Part of my RIP IX reading.
R is a zombie. He is not quite sure how long he’s been a zombie and he has no idea what he was before he was a zombie. He is content to be a zombie, with his zombie wife and zombie kids, and going out to hunt and eat. He, along with most other zombies, don’t really think about bigger things than that. But all that is about to change. Because one day, while out hunting, he comes across a girl, Julie, and instead of eating her he decides to protect her. He brings her back to the airport where the dead reside1 and keeps her safe. All the time dreaming about her ex-boyfriend, whose brains R just happened to devour.
This is a book that has been sitting on my “to be read” section of my trolley at work for almost a year now2 I wanted to read it for RIP VIII but it didn’t come in on time. So I held on to it.
It wasn’t worth the wait.
It isn’t a bad book. It just isn’t a particularly good one.
It kept me entertained on my train journey but it was never enthralling or gripping. It was meh3 and the ending was all a bit huh?! Show Spoiler ▼
I would have liked a bit more of the how and the why. Who and what were the “boneys” and why was R so different. But that wasn’t part of the story. The story was about what it is to be human, and so the scientific4 explanations didn’t really matter, I felt, for the author. It didn’t matter why, it only mattered that it was happening. Which okay, I could maybe have gone along with apart from the fact that all the other zombies were affected.
A good idea, but it just wasn’t backed up with enough story and character for me. There were hints there, so maybe it is a debut novel issue? but I wasn’t left with the feeling that I’d be rushing off to read more by Marion.
Buy or borrow
Other reviews : Life is story ; Ginny Writes (spoilers – hated it) ; Horror novel reviews (no spoilers – loved it)
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