Ravenous Bookshelf

Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars

Jessie doesn't have much of a face left, she's missing a fair amount of skin, her feet are black and bloated, and today her right arm fell off.

But they caught the deer anyway, so that's okay.

Jessie loves her life. Or, afterlife, I guess. She's not even really sure what to call it -- zombie is a stupid hoo term that she'd never dream of using, but undead lacks a certain flair. Her gang is called the Fly-by-Nights, so that's as close as she needs to a definition. Better than the Rat Patrol, skulking around the cities and dragging out luckless hoos for a terrified snack.

No, Jessie likes in out in the country just fine. It's peaceful, there's no maniacs with flamethrowers to worry about, the deer's good, and she has her gang with her. She's even got Joe, who has always looked out for her, right from the day she clawed her way out of the coffin.

But now things are changing -- there's a strange stink in the air and hoos are showing up all blue-tinged and wrong looking, and oh Mighty Leader Teresa's sneaking off on her own, acting more paranoid than ever. Worst of all, Joe isn't talking to her about any of it.

This is another nifty twist on zombies to add to my 'I Don't Like Zombie Stuff, But...' collection (right along with Shaun of the Dead and Feed). We've got Zombies with Stories here -- Jessie and her gang have their own language (it's all 'barg arrrgh' to the humans), along with dreams, fears, relationships and petty feuds. And they kick the snot out of each other a lot.

Jessie's a great narrator - no nonsense, sarcastic and sharp, but pulling these crazy stupid stunts for her friends so you know she really cares. She's living the end of the world, and all she wants is to keep the gang together and find a quiet spot to decay in peace.

Poor, dead Jessie.

The main thing I didn't like about this book was its tendency to draw things out. The gore I could deal with (note: eating while reading is NOT recommended), but there were several Fraught Moments where I was halfway hoping for a napalm strike to just End It Already. Overall, the story pulls through, and the atmosphere was a lovely mix of despair, decay, and defiance.

So I'd recommend checking it out, if you have a steady constitution. Hey, if the zombies are gonna take over the world, you'll definitely want Jessie on your side.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Mary lives in a village surrounded by the Forest of Hands and Teeth, and every day she hears the moaning of the Unconsecrated outside the fences. Her life is limited and isolated, hemmed in by the iron rule of the Sisters and the constant reality of death -- and yet Mary dreams of the ocean and other impossible stories that her mother has passed down to her, memories of life before the Return.

Before the dead began to rise up and consume the living, creating the world of survival and fear that is all Mary has ever known. She is safe within the fences -- as safe as anyone can be -- but Mary hungers for more. When her world crumbles, she must fight to survive in the midst of horror, and faces the hardest choice of all: whether to give up her dreams or push forward into the darkness. Into the Forest.

This story has beautiful prose that quietly snakes around you, then winds in tightly and traps you in Mary's world. Understated yet compelling, showing a dark mirrorglass world of death and yes, zombies, but in a way that totally avoids the cheap flatness of a splatterfest horror film.

Because this isn't really a story about zombies (they are important with the killing and Infecting and all, sure) -- it's a story about longing and desire and emptiness and hope. And though Mary, Carrie Ryan actually makes it all interesting and challenging, because her protagonist is complex and believable (even if she tends to overshadow the other characters by comparison -- and btw, love triangles pretty much always suck). Mary is flawed and furious and she wants so much, and even the parallels of zombie living-flesh-hunger and human love-safety-spirit hunger don't feel clunky in this context.

Not an upper by any means, but a gorgeous read that will guarantee you'll never look at zombies the same way again.