Zombies!

Monster Island by David Wellington is the first zombie literature I've ever read and surprisingly it wasn't bad at all. The online novel is a light read but keeps you on your toes. David Wellington knows how to capture the reader and feed us the right visuals. My favorite character is Gary the medical student; he is a nice refreshing twist to stereotype zombies. In epidemic like this, you either become the zombie or it's food. Gary's solution to this problem was to become a zombie with freewill still intact. He manages to do so by submerging himself in a tub filled with ice water and equipping himself with a respirator, pumping oxygen to his brain while his body dies and undergoes the process of becoming a zombie. Wellington describes the world's end from a zombie's point of view and what drives them and how they feel. Usually when it comes to the topic of zombies, you see the survivors' stand point, struggling to fight off the persistent undead and losing loved ones. In Monster Island, you get the chance to see both sides, the living and undead. Wellington gives you insight on Gary's thoughts, his struggles and temptations.

My favorite visual David Wellington conveys is when Dekalb and his shipmates enter one of New York's bay, they run into heaps of bodies dumped in the water. David Wellington describes it “...there had been to many dead for even the sea to accept” (chapter 6). In natural science, all life comes from the sea. The infection has mutated life so extensively, the sea wont accept the copious quantities of unnatural creatures. Another funny addition to Monster Island is the army consisting of young girls in school uniforms swinging around AK-47. Reminds me of a ridiculous video game Onichanbara, which is about two sisters slaying zombies. The army of girls fill the sex icon quota of a typical story formula. Zombies in relation to today's world represents society hunger for mass media and products. The mass market is highly infectious and spreads instantaneously. Survivors in zombie flicks reflects the rebels doing everything they can withstand it, but eventually give in. David Wellington feeds our hunger for zombies with a breezy and concise style.