"The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor" by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga

308 pages

Fans of "The Walking Dead" comic book series are familiar with the Governor, but what we don't know is how he became so evil. This novel gives us some insight into what made a man who lived a normal life before the zombie apocalypse become a monster after the world as we know it came to an end. The story begins days after the plague of the undead has broken out, and Philip Blake is leading his daughter, his brother, and two friends through the devastated state of Georgia in search of safety. What happens to him during the following weeks will ultimately turn him into the villain we know as the Governor.

As a big fan of the Walking Dead, I was really excited about this book. It disappointed me, though. I expected to learn more about the Governor before the undead began to walk, but there's not much of that. Although he experiences some horrifying things in the world of the undead, it seems unlikely to me that a normal person could become such a monster from this alone; I thought there'd be something from his past that would come up. There's a big twist at the end that I liked, although it too didn't really make sense. I hear that this is supposed to be the first book in a trilogy about the Governor, and I hope the rest of the series provides some more of the background and explanation that I'm looking for.