It's time for the great White hope of the apocalypse Michael Talbot to have a showdown with Eliza, the vampire set on killing him for some reason. Why is this incredibly strong vampire fixated on Talbot to exclusion of all else? Oh I know, because Talbot is a special white snowflake.
In The End, Tommy, Talbot's mystical guide surrendered himself to Eliza in the hope of saving Talbot and his family. Now that Tommy is with his long lost sister, he seems to be playing his own game. Tomas is stronger than Eliza and though he claims that there is nothing left of Tommy in him, Tomas is not adverse to keeping Talbot in the game for some reason.
Keeping Talbot in the game and alternately praising him his really what this book is about. After knowing Talbot for five minutes, people are ready to just join Talbot's quest to save his friends, risking their lives. B.T. constantly points out what a great leader Talbot is and never tires of pointing out that Talbot saved his life. B.T. declares, "By your crazy ass husband's side is where I want to live of die?"All I can ask is why? Talbot is even less competent then Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead.
The End Has Come and Gone, continues on with it's puerile comedy. There are times when I simply cannot believe that a grown man is responsible for unleashing this utter nonsense on this world. There are entire pages dedicated to the quality of stink a dog fart contains. Pages of characters rolling down windows because the family pooched farted. There are various scenes involving copious amounts of vomit. With a series this dark, it makes sense that comic relief is desirable so I don't understand why Tufo included this nonsense instead.
The End Has Come has the distinction of being the least offensive books of this series so far. Don't celebrate yet folks because The End Has Come and Gone did include some trademark fat shaming.
It was shooting out of his mouth and his ass. I could see his trousers stained in crap and blood. I just thought the fat bastard was getting sick from running around all over the place. Most exercise he probably ever got was when he squatted on the shitter and made a toilet baby. Somebody thought to call an ambulance, but hell, we were forty minutes out of town, it was going to be a wait. (pg 129-130)
By now, it's not secret to readers of the series that Tufo is not fan of fat people. He seems to love to interject some fat hatred in each book.
In terms of race, B.T. is still alive and kicking and unfortunately one big walking trope. When B.T. isn't propping Talbot up, we are constantly reminded that B.T. is a large Black man who naturally is super strong. "He's big and black and walking this way." The End Has Come and Gone also continues the trend of B.T. being subjected to racial slurs and racist taunts. "I'm not going to tell you again, NIGGER, get your ass on the pavement." (pg. 60) When these incidents happen, B.T. always responds but it's telling that not a single White character ever comes to his defense. Having a character of colour experience racism is realistic but not having any clear indicator that racism is wrong just perpetuates it. I am beginning of Tufo get a secret thrill from being able to include this stir because it is ubiquitous in this series.
There is also the Lakota tribe whose slaughter by the army is instigated by Eliza. Using Woo Woo to explain away near genocide and co-opting history in this manner is disgusting. If that were not enough, Tufo decides to include a religious ceremony lead by a medicine man to capture Eliza. NO, NO, NO, fucking No!
In terms of LGBT conclusion, with Jen, the only lesbian character gone, there is only erasure for the most part. Tufo does take care to reference Jen and of course, she is called the man hating lesbian. So very typical. Of course lesbians hate men. Why wouldn't they? They don't like dick. As horrible as erasure normally is, the treatment of Jen in previous books makes it a relief that Tufo has not included any further LGBT characters.
Tufo's Zombie Fallout series continues to cater to the lowest common denominator. For the life of me, I cannot understand how it continues to be such a highly rated series on Goodreads. It's enough to make me fear for humanity. I consider these reviews a public service announcement because they can warn some poor unsuspecting reading away from this monstrosity masquerading as a book. To date, there isn't a single thing redeemable about this series. It continues to get more puerile and more ridiculous and worse yet, it doesn't seem to have an end in sight. This was supposed to be a trilogy so I suppose Tufo decided that he hasn't polluted the world enough. Nothing good can come of reading this series. It is beyond an assault to the senses.
