BOOK REVIEW: Remortalised, by A.J. Roe

Remortalised follows a journalist and his cohorts as they venture out on a forgotten island in Vietnam on a mission to help a local woman locate her brother’s remains so she can give him a proper burial. What could possibly go wrong, right? Certainly the island isn’t haunted by the undead who are doomed to repeat history until the end of time, right? What is this, some kind of Groundhog Day for the dead?

As usual, I listened to the audiobook as I read along on my kindle. I found Daniel Reskin’s narration to be quite good, animated without overdoing it. His slightly different vocal inflections for each character really helped keep them sorted in my head. I would happily listen to another Reskin narration. The time jumps and numerous characters threaten to make this story difficult to follow, but the narrator reigns it in nicely. The story goes back and forth between the the journalist and locals in the current timeline and the dead soldiers reliving their past, but as undead in the current time. It takes you back with descriptions of Vietnam and war and the way they talk that isn’t necessarily the way we talk now. The trouble comes about because the undead don’t know they are stuck in a time loop and they treat the living as they would have back in their own time. Will the living make it out alive? Will they be able to put the brother to rest? Will the undead finally be able to rest? You’ll have to read it to find out.

for me. This was a really cool story. I went into it expecting zombies, but it is not the typical zombie story, nor are they your typical zombies. I’m not even sure I’d call them zombies, if I’m honest. None of that matters though. It’s a good story.

Big thanks to A.J. Roe for providing an Audible code. The views expressed here are my honest thoughts about the book. You can buy Remortalised, by A.J. Roe on Amazon or Audible, or read it as part of your Kindle Unlimited subscription.