Our local library has this thing called the “Don’t Judge a
Book by Its Cover” program. They take books, wrap them so as you can’t see them
and then they paste the first sentence of the book on top of the package. It’s
to encourage people to read and discover books and subjects that might be out
of their comfort zone or that folks might just overlook entirely.
My first sentence was as follows:
“Our story opens where countless stories have ended in the
last twenty-six years: with an idiot- in the case, my brother Shaun- deciding
it would be a good idea to go out and poke a zombie with a stick and to see
what happens.”
I thought the sentence was fully as hell and I was totally
intrigued. I like zombie comics, but I’m not really a fan of horror films or
fiction. I like horror comics too! But, deep down I am a wuss. But, the first
sentence was funny and I thought that I might just have the next Shaun of the
Dead in my hands. I was sorta right.
This book involves a
pair of twins named Georgia, our narrator and her brother- the idiot, named
Shaun. In this post zombie apocalyptic world, bloggers and online reporting has
replaced the traditional news. With the constant threat of outbreaks and
rampant fear, it makes sense that people writing about what they see out their
windows would become newsworthy. When the twins get hired to go on the road
with a up and coming Presidential candidate, the duo of reporters get more than
they bargained for, as their presence has just uncovered a massive conspiracy.
The book started off
a little slow. I got a little nervous, because the twins start off the book
poking a zombie with a stick and then fleeing from a horde of undead
Californians. My head was saying that this is a typical zombie work like the
multitude that’s flooded the market in recent years. Yet, my instincts said to
keep reading on and I am glad I did.
By the time the
siblings get home and have to undergo an unthinkable number of blood tests and
then a sterilizing ritual that doesn’t just kill the zombie virus, but just
about any bacteria good or bad on the human body, I’ve realized that author
Mira Grant just hasn’t written a book, she’s created an entire world. With the
history of the virus to how society survives in an oft isolated manner to the
new political system developed “after the end times”, it’s easy to see this as
a real possibility in the event of zombie devastation.
Look, I know zombies
aren’t real. But, this book made me realize that the zombie “virus” doesn’t just attack bodies once dead. This
microscopic bug that turns a corpse into the undead is in everybody. All living
beings over a certain weight are infected. It’s white blood cells that’s
keeping folks from turning into walking Petry dishes of hot death. I never
understood why someone alive could turn into a zombie if bitten. It’s because
the virus is in everyone and so a little extra germ causes a massive infection.
It’s like Typhoid
Mary, she was a walking germ factory, but she never got sick- she just made
people sick. But, I bet if she had been
injected by someone else’s typhoid cells, she would’ve shown symptoms as well. I
don’t think we’ll be fighting zombies any day now, but there are terrible
viruses and bacteria out their waiting to mutate and rear its ugly head and I
think if that kind of outbreak happens, we could be seeing quarantines scenes
like those out of a George Romero film.
I really loved the book. It did take a while to get going
and once it did, I couldn’t stop- literally like a live host being converted
after a bite! Yes, I cheated and had to read ahead a little as the suspense was
killing me. There are two more books in this series and I will be heading to my
library tomorrow to pick up the next book. I can even see this series becoming
a trilogy of films or maybe even a TV series on like SyFy. And I would watch
it! Faithfully!
Thank you, Orange County Public Library. You opened me up to
not just a great book, but to a brave new world that I wouldn’t want to live
in, but I definitely wouldn’t mind observing from afar.
Worth Consuming
Rating 8.5 out of 10 stars.
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