Revivalist Trilogy

Working Stiff (Revivalist -1) by Rachel Caine — Working Stiff (Revivalist #1) by Rachel Caine

Revivalist series by Rachel Caine.

Genres and Sub-Genres[]

Urban Fantasy / SciFy UF / Conspiracy Thriller / Military-SciFi UF Thriller

Series Description or Overview[]

✥ What if death could be cured by a drug? What if you needed that drug every day ... or death would reclaim you? It’s not hypothetical to Bryn Davis. It’s her so-called life. ~ Goodreads | Revivalist series

✥ Bryn Davis knows working at Fairview Mortuary isn't the most glamorous career choice, but at least it offers stable employment—until she discovers her bosses using a drug that resurrects the clientele as part of an extortion racket. Now, Bryn faces being terminated—literally, and with extreme prejudice. With the help of corporate double-agent Patrick McCallister, Bryn has a chance to take down the bigger problem—pharmaceutical company Pharmadene, which treats death as the ultimate corporate loyalty program. She'd better do it fast, before she becomes a zombie slave—a real working stiff. She'd be better off dead. ~ Goodreads | Working Stiff (Revivalist, #1)

Lead's Species[]

Zombie experiment

Primary Supe[]

Zombies

What Sets it Apart[]

not your usual zombie series

Narrative Type and Narrators[]

Third Person narrative mainly from Bryn Davis's perspective.

Books in Series[]

Revivalist Trilogy:

Working Stiff (2011)
Two Weeks' Notice (2012)
Terminated (2013)

World Building[]

Setting[]

San Diego — primary setting

Places:

Fairview Mortuary: caters to the wealthy citizens of San Diego—Mr. Fairview is the owner and Byrn's new boss—Byrn Davis starts her first day as a funeral director there at the beginning of the book...

Supernatural Elements[]

✥ Sentient Zombies, Zombie-making, weird science, zombie-making drug, spy craft, sinister pharmaceutical companies, mad scientist;

Glossary:[]

Returné: a new drug which releases nanites into their bodies that repair illnesses and injuries, making the "dead" person immortal—must receive a shot of Returné each and every day or they will deteriorate into rotting death—creates addicts dependent on it to live and for the rest of their lives.
Revived Person: person brought back to life by Returné; if anyone says the words "Condition Sapphire" or "Condition Diamond" to a revived person, that person must do exactly what is commanded of them.
Sapphire and Diamond protocols: words spoken by another person to a Revived Person followed by a command that subvert the will and allow the Revived Person to be controlled.
Nanites: key ingredient to Returné that revives deadpeople; originally developed by Pharmadene. Newly upgraded nanites were developed by the Fountain Group. Bryn and Riley were unwillingly turned into unstoppable forces who cannot be killed and give them a fierce craving for meat and blood. The nanites are infectious. Every thirty days they compel their carriers to infect someone.

Groups & Organizations:[]

Pharmadene: giant evil pharmaceutical company that makes Returné, a drug that reanimates the dead with nanobot technology—equipped with a huge military-spy force.
Fountain Group: corporate entity backed by a rogue military element within the U.S. government. Developed upgraded nanites—they plan to create an unkillable army.

WORLD[]

✥ Focuses on zombies. These zombies, however, are not the shambling, moaning physical wrecks we traditionally see in movies and TV shows like The Walking Dead. Instead, these dead people are revived completely by a new drug called Returné, which releases nanites into their bodies that repair illnesses and injuries, making the "dead" person, for all intents and purposes, immortal. There's just one tiny catch: Each revived person must receive a shot of Returné each and every day, ad infinitum, or he or she will go straight into gruesome deterioration followed by rotting death. Predictably, the company that created the drug—Pharmadene—is rotten to the core. ~ Fang-tastic Fiction: Rachel Caine: REVIVALIST TRILOGY

Protagonist[]

✥ The series heroine is Bryn Davis, and as Working Stiff opens she is starting her first day as a funeral director at Fairview Mortuary, which caters to the wealthy citizens of San Diego. By the end of that day, Bryn has been murdered, revived with a shot of Returné, and spirited away to a hospital room at Pharmadene, the mega-pharmaceutical company responsible for developing Returné. Apparently, someone within Pharmadene has been selling Returné to Bryn's boss at the mortuary and he, in turn, has been black-marketing the drug to any of his wealthy clients who have enough money to cheat death. Pharmadene wants Bryn to return to the mortuary as its new owner so that she can work undercover to try to set up a meeting with the person who was supplying her former boss with the illicit Returné. As part of the deal, Pharmadene guarantees Bryn that she will receive a shot of Returné every day so that she can stay alive, at least as long as she is useful to Pharmadene. The shots will be given by her two handlers: Joe Fideli and Patrick McCallister. Joe is a friendly, happily married man with kids, and Patrick is an aloof, moody, enigma. Guess which one is Bryn's love interest? ~ Fang-tastic Fiction: Rachel Caine: REVIVALIST TRILOGY

✥ Beautiful, strong, silent and incredibly stubborn. She is caught in an impossible situation, and while she does get overwhelmed by fear and acts foolishly from time to time, she never whines.

Sidekick[]

Name: / What: / Sidekick-to: / About: / Book First Seen:

Characters Chart[]

Characters	What	About
Bryn Davis	funeral director	Former military
Patrick McCallister	corporate double-agent, human	one of two of handlers that gives Byrn her shots; aloof, moody, enigma; Bryn’s love interest;
Joe Fideli	Pharmadene agent;	one of two of handlers that gives Byrn her shots; friendly, happily married man with kids, her bodyguard in #2;
Annie, Annalie	Brynn's sister	missing; in the hands of Mercer, the former Pharmadene executive;
Mr. Fairview	funeral home owner	owner of the funeral home; Brynn's boss;
Irene Harte	director at Pharmadine
Manny Glickman	paranoid eccentric scientist	Patrick's friend; altered Bryn's Returné formula to filter out the protocols
Riley Block	morgue employee; FBI ringer	works in the morgue at Fairview Funeral Home; Brynn's nemesis;
Mercer	main scientist, Pharmadene executive	created Returne; selling Returné on the black market; took Annie, Brynn's sister;
Freddy, aka "Fast" Freddy	former morgue worker	at Fairview Funeral Home;
Lucy	receptionist	at Fairview Funeral Home;
Kyle		Brynn's brother who is in jail
Mr. Garcia	Funeral Director	preceded Brynn as director;
Tate	Brynn's brother	who is in the military
Liam	estate manager;
Jane	Fountain Group leader	Patrick's psychotic ex-wife; infected by the upgraded nanites; leads a mercenary army; out to kill Byrn and her team;

To expand the table, in Edit–Visual mode, right-press on a Row of the table or Column (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add Row or Column.

Author[]

Rachel Caine

Website: Rachel Caine - NYT and USA Bestselling Author
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult UF
Other Pen Names: Roxanne Longstreet, Roxanne Conrad, Julie Fortune, Ian Hammell

Bio: Rachel has written in the adult Urban Fantasy genre (the Weather Warden, Outcast Season, Revivalist and Red Letter Days series) as well as in Young Adult fiction (the Morganville Vampires series and the upcoming novel Prince of Shadows). She is the author of more than forty novels and many short stories, and is regular featured in anthology collections. Rachel attended high school in El Paso, Texas at Socorro High School, and graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in accounting. She has been a professional musician in several orchestras, run payroll for one of the largest cheerleading organizations in North America, worked as a graphic designer and web designer, and finished up her tour of the corporate world as Director of Corporate Communications for a large international company. She has been a full time writer since 2009. ~ About Rachel Caine

Cover Artist[]

Artist: Christina Griffiths — Christina Griffiths - Summary Bibliography

~ Source: Bibliography: Cover: Working Stiff

Publishing Information[]

Publisher: Roc
Author/Book Page:

Working Stiff: Paperback, 471 pages, Pub: Aug 2nd 2011, ISBN: 0451464133
Two Weeks' Notice: Paperback, 304 pages, Pub: Aug 7th 2012—ISBN: 0451464621
Terminated: Paperback, 304 pages, Pub: Aug 6th 2013—ISBN: 0451465156

Book Cover Blurbs[]

✤ BOOK ONE BLURB—Working Stiff (2011): Bryn Davis knows working at Fairview Mortuary isn't the most glamorous career choice, but at least it offers stable employment—until she discovers her bosses using a drug that resurrects the clientele as part of an extortion racket. Now, Bryn faces being terminated--literally, and with extreme prejudice. Wit the help of corporate double-agent Patrick McCallister, Bryn has a chance to take down the bigger problem—pharmaceutical company Pharmadene, which treats death as the ultimate corporate loyalty program. She'd better do it fast, before she becomes a zombie slave—a real working stiff. She'd be better off dead. ~ Goodreads | Working Stiff (Revivalist, #1)

✤ BOOK TWO BLURB—Two Weeks' Notice (2012): In New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine’s “thrilling”* Revivalist series, Bryn Davis finds out that making a living can be rough if you’re already dead… After dying and being revived with the experimental drug Returne, Bryn Davis is theoretically free to live her unlife—with regular doses to keep her going. But Bryn knows that the government has every intention of keeping a tight lid on Pharmadene’s life-altering discovery, no matter the cost. Thankfully, some things have changed for the better; her job at the rechristened Davis Funeral Home is keeping her busy and her fragile romance with Patrick McCallister is blossoming—thanks in part to their combined efforts in forming a support group for Returne addicts. But when some of the group members suddenly disappear, Bryn wonders if the government is methodically removing a threat to their security, or if some unknown enemy has decided to run the zombies into the ground. ~Goodreads | Terminated (Revivalist, #3)

✤ BOOK THREE BLURB—Terminated (2013): In New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine’s latest Revivalist novel, Bryn Davis’s problems quickly turn from dead to worse… Already addicted to the pharmaceutical drug that keeps her body from decomposing, Bryn has to stop a secretive group of rich and powerful investors from eliminating the existing Returné addicts altogether. To ensure their plan to launch a new, military-grade strain of nanotech, the investors’ undead assassin—who just happens to be the ex-wife of Bryn’s lover Patrick—is on the hunt for anyone that stands in their way. And while Bryn’s allies aren’t about to go down without a fight, the secret she’s been keeping threatens to put those closest to her in even more danger. Poised to become a monster that her own side—and her own lover—will have to trap and kill, Bryn needs to find the cure to have any hope of preserving the lives of her friends, and her own dwindling humanity. ~ Goodreads | Two Weeks' Notice (Revivalist, #2)

First Sentences[]

Working Stiff (2011) — Bryn’s first embalming instructor had told her, straight up, that two kinds of people entered the death business: freaks and true believers.
Two Weeks' Notice (2012) — It was a perfect day for a funeral.
Terminated (2013) — The real problem with becoming a monster, Byrn though, was that you didn't know who to trust.

Quotes[]

Rachel Caine Quotes (Author of Glass Houses) ~ Goodreads
- Working Stiff Quotes by Rachel Caine
- Two Weeks' Notice Quotes by Rachel Caine
Revivalist Series ~ Shelfari

"You are unbelievable."

There went that tiny little smile again, tight and controlled, meaning nothing. "I do date, Bryn. Occasionally."

She bet he did it on a schedule. 1900 to 2100 hours, dinner. 2100 to 2115, drive the girl home. 2115 to 2130, sex. 2135, shower, kiss good-bye. 2140, drive home.

"I don't date jackasses," she said. "Just so we're clear."

Read Alikes (similar elements)[]

Zombies:

Evil Corporations

Mad Scientists

Addicts & Supe Drugs

See Category links at bottome of the page.

Awards[]

Trivia[]

Notes[]

"I had attended a couple of lectures from some guys who were doing nanotechnology....One of the things they were talking about was how to use nanotechnology to heal damaged cells. From that, I had this idea: What if you gave somebody an injection that would literally fix their physical damage? Would that reverse death. I thought it would be an interesting way to kick off a series."

"I feel like horror is a necessary outlet for people....So many awful things happen in the real world every day that we can't control and sometimes can't even understand. But in fiction, we're able to make those awful things controllable and understandable."

~ Author — Fang-tastic Fiction: Rachel Caine: REVIVALIST TRILOGY