Dust by Joan Frances Turner
Dec. 2nd, 2012 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The Blurb On The Back:
Nine years ago, Jessie had a family.
Now, she has a gang.
Nine years ago, Jessie was a vegetarian.
Now, she eats fresh meat.
Nine years ago, Jessie was in a car crash.
She died.
Nine years ago, Jessie was human.
Now, she’s not.
After she was buried, Jessie awoke. She tore the earth and arose, reborn, a zombie. Her gang is the Fly-by-Nights. They roam the dark places humans have learned to avoid. She’s in love with Joe, a maggot-ingested corpse. They fight, hunt and dance together as one – something humans can never understand.
But now, Jessie and the Fly-by-Nights see new creatures in the woods; things neither human nor zombie. A strange new illness is causing the undead to become more alive and the living to teeter on the brink of death.
As bits and pieces of the truth fall around Jessie, like the flesh off her bones, she’ll have to choose between looking away or staring down the madness – and hanging on to everything she calls life …
Nine years ago, Jessie was in a fatal car crash and reanimated as a zombie. Zombies have always hunted the living and their numbers have swelled by the time of Jessie’s death. She discovers that rather than being mindless killers intent on flesh, they retain their memories and band together in gangs to protect themselves against the few remaining humans and other zombies.
Jessie’s in the Fly-by-Nights. Her boyfriend, Joe, wants to protect her from their bullying leader, Teresa, but who ultimately lacks the courage to do so. Times are tough for the gang. With the dead outnumbering the living, food is getting scarce and when Jessie loses her arm in a hunt, her ability to fight is severely hampered. Worse, a new sickness is beginning to cutting through the dead. It affects their ability to eat, leaving them weak and more vulnerable to attacks from other zombies. When the disease hits the Fly-by-Nights, Jessie finds that everything she holds dear is at risk, even her own life …
Joan Frances Turner has created a clever and thoughtful take on zombie mythology in a horror novel with strong themes of life, friendship and regret.
Jessie has a strong first person voice. Resurrected aged of 15, it’s only in death that she comes of age, finding love, learning the value of friendship and questioning her leaders. This works particularly well in her relationship with Joe, who takes her under his wing and shows her the ropes and while they love each other, she slowly becomes aware of his weaknesses and particularly his cowardice when put under threat. I also enjoyed her relationship with Fabian, a zombie who was alive during the American Civil War and who serves as something of a mentor to her, keeping alive zombie traditions and history.
The zombie mythology is carefully constructed and I enjoyed the social structures that Turner creates – particularly the focus on violence, their need to hunt and the competition that exists between different gangs. The sickness storyline was less satisfying for me, mainly because the way it tacked in with Jessie’s family felt both contrived and telegraphed but also because the additional theme of transformation didn’t resonate with me.
All in all, this was a satisfying zombie read that should appeal to anyone who also enjoyed WARM BODIES by Isaac Marion, given its approach to zombie development and organisation.
The Verdict:
Joan Frances Turner has created a clever and thoughtful take on zombie mythology in a horror novel with strong themes of life, friendship and regret. I thought that it was a satisfying read that reminded me of WARM BODIES by Isaac Marion, given its approach to zombie development and organization, albeit that Turner’s approach to zombie evolution didn’t convince me or work successfully as a theme.
Thanks to Penguin for the free copy of this book.
Now, she has a gang.
Nine years ago, Jessie was a vegetarian.
Now, she eats fresh meat.
Nine years ago, Jessie was in a car crash.
She died.
Nine years ago, Jessie was human.
Now, she’s not.
After she was buried, Jessie awoke. She tore the earth and arose, reborn, a zombie. Her gang is the Fly-by-Nights. They roam the dark places humans have learned to avoid. She’s in love with Joe, a maggot-ingested corpse. They fight, hunt and dance together as one – something humans can never understand.
But now, Jessie and the Fly-by-Nights see new creatures in the woods; things neither human nor zombie. A strange new illness is causing the undead to become more alive and the living to teeter on the brink of death.
As bits and pieces of the truth fall around Jessie, like the flesh off her bones, she’ll have to choose between looking away or staring down the madness – and hanging on to everything she calls life …
Nine years ago, Jessie was in a fatal car crash and reanimated as a zombie. Zombies have always hunted the living and their numbers have swelled by the time of Jessie’s death. She discovers that rather than being mindless killers intent on flesh, they retain their memories and band together in gangs to protect themselves against the few remaining humans and other zombies.
Jessie’s in the Fly-by-Nights. Her boyfriend, Joe, wants to protect her from their bullying leader, Teresa, but who ultimately lacks the courage to do so. Times are tough for the gang. With the dead outnumbering the living, food is getting scarce and when Jessie loses her arm in a hunt, her ability to fight is severely hampered. Worse, a new sickness is beginning to cutting through the dead. It affects their ability to eat, leaving them weak and more vulnerable to attacks from other zombies. When the disease hits the Fly-by-Nights, Jessie finds that everything she holds dear is at risk, even her own life …
Joan Frances Turner has created a clever and thoughtful take on zombie mythology in a horror novel with strong themes of life, friendship and regret.
Jessie has a strong first person voice. Resurrected aged of 15, it’s only in death that she comes of age, finding love, learning the value of friendship and questioning her leaders. This works particularly well in her relationship with Joe, who takes her under his wing and shows her the ropes and while they love each other, she slowly becomes aware of his weaknesses and particularly his cowardice when put under threat. I also enjoyed her relationship with Fabian, a zombie who was alive during the American Civil War and who serves as something of a mentor to her, keeping alive zombie traditions and history.
The zombie mythology is carefully constructed and I enjoyed the social structures that Turner creates – particularly the focus on violence, their need to hunt and the competition that exists between different gangs. The sickness storyline was less satisfying for me, mainly because the way it tacked in with Jessie’s family felt both contrived and telegraphed but also because the additional theme of transformation didn’t resonate with me.
All in all, this was a satisfying zombie read that should appeal to anyone who also enjoyed WARM BODIES by Isaac Marion, given its approach to zombie development and organisation.
The Verdict:
Joan Frances Turner has created a clever and thoughtful take on zombie mythology in a horror novel with strong themes of life, friendship and regret. I thought that it was a satisfying read that reminded me of WARM BODIES by Isaac Marion, given its approach to zombie development and organization, albeit that Turner’s approach to zombie evolution didn’t convince me or work successfully as a theme.
Thanks to Penguin for the free copy of this book.