Book Review: Ex-Purgatory by Peter Clines

Ex-Purgatory by Peter Clines (Broadway Books)

Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy

Series: Book 4 of Ex-Heroes

Publication Date: January 14, 2014

Author Information: Website

Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

It’s an age of trilogies we live in, so you can’t really blame me when at first I thought Ex-Communication was going to be the end of the Ex-Heroes series. Thank goodness it was not. I was so happy when I finished reading that and found out about Ex-Purgatory, because I don’t think I’m ready to say good bye to this superheroes vs. zombies fest quite yet.

Ex-Purgatory was…strange, though. Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact I’ve been following this series since the beginning, I was thrown for a loop as soon as I started the first page. St. George is now just George Bailey, working as a janitor on a university campus. No super strength, no invulnerability, no flying. No fire-breathing, no nothing! Seriously, I was like, is this like a prequel or something? A flashback? What’s going on?

Well, there’s a reason why the book description is so vague. The story’s sort of a surprise, though a reader who remembers some of the events and characters from the previous books would probably figure it out quite quickly. I’ll just put it this way: you know how when you sit down to watch a Star Trek: The Next Generation marathon and like a Holodeck episode comes on you just immediately know it’s going to be weird? It’s sort of like that.

Fans of movies like Inception or shows like Lost will probably really enjoy this one. And that’s what puzzles me — I normally go nuts over stuff like that and thrive on high levels of weirdness especially when it comes to books like this; I wouldn’t have such a love for this series in the first place if I didn’t. Still, I wasn’t as on board with the story as I’d hoped. Something just felt missing here, and I think it has to do with superpowers and the zombies taking a backseat while the main conflict shifted internally to focus on the heroes trying to figure out what was going on instead.

I still really enjoyed the book; it has a lot of the things I really like about this series, including the action and clever dynamics between all the characters. I’ve always loved how Peter Clines writes about his ensemble casts, the way he gives each person a unique identity and attitude for speaking. It does make for some very entertaining scenes. Take complete polar opposite personalities like Karen Quilt AKA Stealth and Barry Burke AKA Zzzap, for example, throw them into a conversation together and watch the fur fly and dialogue flow. The satirical take on superhero archetypes still also makes me chuckle.

As for the main plot, methinks how it’ll be received will depend on the invidual reader. I think it’s slightly darker in tone than the last three books, and Clines was definitely out to try something a little different with the whole idea behind this story. Others will probably love it, even if I personally wasn’t completely sold (though, I still think I should have been. And I still feel somewhat like a wet blanket that that wasn’t the case). I just love these heroes and their powers so much, and to read about how all of them have forgotten who they are for so much of the book just feels…too odd!

Don’t get me wrong, this was nevertheless very good. Yes, it’s different but whether it’s a welcome or unwelcome change, you’ll just have to read it and be the judge of it yourself!