Timberdark by Darren Charlton

Timberdark is the sequel to the amazing Wranglestone by Darren Charlton. At the end of Wranglestone, Peter and Copper uncovered the truth about Wranglestone, the place they had called home for years. Copper is now a Returned, someone whose live spans both world, the world of the living and the dead.

When the opportunity arises to move to a local town, Peter is excited. His dream to experience the old life that many people had abandoned decades ago is in reach but trouble starts to cloud his relationship with Cooper. Cooper is acting strange and when they encounter a hunter in Yellowstone while looking for more of the returned, secrets are exposed. What is Timberdark and why does Copper know about it?

Moving to West Wranglestone, Peter tries to embrace all that life has to offer in the newly inhabited town. He has his own place with Copper, he can go shopping at the supermarket instead of hunting for his food and he is making news friends (or at least trying to). Copper on the other hand doesn’t seem to be adjusting well. He begins to experience going into a trance and then there is the weird behaviour of slipping off into the woods at night. What is Copper up to?

I really enjoyed Timberdark. It is gritty and an amazing take on the whole zombie genre. Peter and Copper’s relationship grew in this story, in ways that you didn’t always want. The extra characters brought into the story really added to the richness of the world that Darren built, adding stories from people that had lived before and after the mass evacuations of the towns and cities. The running theme in the story of trust and being honest really hits home when you get to the final few pages. I was left feeling a sense of calm but sadness that this is the finale to the awesome Wrangle stone series.