hickmam, they race against time to lead his zombie team to victory.

Cole Logan is clearly a bad boy. He has tattoos, and piercings, and even rides a motorcycle everywhere he goes. He's a bit of a loner, and really only wants to get out of the small town of Killington with the help of a football scholarship. It's not easy being poor in this world, and he's driven to use his talents to make something of himself. I really like characters like this, that put their all into the one thing that drives them. He was passionate about his sport, and utterly determined to become something, not just another nobody on the sidelines stuck in Killington for the rest of his life.


Savannah Hickman is pretty much the opposite of Cole. She's your regular good girl, getting good grades and even a member of the school's paper. She doesn't do anything bad, save stay up all night in order to make a deadline. The only things they have in common are their passion for getting out of Killington, and Coach Hickman, who happens to be her father. I really liked Savannah as well, and even more so than I did Cole. She really wanted to help people, and thought it was wrong to bring the team back as walking corpses. She did see that it was necessary to have them play though, so despite her fears and her worries, she stood by Cole's side until the end.


I've always liked books about the paranormal, so when this book showed up in my mailbox I was super excited. I was immediately drawn to the cover, with that decaying football player and his glowing eyes. I've never been a huge fan of football, but zombies? I'll take a zombie any way I can get him, or her. This was an exciting read, because it was not like any other zombie novel that I have ever read before. I think this well may be the first book about football playing zombies, and honestly whether you like football or not, it's a great read. I was a little confused when the author went into detail about football plays and what was a penalty or not. This didn't really bother me though, because the real story isn't about the football itself, but about never giving up on what you care about, and pushing for all your worth to make it happen.

[Cinnamon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know what you're thinking. Football and zombies? A fantastic and energetic sport combined with the gruesome and not so energetic undead? Well…yeah! When you think about it they're actually pretty similar. In football, players try to kill each other to get control of the ball; zombies…well, they may try to rekill each other to get control of your brains. Stick them together and you've got a winning combination.

PLAY DEAD by Ryan Brown was fascinating mainly because I wasn't expecting it, yet it combined two of my favorite things. I love football and I love zombies. I've read a number of stories where the paranormal has been thrown into something pretty well known but this is the first time I personally have seen football hit with the paranormal bug. I'm loving it.

The plot for this is pretty straightforward. The Killington High School football team ends up drowning in a river after their bus decided it needed a little bath. Cole, the quarterback and star of the team is the only survivor. Something just isn't right though. Cole has a feeling the accident wasn't truly an accident and he believes that their rivals, Elmwood Heights, is behind the tragedy. So what's a quarterback to do when a major game is coming up and his entire team is dead? Turn to black magic of course!

That is some serious commitment to football! The football scholarship on the line may have influenced Cole a bit as well.

Successfully risen from the dead, the football team must not only hide their secret from their parents and rest of the town, but fight to actually claim victory in their beloved game as well. There's more than reputation at stake here - their very souls are on the line. Add in a little romantic touch with the coach's daughter, Savannah and Mr. Brown has created a fantastic read.

For those readers out there who may be shying away because the book involves football, I'll tell you up front that there are football references within the story. Plays and penalties are explained; famous players are described. I understand the references so I can't make too much of a judgment call as to how easily someone unfamiliar with the sport would be able to understand these references. What I can say, however, is that the general plot of the book will not be lost if you simply skip over the technical passages within the story.

Aside from the awesome idea behind this story, my favorite aspect of PLAY DEAD was the writing. The game scenes were described in such a way that it was easy to visualize what was going on. The main characters were developed well and there were even a few side characters that became pretty memorable.

Fair warning time: There is a decent amount of cussing throughout the book. Normally that bothers me in a story but oddly enough, it actually flowed well in PLAY DEAD. Who knows, perhaps I’m just predisposed to accepting cussing in football or from the undead.

I would recommend this book to any thriller fans out there (and no, I don’t mean Michael Jackson’s Thriller), football fans, or zombie fans. This is a great book for lovers of the game or those who get a certain tingly thrill from reading about decomposing undead.

[Mary Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brad Thor called you the "new Stephen King." Can you give us a quick description of PLAY DEAD? PLAY DEAD is part sports satire and part horror-comedy. Set in Texas, it’s about a high school football team that dies in a horrific prank gone wrong and comes back from the dead as zombies. Only a victory over their vicious district rivals (who also happen to be their murderers) can save the their souls. Think FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS meets DAWN OF THE DEAD.

You have a fantastic resume; starring roles in The Guiding Light and The Young and The Restless. How do you manage to juggle your acting career with your writing career? There is less juggling between acting and writing than there was before I sold PLAY DEAD, and was contracted for a second book. I’m still doing the odd acting job, but most of my focus now is on writing. I usually write between 10am and 4pm (the hours my son is in school) Monday through Friday. I also try to get in two or three hours over the weekend.

Any advice for aspiring authors? Read, read, read! I cringe to hear authors say they don’t read. I read all over the map. Fiction, non-fiction, history, biography... I do a great deal of reading outside of the genre that I write. It works for me. I learn not only from the content, but also from seeing all of the different writing styles.

What was the toughest part about writing PLAY DEAD? The toughest part about writing PLAY DEAD was justifying the time it took to do so. It took two years, which is a lot of time and work to put into something when there’s no guarantee of publication (much less payment). I am of course very grateful for the way it turned out in the end.

Very exciting that May 4th is the release date, Are you doing a book tour or a blog tour? Can your fans find you at signings at Manhattan book stores? I will have some tour dates following the May 4th publication of PLAY DEAD. They are being finalized as I write this. The dates will be posted on my website: ryanbrownauthor.com.

How are things going on book two? Easier than book one? Or does each book present its own challenges? Book two is coming along. It’s harder in many ways than the first one. It’s the first time I’ve had to write under deadline, which certainly changes everything (perhaps for the best). With PLAY DEAD I had the benefit of writing without expectations (self-imposed and otherwise). Such is not the case anymore. But it’s a good problem to have. I feel blessed just to have the opportunity to write a second one.


Glad to see you have two rescued cats. Amazing how many authors have cats. Do they keep you company in your office as you write? I was a dog lover. I married into the cat thing, but I must admit I’m a convert. My wife already had a rescued cat when we met ten years ago. That cat is still with us. Last October we went out for groceries and came home with another rescued cat. They’re both completely mad…but we love them.

Is there anything you'd like to be asked, that you've never been asked? I’ve never been asked my favorite Stooge. It’s Shemp.
What would your fans be surprised to know about you? My fans might be surprised to know that I’d trade a decade’s worth of paychecks for a decent Tex-Mex restaurant in New York.

[Carmaletta Hilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this one 3 stars because it started out pretty well. The first half of the book was really interesting and the pacing was pretty good. I read an advanced copy, so I wasn't taking any points off for the numerous spelling and grammar mistakes. However, the second half is where it loses points. The scene where Cole dives into the river was a great scene, filled with intensity and emotion. Also, the scene where he went after the Badgers was suitably passionate. After that, though, it all just goes downhill. Everything from the moment Cole goes to Black Mona was just... It was part overdone and part just plain stupid. I found myself skimming pages and rolling my eyes.

I don't have any experience with small town Texas (though I did live, for a while, in San Antonio, so I have seen Texas football frenzy) but I find it hard to believe that they're SO caught up in football that none of them realized their children were zombies. I would say that the author was trying to say something about Texas football, but he didn't make them out to be crazy for missing it. Cole and Savannah banked on them missing it. Also, the Badgers and their steroid use, especially at the jail, was just outrageous. The reconciliation between Savannah and her father had some promise, but it was done way too hastily, and without anything I felt was real. It was just a plot device so the coach would go along with their plan.

The relationship with Savannah and Cole I didn't buy either. I was right there when she was just using him for a story. When they tried to explain away her hesitance with him and all things football, it fell as flat as the story of why the coach didn't want to play the game or put Cole on the field. Cole wasn't a likable guy, he was barely a decent guy. He was a jerk for most of the time they spent together over those couple of days. Why would she be into him?

And in the end... what happens? How are they going to explain all of this to the town? Do they plan on saying, "Hey! So yeah, we knew you were all pretty dumb and we played on it." And what's with the sheriff? There was no hint at all through the book that the zombies could pass their condition to someone else, then all of a sudden, the sheriff got it? And his soul even went with the players, even though he had nothing to do with the spell that brought them back. It was stupid. The ending was just kind of a let down.

There was a lot that could have been done with this book. Wouldn't it have been interesting to have the parents angry at him because he survived and their kids didn't? I would have loved to read about the horror in the parents that their children had been brought back from the dead, disturbed from their graves, but then the stupid game at the end wouldn't have happened.

I really would have liked to give this 2.5 stars, but I liked the beginning enough, and some of the characters (LOVED the trio from the diner) so I'm bumping it to 3, but it was really only 2.5 for me.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Play Dead by Ryan Brown is frightening, fast and flat-out funny. Definitely not a book you want to take seriously. I was a little concerned half way through that the plot had gotten a little flat and more horrifying than hilarious- not that horror is a bad thing. Football isn't for everyone. Neither are zombies... but combined? Brilliant!

The Killington High Jackrabbits has never had a successful football team, but their time has finally come. They have two games left to claim the district championship. At the final game they will come head to head with their number one rival, the Elmwood Badgers. There has been bad blood between the two towns since the time they were first founded and it is time for them to duke it out on the field. But a terrible prank prevents the Jackrabbits from even making it to the stadium. Their team bus goes over the bridge and takes a trip down the river- eventually sinking, pinning and drowning every player but QB Cole Logan. Now there is only one thing left for Cole to do. Get revenge.

So, just how does one go about getting revenge and settling the score? Turn to black magic, of course! Haha. Now that Cole has magically brought his entire team back to life, he has 48 hours to win a game and send his team back to their grave before all hell breaks lose. He and Savannah, the coach's distant daughter, must control the team as they can't stop themselves from eating everything... horses, cows- even their parents. Can Cole and Savannah beat this race against time and secure a victory to save the souls of his teammates and spread revenge amongst the berating Badgers?

I truly loved our hero, Cole Logan. He is your typical high school bad boy- motorcycle, piercings, daddy issues and a past. Although he is a loner, he will live and die for his football team. He's counting on the team to help him win a college scholarship- he's got to get out of Killington. My favorite moment! Cole throws himself off a cliff into the river to rescue his teammates from the water logged bus. Cole is incredibly passionate and the whole scene is ridiculously intense. This isn't the only time Cole shows magnificent passion. There is a very fun "beat down" scene that I enjoyed- Cole knows how to stand up for himself and those that he cares for. Savannah is another story. She doesn't seem passionate- her character is a little flat. Cole makes up for that.

I have to say that I was pretty excited to receive this book in the mail for review. I love zombies! (You can thank Robin Becker of Brains for that.) The cover alone got me excited to read this. Play Dead was full of fresh ideas that are wildly engrossing. It was a quick, entertaining read and I recommend it to any zombie or football lover. (Don't worry, the football isn't overwhelming- read it even if you aren't a fan of football!)