The Book of Riley cover art

The Book of Riley

A Zombie Tale

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The Book of Riley

By: Mark Tufo
Narrated by: Sean Runnette
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About this listen

When the zombie apocalypse strikes without warning one dog will hold the fate of her pack in her paws. This is the story of Riley, an American bulldog. Follow along as she tries to keep her pack safe from a zombie apocalypse. Traveling with her are Ben-Ben the high-strung Yorkie; her favorite two-legger, Jessie; Jessie's younger brother, Zachary; and Riley's archenemy, Patches the cat. They are a rag-tag group of survivors, who, when pushed to the limit, realize that they are all each other has.

©2012 Mark Tufo (P)2013 Tantor Zombie Cats

Critic Reviews

Fans of horror fiction laced with laughs are likely to be tickled by this droll audio edition that kicks off Tufo’s new series centering on the eponymous canine. To realize the author’s concept—seeing the zombie apocalypse through the eyes of an American Bulldog—narrator Sean Runnette (who performed Tufo’s equally funny Zombie Fallout series) needs to pull off a plausible first-animal narration. He does this and more—convincingly voicing a terrier and a cat, as well as various humans. And listeners won’t find it difficult to differentiate Ben-Ben, the “little pain in the ass Yorkshire Terrier,” from Riley. The story wastes no time rolling up its gory sleeves and getting into the action—and Runnette ably transitions from humorous canine antics to savagery (e.g., when Riley rips the face off a family friend turned zombie), successfully blending horror and humor. ( Publisher’s Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant  
Great story. I love the idea of the dog’s point of view and this didn’t disappoint. But why, when your lead character is a female, and the story is in first person, would you have a male narrator. So damn frustrating

A dog tale

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This book was very funny and interesting all the time the narrator was very good I’d recommend this book wholeheartedly

Very good

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Would you listen to The Book of Riley again? Why?

Yes. I found this to be an interesting perspective on a zombie tale. This is the first zombie tale I've listened to and liked that it was told through the eyes of a dog.

What does Sean Runnette bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Sean Runnette brings the characters to life with all the different tone and inflictions that he uses for each of the characters. It really helped me to visualise, almost like watching a movie but without the actual picture part.

Any additional comments?

The storyline progressed well and the characters, though mostly animals, were interesting in the way they reacted to the situation they were facing and the choices they made based on that. This is categorised as YA but I have to say the description of the violence I found very graphic and quite horrifying. It will be interesting to see where the story goes with next lot of books in the series.

Zombie Tale with an interesting perspective

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