Monster Island

5 out of 5

Okay, I may be a sucker for anything zombie, but this book only got better the more I read it. It sometimes takes me awhile to get the feel of a new author and though I would say Monster Island started out a solid B, it rapidly developed, leading me to read with increasing fury. It is written in first person by one character and in the third person of another character. (The protagonist telling his story and another person's story is a skill I have yet to master.)

Monster Island simultaneously follows the personal account of a living survivor and the experiences of what may be the smartest dead man alive(?) as they both find out what an invasion of the living dead means. The story goes from simple survival to the living versus the undead.

The story of the living is the redundant theme of endurance, but that's exactly what I seek these tales out for. I always wonder about the learning curve of these characters. I mean, haven't they ever seen a zombie movie? I don't think it took them too terribly long to figure out the old 'shoot 'em in the head' theory in this book. And this group of survivors had the added detriment of fighting an undead horde of varying and evolving consciousness.

The tangible concept of what it means to be the walking dead was primal and intriguing. An endless hunger, the restorative properties of eating living meat, needing to consume the life of something. Tasty, shiny life.

Without giving too much away, the author's reasoning for a zombie uprising and apocalypse was fueled by the zen koan that there is no real distinction between every thing; living or dead. That we are all the same singular being, divided into different bodies, or to be more specific - different nouns, really. The story took multiple unusual routes that I didn't expect and I really enjoyed this explanation of a collective consciousness. I mean, what does one cognizant zombie do when he discovers the ethereal thread linking him to the rest of the zombies?

The disgusting imagery of what it would be like to be one of the shambling, decaying horde did tug at my heartstrings. I'm sure I would rather be dead than one of the restless undead with such an insatiable need. And as I've said before, it's much harder to read through horror pictures. Unlike a movie, the unsavory details don't pass gratefully by with each blink. No. They linger on the page at the pace you read, making you squirm word by word.

The tempo wasn't the only thing that picked up through this book. I became invested in the welfare of multiple characters; both living and living-ish. Dark humor became more prevalent toward the end, making me chuckle a bit as I read. The style of writing even seemed to mature the further I went, keeping my attention invested in both the concept and the 'good guy's' memoir. Right down to the last line, "Please. Give me just one more minute."

I sincerely look forward to Monster Nation and Monster Planet.