My name is Howie. I was named after my father Howard, but it became too confusing to have two Howards, so I became Howie. I am 27 years old and I work as a night's manager in a supermarket. I will tell you what happened.
On Friday the world fell apart. A zombie infestation has ravaged Europe. Howie was at home and quickly had to learn to fight and survive as he battles through hordes of undead, desperately trying to reach his family.
Now it's Saturday and Howie has to go back to his town. More adventures await him. A Zombie stripper. A Psychotic club owner and a chance encounter with an old work mate who changes everything...The Undead Day Two.
"One of the most original voices of our time." - Richard Moriarty, The Sun
"Whether it's gritty horror, spectacular sci-fi, or insane comedy, RR Haywood delivers in style." - Chris Riches, Daily Express
RR Haywood is a Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and Audible bestselling author with over 4 million books sold and more than 30 Kindle Bestsellers. As one of the top ten most downloaded indie authors in the UK, Haywood has captivated readers worldwide with his diverse storytelling.
His creations include the global sensation EXTRACTED, the riveting CODE TRILOGY narrated by Colin Morgan, the phenomenal UNDEAD Series, the blockbuster DELIO, PHASE ONE, and the chart-topping A TOWN CALLED DISCOVERY. His latest work, FICTION LAND, narrated by Game of Thrones star Gethin Anthony, has been hailed as "an outrageously funny tour de force."
A former police officer, Haywood now resides with his dogs on the north coast of the Isle of Wight. He entertains audiences and shares his expertise on TikTok with his Writing Class for the Working Class.
A little more up and down to the quality of the book for me. Howie finds the whisper of hope for his parents irresistible. One of the attractions so far is that humans are still trying and not descending into warring with each other--yet.
As Howie journeys back to his town, he ends up in a strip club, one of my least favorite scenes of the book. The porny scene with the club owner is absolutely bizarre and left me downrating the story for its illogic and voyeurism. If there was something Haywood was trying to say about how people chose to act at the end of the world, it could have been done so much better. Still, the return to Tesco and discovering David was a high point. I like the interactions between David and Howie, which give us a sense of David's more limited range, and Howie's care in talking with him.
Enough to go on with.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Howie is still alive and raging here in Day 2. Running and battling the hordes of undead and a couple of twisted surprises along the way . Our hero is clumsily making his way home in hopes of finding his family. And I’m rooting for him all the way! Now, I’ve seen a lot of undead worlds with lots of biting, fighting, and end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it comedy and commentary. Yes, I foolishly thought I’d seen it all. That is until…Howie swings by his place of work and finds Dave. DAVE!
"Why are you here, Dave?" He stares at me, expressionless, then looks down at his uniform and back at me. "No, I don’t mean why are you here. You work here. I mean why are you still here when this is happening?"
Calling all horror fans, you have to meet Dave. He is somehow creepy, sad, deadly, and hilarious all at once. He’s one of those rare characters you meet and say, “Welcome to my world.� I love him. That entire interaction on the shop floor with Howie and Dave is pure gold. Gory and gross horror gold!
My favorite part of a zombie story is when our day-to-day world tries oh-so hard to look the same as it always does, but bit by bloody bit breaks down to the horror. Everything is suddenly wild and twisted out of shape and coated with blood. Like when Howie can still hear the awful piped in music on the store’s speakers as he gawps at a mound of death and devastation. Take a look�
"What shocks me the most is just how much blood there is. Smeared over car doors, splattered against windows, and in some places, just pooled in puddles.�
What will Howie and Dave do next? And with what kind of weapon? I’m hoping my beloved machete makes an appearance. Haha�. Just in case I haven’t made it clear here, I loved this one. Bring on Day 3!
p.s. Best word of day 2? Pulverising!
4/22/25: Re-visited Howie and the gang via audio and loved it even more! The reader brings everyone to life perfectly.
If you like your Zombie stories short but full of action, gore and uncomplicated plot with some humour and limited first person POV, then this book is for you.
picks up where the first book ended. It's Saturday, day two of the zombie apocalypse which ravaged both East and Western Europe and the result is a complete destruction of modern life, civilization and death in a matter of 24 hours.
'There are survivors, you are not alone. Do not come to London, We are completely infested. I repeat, DO NOT COME TO LONDON. If you are in the south then we advice you to head to the Victorian Forts on the south coast. Take whatever supplies you can carry: water, food, medicine and clothing. Stay out of the cities and towns. Head to the Forts on the coast.'
After sleeping at his parents house, Howie wakes up to a new world full questions, fear, monsters and death. A world marked by survival of the fittest and there is nothing criminal about breaking and entering, stealing cars and other useful things all in the name of survival.
'Some bastard has taken the Micra. Fucking apocalypse is here and some shit steals the crappiest car possible...The fact that it isn't actually my Micra is not relevant, whoever stole it doesn't know I stole it first'
This new world has no rules or moral code. A harsh new world in which you are more likely to encounter psychotic living humans who want to play with you as well as the dead ones who want to eat you and you'll have to be stronger, better and faster than them to survive.
In this book, Howie makes a decision to go back to the place he barely escaped from the previous day, battle a horde of undead in the hopes of finding his parents. His mad dash to town sets off a mad and sometimes surreal chain of events and hilarious moments which leads to the introduction of a new and mysterious character called Dave, a trained killer with autism and OCD for neatness.
Howie is also starting to learn that the undead change at night and become even more deadly.
'With the street lamps illuminating him i see the transformation on his face too. The slack jawed look of sublime stupidity is replaced by something evil and very focused. This is like last night when they were wild and frenzied.'
was even better than the first book, there was more action, gore, horror, mystery and thriller in the form of two new character. I liked the fact that Mr Haywood added a new twist to the zombie myth by making them menacing, faster and more animalistic at night and docile, shambling traditional zombies in the daylight hours.
This meme captures Howie's expression when confronted by slow zombies in the daylight and fast zombies at night, especially the linebacker sized ones!
There were a few instances where things became disturbing and a bit too real for my liking such as Howie describing his bodily functions, being fascinated by the undead fake breasts of a stripper and wanting to touch them etc. I found these scenes off putting and distracting to be honest and, I might be nitpicking but, it affected my enjoyment of the story.
Apart from small instances, I really enjoyed this book and appreciated the authors attention to details such as forcing the characters to be creative and fight with weapons found at home, in DIY stores and other blunt objects because guns are NOT easily available in the UK.
I hope builds on the success of book two and introduces memorable new characters and even more gory action to keep me at the edge of my seat.
I really like the characters and the story but the gross-out factor is getting to me. It's repetitive to the point it loses impact. Axes, hacking, spewing, spattering, spraying brains, festering, flying limbs, soaked in blood, again, okay, got it, over it. Feels like the author is stretching it to be longer, which is a waste of his talent and our time- a shame. I will listen to the third book, but I hope it's a lot tighter and that he makes more of what he can do.
Another fun day in the life of Howie. I gave "Day One" 3 stars, but liked this continuation better. Loved the addition of Dave, and hope to see more of him. Some of the action is this one is just outrageous. I would love to see a movie made out of it -- I was imagining some of the fight scenes from the movie The Book of Eli as I was reading.
Book 2 in the episodic series of short novellas, each dealing with a day in the life of a survivor of the zombie apocalypse in a small town in England. The story takes up where it finished on Day 1 with Howie waking up at his parents house and deciding to go and look for them as, despite the note they left, they haven't returned.
He then proceeds to have some bizarre adventures and eventually find a fellow survivor whose fighting prowess seems semi-miraculous even for someone who is ex-army and probably ex-SAS. There's a lot of swearing in this and not just the 'f' word. There is a lot of gore which becomes quite repetitive. I also noticed quite a few typos. I don't think I have the staying power to bother with any more of these and can only rate it as an OK 2 stars.
I gave the first book three stars even though I was highly critical of it because I saw potential there and wanted to wait before passing judgment. However this second "book" confirmed my initial thoughts. I thought having each book take place during a single day and selling it for 99 cents was a clever gimmick and a good marketing strategy but it's becoming obvious that it's also a crutch to cover up for weak writing.
The serialized format has encouraged and allowed the author to get away with weak plotting. It's basically just one generic action scene after another. Just like the first one the length is really short and yet it still feels incredibly padded. 10-20 pages could have easily been trimmed.
Maybe the author is taking us on a journey that will eventually have twists and turns or finally include some interesting characters or situations but I'm not going to read 15 crappy books just to get to something interesting. I've said it before, this would work better as a graphic novel. Comics, graphics novels, or even bad TV shows and movies can get away with being just a bunch of action scenes strung together but I expect more for my time when investing in a book or a series or books.
I really like the serial format. Definitely a nice twist on the zombie genre. The main characters are developed well as are the minor characters. We're given just enough info on the secondary characters. Def worth a read of you're a fan of the zombie genre. Can see this being a really good movie.
The second book in this series, Day Two in the new world filled with death, living dead, and more horrors (because zombies aren't the only worry at this moment).
Again the writing was choppy/off. There were some errors, but it also didn't read comfortably.
But still I read on, as I wanted to know what would happen to Howie. In the last book he was searching for his parents and we left him near his family. But this book has so much more than just Howie and his quest for his parents. On his way towards them he meets people, helps out people, and he also finds an undead stripper (yes, I kid you not), and her boyfriend.
I have to say I absolutely hated those stripper/boyfriend parts. I was disgusted by the fact someone would tie up a zombie (since I am guessing she didn't just get tied up while alive), but then to also just sit there and be psychotic about everything when someone walks in. Urgh. I was glad when that part was over and Howie was on his way again. I really struggled reading the parts, I thought it would never end.
I loved that Howie tried helping out people. Even though it may have costed him his life, he still wanted to try. Not many people would do the same in an apocalypse. Many would just save their own asses and try to get away in any way possible.
I am curious about the message on the radio, and if Howie will get there eventually, or if he will group up with Dave and go another direction (since Howie is still searching for his parents).
Dave seems pretty awesome though, I do hope he is friendly, or that he, like so many before him, have gone bonkers due to what is happening.
There are still a lot of questions I have, like how the apocalypse started. Or what the military is up to. Or why the zombies are fast one moment, and slow the next.
I will keep on reading, I am not sure for how long though. I am just not sure if I want to keep reading about each day individually, I would rather have it speed up.
My last straw being at the beginning of the book when our 'hero', Howie, arrives at his folks estate, leaves his only means of transport parked outside, unlocked, with all his gear in it. Only to wake up to the car being gone.
Then he walks down to the store with the Indian family from the previous book, to come across his vehicle and others, along with a large group of men. He speaks to them and doesn't notice the stuttering in the responses. He asks one question about the family and that's that. Hops in car, his bag is missing which he doesn't even ask the men about. Then potters away.
This is amazing writing, if you wanted to write an idiot as your protagonist.
The Undead Day Two The Undead #2 Sci-Fi R.R. Haywood ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
� ꜱᴇᴀʀᴄʜᴇ� � ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏ� � ɢʀɪᴇꜰ �
I'm glad Howie met some new people in this book. Although one of them was not a good guy in the slightest.
Howie started to change, too. He become a bit more ruthless out of necessity and so far, it's helped him survive.
Dave intrigued me. He's so quiet and reserved and yet kills with surprising ease. It was mentioned that he was in the military but I'd like to know more.
The pacing was fast but it worked well with the plot.
The quality continues. Pretty excited to see there are several books in this series. Mister Howie is somebody we all know. The quiet unassuming person that seems always to be able to straighten problems from big to small. He is that guy. I have finished several series and although in a different vein it is similar to Arisen. Not too much military but enough to make it interesting.
4 stars Excellent continuation. This part gets much darker and more gruesome. The main character has devolved massively and is going through some very dark emotions. As this is only day two I can't wait to see where his character goes next. It again made me question what I would do in this situation, how I would react and what my plan would be. I loved it. Day three here I come.
A great second book in what is looking to be an enjoyable series! This one revolves around Howie trying to get home but calls in at Tesco on the way and finds his mate, Dave who's an ex squaddie and killing machine. Howie loses it with a chainsaw which was very enjoyable and I really liked the gangster bloke in the strip club, it was very well written! Looking forward to number 3.
If zombie post apocalyptic fiction can be easy reading then this is it. It's the characters that really make this book. They are believable (I think I went to uni with some of them), likeable and funny. Off to read the next one
The story returned to Howie's workplace and there is plenty of blood and gore to follow. I'm enjoying the books so far, quick and easy reads for the zombie fan.
Read this whilst waiting for next novel in the series. Sets the scene for later in the series. If like me you are a fan of apocalypse novels can recommend reading the whole series so far.