An engaging tale of the walking dead and the likely start of a smashing series.
In this debut novel, Texans fight to stay alive in the wake of an undead apocalypse.
After dead people start attacking the living, Bill McGuire plans to flee Fort Worth as quickly as he can. But after Bill saves Kim Leeds from her undead fiance, the two have no choice but to retreat to his apartment. Both want to check on relatives: Bill’s family is in New Jersey, and Kim has a sister at Bright Well University, which, according to the radio (their only news source), is one of the nearby safe havens. Bill convinces Kim to stay put, at least until the horde of undead outside his apartment abates. Over at the John Peter Smith Hospital’s psych ward, Grace is a patient who wisely absconds from an onslaught of the biting dead. She arms herself with a claw hammer and takes refuge at a seemingly abandoned house. Though she prefers the isolation, Grace must contend with the living and the dead as well as occasional voices. Bill and Kim likewise run into a fair share of fellow survivors, most of whom are rather contemptible or outright lethal. This may soon include Curtis Mintzer, who heads a cultish group that believes the undead uprising is a divine punishment called the Great Retribution. Holed up in a local high school, “congregation” members occasionally go out to scavenge supplies while some search for escape from Curtis’ group. All the while, the dead continue to roam with an insatiable appetite that threatens Texas—and possibly the entire world.
Redmond’s diverting novel checks off several genre staples. Bill and Kim, for example, spend a good deal of time fortifying his apartment and go days or weeks without seeing other living beings. And some humans prove just as deadly as the undead, if not worse. But though myriad characters populate the narrative, the author astutely spends the first half concentrating on Bill, Kim, and Grace. Their two stories aptly dramatize the characters’ increasing desperation as apartment complexes and houses, which initially seem like the safest places, eventually become hubs for violence and death. Bill and Kim are appealing leads who are generally surrounded by copious indisputable villains. Grace, in contrast, is gleefully complicated: She’s strong and capable, but readers ultimately learn that her residence at a psych ward was for a good reason. Redmond provides distinction among the bands of survivors, namely by how they refer to the undead. Curtis’ followers declare them “heathens” while Grace calls them “slayers,” after the media-dubbed killer the Night Slayer—and no one uses the z-word. Concise descriptions keep the story moving at a steady clip even when characters stay in one location for prolonged periods. At the same time, the author strays a bit from the traditional walking dead scenario with an added supernatural component, though it’s primarily ambiguous. This aspect is something a potential sequel could explore along with other elements, from a few surprises at the end to characters who remain a mystery.
An engaging tale of the walking dead and the likely start of a smashing series. (author’s note)Pub Date: May 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73320-160-5
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Bowker
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Perplexing yet satisfying: If time moves in a circle, is a linear narrative possible?
In a world where humanity has almost been wiped out, a teenage girl and her dog set out on a mysterious and potentially foolhardy journey.
Nico and her parents survived the flu spread by ravenous Flu-flies by retreating to an isolated farmhouse, where they lived on supplies brought by the Deliverer. Then Nico’s mother fell ill and died. When it seems that her father will succumb as well, he tells her that a beloved story from her childhood is actually true and that she must travel to see for herself a certain geological anomaly. Nico sets out into woods she has only ever viewed from her window, quickly learning of the darkness that exists outside—as well as the beauty. As her journey continues, she meets others, including Kit, a serious 12-year-old. They all sense that they have been here before—that perhaps time runs in a loop. In this near-future setting, social constructs of our present day influence the story in a way that is well executed and resonant. Strange and off-kilter, this is not a simple post-apocalyptic novel but instead a quiet, philosophical exploration of humanity with a touch of science fiction around the edges. Defying strict genre categories, Arnold leaves readers wondering and unbalanced until the final page. Nico and Kit are White; other characters are Black and Jordanian.
Perplexing yet satisfying: If time moves in a circle, is a linear narrative possible? (Post-apocalyptic. 13-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-20222-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A meditation on a dystopian future that maintains a careful balance between social satire and purposeful provocation.
After the apocalypse, two former Hollywood pals find themselves at odds with one another.
Lethem is an odd duck on the best of days, so it’s no wonder his new novel imagines the end of the world through a peculiar lens. After his Big Lebowski–esque version of noir in The Feral Detective (2018), here he takes on the end of the world in a strange amalgamation of 1970s disaster movie, '80s yuppie comedy, and seemingly whatever else came out of the kitchen sink. The lead here is Alexander “Sandy” Duplessis, who, in the wake of a major disaster called the Arrest that wiped out (gasp!) television and then eventually the internet and all contemporary communications, became essentially a modern version of David Brin’s The Postman (1985), here called Journeyman. Our guy divides his time between making deliveries and studying under the local butcher. The Journeyman got stuck in rural New England when everything went to hell, visiting his sister Maddy’s farm in what seems to have become a feudal community in Maine. Things go sideways when Sandy’s old Yale roommate and Hollywood writing partner Peter Todbaum turns up in a nuclear “supercar” called The Blue Streak—modeled on the vehicle out of the old '70s post-apocalyptic movie Damnation Alley—that can apparently tunnel underground and operate underwater, among other things. The backstory is that the two men were working on a project in Hollywood (“Todbaum the bullshitter, Journeyman the hands on the keyboard”). But then something uncomfortable happened between Todbaum and Journeyman’s sister. Lethem is certainly capable of having gone full-on Cormac McCarthy here, but instead this is pretty much a sly play on post-apocalyptic fantasies, with the operative word being play. Superminimalist writing, short chapters, interstitial images from the Journeyman’s scrapbook, and Lethem’s unusual perspective make for odd bedfellows, but it’s a decent distraction from the real world right now.
A meditation on a dystopian future that maintains a careful balance between social satire and purposeful provocation.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-293878-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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