Oh my god, guys; I'm pretty sure you all just made me cry. I had no clue whatsoever that my little zombie opus would ever garner such praise from such intelligent, friendly readers such as yourselves. I appreciate it more than you will ever know.
Wattsian, I am going to have to give Natalie a big kiss on the cheek the next time I see her for pushing the book so hard on her friends at GoodReads. I just signed up for an account myself and made a profile, but have been busy with school, the new book, message boards, and Amazon and haven't gotten around to pimping ESTE there yet. But thanks for the faith, and thank you so much for the Lovecraft comparison. I love his work, and you're the first to mention his influence on my novel.
And Jacob, I owe you a ton of thanks for your faith in the project, and for what Permuted is doing for the genre.
Hopefully the next novel will not disappoint. I don't think it will, though. I feel fairly confident about it.