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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Ushers, INC by Rusty Fischer

Title: Ushers INC
Author: Rusty Fischer

Release Date: 22nd June 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:
When the streets are full of bloodsuckers, werewolves, zombies and ghouls, where will you turn? The cops don’t know how to stop them, the Army’s pretty much given up and even the Marines are stumped when their bullets and grenades fail to stop the onslaught.

Have no fear, Ushers, Inc. is here! Four high school movie ushers, who collectively have seen over 42,000 hours of B- and C-horror movies know just what to do.

Did you know copper pennies can stop a zombie in its tracks? Abby Cooper, Head Usher, does.
Did you know garlic paste is twice as effective on vampires as garlic cloves? Abby Cooper does.
Did you know werewolves are absolutely petrified of seeing a Hershey’s kiss? Abby Cooper does.

Unfortunately, the monsters aren’t too happy about four geeky ushers beating their butts all over creation. Now the League of Associated Undead (LAD) is converging on Cypress Cove, determined to stop Ushers, Inc. once and for all.

In A Nutshell:
If you like zombie, werewolf and vampire stories that still have the undead being bad, but with plenty of humour and sarcasm thrown in, then Ushers INC is for you.

My Review:
Ushers INC is the story of four relatively normal teenagers; Abby, Zach, Tracy and Cliff who all live together at the Meriwether Home for Wayward Boys and Girls (they are not actually wayward, just orphans). Outside of school hours, they spend every waking moment at Flickers Cinemas, where they not only work as ushers, but also spend hours upon hours watching B and C grade horror movies. The story is set in the future when the undead are known to exist and are allowed to roam the streets, but go pretty much unrecognised to the majority of humans, except when they choose to show their true nature (in the case of vampires) or are forced to (full moon for werewolves).

Our heroes are unwittingly thrown into the spotlight one night when a zombie uprising disrupts Theatre 6 and the four ushers use their collective knowledge from their favourite movies to stop the carnage from spilling out onto the streets. It just so happens that when the police were called, the reporters followed and managed to catch four normal teenagers taking out a bunch of zombies. In a split second decision, ever the opportunist Cliff, declares they are ‘Ushers INC’ and so their little monster fighting team is born.

There is all the usual highschool trouble such as the mean girls, hot boys, crush dramas and who is going to take who to the fall formal, but with that comes the hilarious situations that the ushers get themselves into and the unique ways they manage to pull themselves out of them!

Usher’s INC features lots of humour and sarcasm and a great bunch of friends that stick together, no matter what. There is also a cool female lead in Abby who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty if she has to and who somehow always has lady-luck on her side.

Rusty’s stories revolve around the undead, but with a new spin. The zombies still want to eat your brains, vamps will still suck you dry in the locker-room and werewolves are still going to rip you to shreds, but more often than not, they just want to get on with their lives, even if their true nature does get in the way some of the time!

Rusty Fischer is the author of countless short stories (my current favourite being Zombies Don't Sleep) and poems, as well as newly released novels Zombies Don't Cry and Ushers INC. Many of these are available to download for free on his website and I found that being able to read some of Rusty's work before buying was really helpful and I was left craving more.

I’ve really been quite taken by Rusty's tales of the undead. If I didn’t have so many books sitting on my shelf waiting to be reviewed, I would honestly love to curl up and devour every single one of Rusty’s stories (although I’ve already made quite a dent!). I love them, they’re like comfort food.


Buy Ushers INC on Amazon or Smashwords
Rusty’s website: Zombie’s Don’t Blog

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