Gibbons remembers the walk to the execution chamber. He remembers the gathering of spectators: reporters, victims' families...all here to watch him die.  He remembers the doctor giving him the lethal injection and slowly losing consciousness. He remembers dying...So why is he now wide awake, struggling to get out of a body bag? 
Dr. Lee Hartnup is the town's only mortician, so he knows of a hush-hush secret: they're bringing one of the century's most notorious serial killers back here for burial. But that day when he goes in to prepare the corpse, there is no corpse. Homer Gibbons is sitting up, very much alive, scrutinizing his surroundings.  And then all of a sudden he lunges for Doc and takes a big bite out of his face.
And so it begins... This is the way the world ends.  Not with a bang…but a bite. 



You may know Maberry from his teen books Rot & Ruin and the recently released sequel Dust & Decay. And just like in those books, there is nothing hot, sizzling or romantic about the zombies in his latest adult offering either. You've got to read some of Maberry's first-rate descriptions of the living dead. The words assault all your five senses and you just want to touch your face to make sure everything's intact.
The book doesn't feel like a mere gore fest though, because you feel pretty connected to the characters that got thrust into this apocalyptic world. Dez, the dysfunctional (understatement) cop whom you don't want to mess with, Billy the reporter who will do anything for a piece of news, JT, Dez's partner and the father-figure, and Dr. Volker, who in his twisted sense of logic and justice created the zombies in the first place. Maberry also creates a whole background story as to why Gibbons is turned, and it will satisfy conspiracy lovers. I also like how we get the narration from Doc after he's been turned into a zombie. It adds a nice "insider" look.  There is a fair bit of swearing in this book, but given the circumstances, well, do you blame them?
And this chilling piece of horror fiction brings me to a TechCrunch blog post I read about a new app called Booktrack.  The app boasts to add a soundtrack (sound effects and ambient background music) to the book you're reading. In their promo video, it shows how as you're reading the word "nightclub", you'll hear a bunch of people chatting and mingling, like you would in a nightclub. Really?  You think readers seriously need that?  It's like those kids' toys. You just have to press one little button and it plays a whole minute of noises for you.  Umm... I think we're capable of doing that ourselves, thank you very much. I definitely had no trouble picturing Maberry's zombies, and in fact, wished that they weren't so burnt into my brain right now.


To be released in October 2011. Thanks for making this advanced copy available, St. Martin's Griffin, imprint of MacMillan, and thanks Netgalley.