September Zombies: Book Review of Dust by Joan Frances Turner

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September Zombies schedule

My thoughts:
Man, I really liked this book! If you like zombies, but you want more than just a bunch of mindless, animate objects staggering around on a hunt for brains, then this is the book for you.  Turner has concocted a zombie tale for the intelligent reader.  Her zombies are pretty close to human, except they eat raw flesh...animal and human.  The zombies (although they do not like to be called that) have formed gangs and they live like families--hunting, fighting, and dancing together.  But, like any family, when one person starts veering from the group and their behavior changes toward the group, the family unit starts to crumble.  I can't really say too much because I really don't want to give away the story.  It needs to be discovered and savored, as a zombie would savor the liver of a fresh kill.

Not only do we get a dynamic zombie tale here, but the author takes it a step further and asks us.  What could be worse than zombies?  And then she proceeds to masterfully invent that next horror for us.  Dust is not only a zombie horror story, but is also a dystopian, post-apocalyptic tale of caution.  When I think of the possibility of being the last humans (or what resembles human?) on earth, I certainly never envisioned this type of scenario.  If you haven't read this book, I have to strongly recommend that you do so soon.

Book description:
Nine years ago, Jessie had a family. Now, she has a gang.

Nine years ago, Jessie was a vegetarian. Now, she eats very fresh meat.

Nine years ago, Jessie was in a car crash and died. Nine years ago, Jessie was human.

Now, she’s not.

After she was buried, Jessie awoke and tore through the earth to arise, reborn, as a zombie. Jessie’s gang is the Fly-by-Nights. She loves the ancient, skeletal Florian and his memories of time gone by. She’s in love with Joe, a maggot-infested corpse. They fight, hunt, dance together as one—something humans can never understand. There are dark places humans have learned to avoid, lest they run into the zombie gangs.

But now, Jessie and the Fly-by-Nights have seen new creatures in the woods—things not human and not zombie. A strange new illness has flamed up out of nowhere, causing the undeads to become more alive and the living to exist 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 onto everything she has come to know as life…

Stop by over at vvb32 reads for my Zombie Apocalypse guest post.