Zombies Served Fresh

Book Review

POSITIVE by David Wellington

✪✪✪✪½  out of 5 Stars

Release Date:                      April 2015

Author’s Website:               David Wellington's Website

Publisher’s Website:         Harper Collins

My thoughts

   Not a zombie fan? Me neither. I enjoy Walking Dead, (not to the same degree as my teenage son), but then it isn’t about the zombies, is it? It’s about people surviving in a post-apocalyptic world, the politics and the break-down of society. The zombie killings are for the fun of it, yes? So I wasn’t thinking, yay, David Wellington's Positive is the book for me. It has Zombies in the blurb.

   However, it was the book for me. Wellington has cleverly put a new spin on an overstuffed genre. There’s heart in Positive, solid characters, and a storyline that doesn’t dawdle along examining all the minutiae which bogs down some of these post-apocalyptic stories. It’s the book Walking Dead viewers should read when they still want zombies, but need a fresh take. The only thing I didn’t love about the book was that it ended. I didn’t want to leave the characters or the Positive world behind.

   Positive drops us into Manhattan, where society has a certain normality about it now the zombie apocalypse is into its second generation of survivors This younger generation know nothing else except this world of struggling survival. When their parents tell them it was better in our day, it absolutely is the truth. Within Manhattan, they are fairly safe, although this zombie virus can sometimes gestate for up to twenty-one years. If you are unfortunate enough to be born to someone who suddenly turns zombie, like our protagonist Finn, whose mother goes Zombie, you are tattooed with a positive sign and segregated from the population until the expiration of the incubation period.

   Finn, meant to be delivered to a camp in another state to wait out his time, has his transport ambushed. He is left alone to survive in the treacherous territory outside the safety of Manhattan.  In order to stay alive, he must throw his lot in with scavengers and various people who have adapted to the constant threat of death. It’s a road trip of epic adventure and drama, as Finn realizes zombies may not be the worst enemies he must face.

   Wellington is an accomplished writer with a great story to tell in the ilk of The Passage, The Road, and even Stephen King’s The Stand. For all those zombie and horror snobs, jump in to this novel and get your reading hands bloodied, so to speak. You may be surprised how enjoyable the genre is when you’re in the hands of a talented writer. I still may not be a zombie fan, but I’m now firmly a David Wellington fan.

I received a copy of this book from Harper Collins for an honest review. Thank you to the wonderful book-loving people there.  More about this book at: Positive

BOOK BLURB

    In the bestselling vein of Guillermo Del Toro and Justin Cronin, the acclaimed author of Chimera and The Hydra Protocol delivers his spectacular breakout novel—an entertaining page-turning zombie epic that is sure to become a classic.

   Anyone can be positive . . .

   The tattooed plus sign on Finnegan's hand marks him as a Positive. At any time, the zombie virus could explode in his body, turning him from a rational human into a ravenous monster. His only chance of a normal life is to survive the last two years of the potential incubation period. If he reaches his twenty-first birthday without an incident, he'll be cleared.

   Until then, Finn must go to a special facility for positives, segregated from society to keep the healthy population safe. But when the military caravan transporting him is attacked, Finn becomes separated. To make it to safety, he must embark on a perilous cross-country journey across an America transformed—a dark and dangerous land populated with heroes, villains, madmen, and hordes of zombies. And though the zombies are everywhere, Finn discovers that the real danger may be his fellow humans.

   Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome meets World War Z and I Am Legend in this thrilling tale that has it all: a compelling story, great characters, and explosive action, making Positive the ultimate zombie novel of our time.

About the author:

David Wellington is an author of horror, fantasy, and thriller novels. His zombie novels “Monster Island”, “Monster Nation” and “Monster Planet”(Thunder’s Mouth Press) form a complete trilogy. He has also written a series of vampire novels including “Thirteen Bullets”, “Ninety-Nine Coffins”, “Vampire Zero”, “Twenty-Three Hours”, and “32 Fangs”. His werewolf series comprises “Frostbite” and “Overwinter”, known in the UK as “Cursed” and “Ravaged”. In 2004 he began serializing his horror fiction online, posting short chapters of a novel three times a week on a friend’s blog. Response to the project was so great that in 2004 Thunder’s Mouth Press approached Mr. Wellington about publishing “Monster Island” as a print book. His novels have been featured in Rue Morgue, Fangoria, and the New York Times.

Author’s Website: http://www.davidwellington.net

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