The Uncivil Dead

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018]
451 p. ; 22 cm.

This really is a humdinger of a creative novel for YAs.  It's an alternative history, a thriller, and a zombie novel all rolled into one with a great heroine and lots of subtext (racism, walls to keep outsiders out, political corruption and lies, etc.) Could be right out of today's headlines instead of a few decades after the Civil War.  Oh, and this Civil War didn't end at Appomattox with the defeat of the Confederacy - it came to an uneasy end at Gettysburg when the dead on the battlefield got up and started eating the living.

That grisly twist did end the war and ended slavery (just like the real Civil War) but not racism (just like that real war again!) African Americans instead were freed to become fighters against the shamblers, Justina Ireland's great name for the zombies. That's just part of the story.  The engine of this novel (in addition to the unending hunger of the shamblers, is the resurgent attempts by white supremacists to reassert their power and control in the devastated landscape of  the US.  They achieve this with migration west, deception, corruption, harsh religion, and brutality.  Let's just say that Jane McKeene - the heroine of this tale - isn't just going to sit still and accept this.

I'm not the only one who liked this book.  It has received a lot of critical acclaim.  I'd say it's definitely a recommended read.     

Taste of Ashes

Ashes by Ilsa Bick
New York : Egmont USA, 2012.
465 p. ; 21 cm.

This book continues my trend of generally not being a big fan of zombie or zombie-type books.  I found it interesting enough, and readable - but I never got lost in the book, neither in the plot or in the characters.

Ashes, in a nutshell, tells the story of Alex, the teen protagonist who is recently orphaned and suffering from a terminal brain tumor when the novel begins.  She is out hiking in a remote area of Michigan when massive electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) sweep the planet - killing billions and essentially destroying modern civilization as we know it.  Additionally, the EMPs turned nearly all teens into vicious zombie-like hunters who are fast and smart.  For a good plot refresher, take a look at Bick's website where she recaps Ashes for those about to start in on book 2, Shadows.  

To me, the novel is essentially a teen adventure / romance / melodrama melded onto a post-apocalypse nightmare world with lots of danger, gruesomeness, and skin of the teeth getaways.  If you like that sort of thing, then I think you'll love Ashes.  If not, you'll be like me and think, "Ok, that was entertaining, but I don't think I'll read books 2 and 3."

A Ghastly Gift Worth Opening

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
New York, NY : Orbit, 2015.
438 p. ; 21 cm.

Maybe I'll become a fan of zombie novels yet, after reading this one.  It's a darn good read - creative, exciting, moving, well-plotted, and thoughtful - a real gift of a book.

I love a sci-fi book where the premise is somewhat believable - be it the moon getting pushed into a new orbit or a supervolcano blasting away out in Wyoming - there is something very unsettling about terrifying science fiction that has one foot in reality.  In The Girl with All the Gifts the zombie plague that is the setting for this novel was unleashed by a fungus that really does exist, and really does turn its victims into zombies (fortunately the victims currently are only ants).   So this novel has human zombies that are compelled to eat living humans, but - and here is where the author gets creative - some of the zombies are not full zombies; in fact, these semi-zombies are children who retain the full suite of human emotions, abilities and more (they just happen to also be compelled to eat living humans).

And so the novel opens by dropping the reader into a militarized research outpost where the pitiless Dr. Caldwell searches for a cure at the expense of the inmates of the outpost - the semi-zombie children who are being taught classes and kept more or less as prisoners.  Of course the novel would not be much of a thriller if things stayed at this stage, so inevitably the outpost is attacked, overrun, and only a handful of survivors tries to make their way back to one of the few cities where humans are safe from the zombies because of military protection and rule.  The trip back is an adventure.

However, what puts this novel above the usual zombie, survival, dystopian thriller story are the intense and deep relationships that develop between the survivors on the run - one of who happens to be the potentially dangerous little half-zombie girl, the one with "all the gifts."

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in an exciting thriller (especially a zombie thriller), but who also wants a layered, satisfying, and thought-provoking read.

Bellows and Shrieks

The End Games by T. Michael Martin
New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, [2013]
369 p. ; 22 cm.

If you have any doubts that The End Games has been well-received, check out the praise on T. Michael Martin's website - wow!  I wish I could say I loved this book. I guess I'm just not enough of a zombie fan to completely enjoy the book - though I did appreciate the quality of the writing.  That is a positive trend that I've noticed with many YA books - really top-notch writing across many subjects and genres.

I would agree with critics that the book is very imaginative.  I like how it draws on video-gaming language and knowledge in a way that is thoroughly integrated into the plot.  I also liked the unusual pairing of an older brother with a very young brother who has autism.  The plot device of two characters bound up in a survival/journey ordeal is well traveled (think Huck and Jim in Twain's masterpiece, the father and son of McCarthy's The Road, or the Alex and Darla in Mullin's Ashfall) and is well done here.   But for me, I found several key actions of the plot confusing and overwrought, certain characters almost cartoonish, and just too many actions where I had to suspend disbelief and just accept the improbability. I really found the deranged Capt. Jopek a bit much - his abilities with weapons makes him seem more superhuman than real.  I also just never felt the emotional pull I was supposed to feel with the main character's memories of his troubled homelife that existed before the zombie apocalypse.

But problems aside, the book is fast, exciting, dramatic, action packed, and written with striking and fresh language. It has some gory scenes, but rarely seems written for shock effect. The language is also amazingly free of obscenities, and there is a nice romance woven into the plot with a soft touch.  Not bad for a first novel.  So, if I have a student asking about a good zombie novel - I'll definitely send them looking for The End Games.

Oh, and "Bellow and Shrieks"? Bellows is the name that the main character, Michael, gives to the zombies.  Shrieks?  Well, you'll have to read the novel to figure out that reference.