The "New Weird."





I read Monster Island, and I really enjoyed it. It tells about a man named Dekalb, who has to go on a suicide mission in order to be reunited with his daughter. He is assigned to a group of soldiers, which are girls who range in ages eighteen to thirteen. However, they are not normal soldiers because they are trained in the art of killing the Undead. Yep, Zombies.

The setting takes place in a world that is ravaged by a horrible epidemic that brings the dead back to life. When they reanimate themselves they are not what you would call friendly. They come back with a hunger that cannot be sated by what we call food. The undead crave the life force that is found in human flesh. They will do whatever they can to try and quench their bloodlust.

Dekalb and the girls are assigned a mission to find Antiretrovirals(Drugs to help fight HIV), to try and save a woman known as Mama Halima. She is a Warlord who is in charge of keeping Somalia free of the epidemic. In exchange for the drugs, Dekalb's daughter will receive education,  food, shelter, and safety from the dying world. This is why Dekalb is so desperate and willing to do this mission. He just wants to get back to his daughter.

This is where Gary comes in. He is Undead, but he is not like the others. He wasn't bitten or infected by the epidemic. He made himself into one of the undead by using his knowledge as a premed student. Dekalb and the girls come across Gary and decide to take him with them. This might be the key to their survival.

The "New Weird" is something that isn't quite common. Gary is the new weird in this book. Never before in any of the zombie books that I have read was there a talking and smart zombie. Gary is considered the "Smartest dead man in the world." This is why it is so different from the usual zombie books. Gary is able to think for himself and try to ignore his hunger and control the living dead!?...

The idea of "New Weird" is to combine something irrational with rational. It is to in my opinion try to lead you astray from your usual thoughts about certain things. In this book I constantly went back and forth with trying to define Horror from the Supernatural.

All in all I like the aspect of second guessing how the book plays out in the end. The New Weird definitely piques my interest and I think this will steadily start to change the Horror genre.