Monster Island

Monster Island is a pretty good zombie novel, again a new take on an old and well established theme. Zombies are difficult to write about, holding an aural and visual appeal that is tough to recreate through narrative. They hold a special place in the heart of the public and the fact that zombie films have played host to a renaissance of sorts in the past few years, it appears as though there is an overall cultural understanding that plays host to exactly what a zombie is and what makes up the character of a zombie, and it is this all encompassing understanding that is worked well in this book. The image of this post apocalyptic world is rendered very well and is in many cases very realistic in depicting the nature and state of the world following the zed scourge. 

The novel takes place many months after the wave of undead began their assault on humanity, which has almost entirely been obliterated. The story is told from varied perspectives around the actions of Dekalb, a man pulling into New York City Harbor, hoping to find AIDS medicine in order to save his daughter, being held as a sort of ransom for the medicine. It is when they encounter an intelligent and free thinking zombie that the plot truly thickens and gets interesting, and it is this element that separates the book from any zombie narrative I've encountered. This novel goes beyond the image of an undead plague and delves into an alternate reality of self awareness as a zombie, and what it's like to live among the zed while maintaining complete conscience and intelligence. For me, that is the true horror of this novel, the tale of a man who must cope with a hunger he cannot truly control, trapped within a cruel and torturous existence.