1) "Patient Zero" by Jonathan Maberry
A dark, chilling and funny thriller about zombies from Maberry (Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead, 2008, etc.).
Joe Ledger, a Baltimore cop on leave after killing a suspected terrorist during a raid on a warehouse, just wanted to spend a day girl-watching at the beach. So when four FBI agents corner him as he’s getting into his car and take him on a mandatory ride in their black SUV, he’s a little miffed, especially since he’s about to leave the department and join their ranks at Quantico. But any negative emotion he feels about being snatched up is soon dwarfed by what goes through his head when Mr. Church, head of the top secret Department of Military Sciences, locks him in a room a short time later and forces him to kill the very same terrorist he shot to death less than a week before. The whole thing is a recruiting test, and after Joe, an Army veteran and martial-arts expert, dispatches the terrorist—again—without hesitation, Church invites him to join the DMS, a government organization created to battle threats that fall outside the purview of other government organizations. Threats from zombie terrorists, for instance. Soon, Joe is leading a tactical team, as he and the rest of the DMS try to stop terrorist El Mujahid, his mad-scientist bride Amirah and Sebastian Gualt, their wealthy Western backer, from unleashing a plague that turns regular people, soldiers and terrorists alike into bloodthirsty, infectious zombies. The book is as fun and funny as it is chilling and thrill-packed. Joe is a fantastic character, full of compassion, real vulnerabilities and a deliciously dark sense of humor.
An immensely entertaining package.
2) "Allison Hewitt Is Trapped" by Madeleine Roux
A fierce young bookseller blogs the zombie apocalypse in this debut novel from Wisconsin resident Roux.
The author brings a neat concept to her tale about the end of the world—but ironically fails to land the ending. The book’s heroine, Allison Hewitt, is involved in a terrifying scenario. “They are coming and I don’t think we will ever get out,” she blogs. “If you’re reading this, please call the police. Call them now; call the cops if there are any cops left to call. Tell them to come find me.” We soon learn that Allison and her crew are trapped in the back room of a Wisconsin bookstore, while the undead roam the aisles outside. It’s not worth introducing her compatriots because, like in all good stories of the damned, most of them aren’t long for the world. What are worth mentioning are the comments left by other survivors around the world on Allison’s blog. They run the gamut from terror (“I can only hope that someone else will save my boy”) to snark (“Go easy on the crazy pills?”) to courage in the face of jeopardy (“Allison knows a thing or two about hopelessness. Listen to her and me, don’t give up man. Fight the good fight”). There are some early moments of unnerving humor—during a run for supplies at the bookstore’s entrance, Allison can’t resist grabbing a little light reading—but things soon turn much darker, and her lighter side rarely surfaces during her long, circuitous journey. Between axe-wielding skirmishes, she follows the trail of her mother and flirts with a romance with a married survivor. But along the way, she also discovers the horrible capabilities of men without law.
A treat for lovers of groaners and roamers with neither enough gore nor pathos to keep casual readers engaged.
3) "This Is Not A Test" by Courtney Summers
A girl wants to commit suicide, but she’s caught in the zombie apocalypse with a group that’s trying to survive in this intriguing psychological thriller.
It takes some artistic guts to set a portrayal of a suicidal teenager amid attacking zombies, but Summers has a history of risky choices (Fall for Anything, 2010, etc.). Sloane was left trapped in her severely abusive home when her older sister, Lily, escaped. When the zombies attack, Sloane joins a group of her fellow students who take refuge in their high school, a building built almost like a prison. They barricade the doors and live off food from the cafeteria and water stored on the roof. Yet, although the zombie threat keeps tension high, Summers' focus remains on Sloane and the group of teens hiding in the school. The teen suffers from the betrayal she feels from Lily, while the others jockey for dominance and squabble over perceived ills done to them by others in the group. As events proceed, the teens make real decisions about life and death, while Sloane looks toward a possible reunion with Lily. Readers never learn why zombies attacked; they are kept in the moment by Sloane's first-person, present-tense account. The focus stays on the personalities and on Sloane’s struggle with her emotions and her own decision to live or to die.
Unusual and absorbing. (Paranormal suspense. 12 & up)
4) "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" by Carrie Ryan
Book One of Three: The Dead-Tossed Waves and The Dark and Hallow Places
5) "Warm Bodies" by Isaac Marion
A jubilant story about two star-crossed lovers, one of them dead and hungry for more than love.
Debut novelist Marion hits the pulse of the Twilight crowd with this morbidly romantic look at how affection really feels when your heart beats no more. “I am dead, but it’s not so bad,” says our zombie narrator, by way of introduction. “I’ve learned to live with it. This is “R,” so named because it’s all he can remember. But this is no Team Edward sob story. R really is a zombie, carrying the pink brains of his victims back to his communal lair for a snack. But one day, R chomps down on Perry Kelvin, a teenager whose sole affection is for his girlfriend, Julie. R begins absorbing Perry’s memories, which in turn inspire him not to treat Julie like a bucket of KFC. And so the weirdest courting in the history of literature begins, as R and Julie spend time together prowling food courts and half-destroyed 747s. Julie, who could have been a simplistic mechanism to drive the book’s plot, turns out to be its most inspired character, inhabiting that odd space between fear and curiosity. “Maybe you’re not such a monster, Mr. Zombie,” she admits at one point. “I mean, anyone who appreciates a good beer is halfway okay in my book.” R begins to change, redeveloping his ability to communicate, and noticing a physical transformation to accompany his emotional awakening. But the path of true love never runs smooth, and the unlikely duo soon find themselves caught between R’s ravenous companions and Julie’s soldier father.
Originally self-published, this DIY success story is already slated for a film adaptation, making these quixotic lovers the grateful dead indeed.
6) "Rot & Ruin" by Jonathan Maberry
Book One of Five: Dust & Decay, Flesh & Bone, Fire & Ash, and Bits & Pieces
7) "World War Z" by Max Brooks
An “oral history” of the global war the evil brain-chewers came within a hair of winning.
Zombies are among us—turn on your television if you don’t believe it. But, Brooks reassures us in this all-too-realistic novel, even today, human fighters are hunting down the leftovers, and we’re winning. Brooks (The Zombie Survival Guide, not reviewed) seeds his mockumentary with smart nods to the chains of cause and effect that spring from today’s headlines. Like the avian flu, one CIA agent tells the interviewer, the zombie plague began in China, whose government embarked on a campaign of “health and safety” sweeps (“Instead of lying about the sweeps themselves, they just lied about what they were sweeping for”) to contain the endless armies of the moaning, walking dead. It didn’t work. Ear to the ground, Israel quarantined itself—it helped that it had that tall new wall. Greece, Japan, England: Every center of world civilization was overrun, with notable pockets of resistance. In England, for example, the queen stayed in Windsor Castle, the most easily defended bastion in the realm, to steel the hearts of her subjects. Who says the royal family is a relic? Finally, the zombies come to North America, where, after the disastrous Battle of Yonkers, the humans regroup and take their pound of extremely icky flesh in vengeance; even Michael Stipe, the antiwar rock singer, signs up to kick zombie butt. Brooks’s iron-jaw narrative is studded with practical advice on what to do when the zombies come, as they surely will. For one thing, check to see who doesn’t blink (“Maybe because they don’t have as much bodily fluid they can’t keep using it to coat the eyes”), aim for the head and blast away.
A literate, ironic, strangely tasty treat for fans of 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, The Last Man on Earth and other treasures of the zombie/counterzombie genre.
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