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Monday, October 17, 2011

Where's My Bookmark: Dust by Joan Frances Turner

Oh, Monday! To come at the end of such a great weekend, I hope you don't turn out to be a real bummer.

We hit up Frightmare on Saturday night, something I've been saying we needed to do since last Halloween. It's huge -- it's a permanent building but the haunted house is only open in October (to the best of my knowledge). It's super elaborate with a ton of actors throughout -- and three separate sections.

We came home and watched part of the Stephen King marathon on AMC. Sunday, we picked pumpkins at Rock Creek Farms and went to see The Thing and then last night was the premiere of The Walking Dead. It was a super fantastic October weekend, if I do say so myself.

My read for the weekend was (is -- I've got less than 60 pages left) Joan Frances Turner's Dust, which I believe was the author's debut title. It caught attention for being from the zombie's perspective and it was only a matter of time before I got around to it. The sequel, Frail, hit shelves just recently.

In the book, Jessica was reborn the walking dead after a car accident that killed herself, her mother, and her father. Zombies are normal occurrences in Jessie's world, though no one knows exactly what started it. Rumor has it, and later evidence supports, that zombies have always been around, but that certain times saw increases in their appearance. This is one of those upswing times. Jessie gets in with a gang and life is a-ok until hoos (humans) start popping up in their territory, stinking like death and chemicals, but obviously still alive. When Jessie learns why, she realizes only the strongest can survive.

I struggled a bit with the beginning of the book. I can't lie. But it wasn't anything to do with Dust itself. I wasn't entirely sure I was in the mood to read a zombie book at the moment (was thinking maybe ghosts instead) and was considering setting it aside for later, until the whole NEW outbreak starts -- the chemical stench and human zombies. It only got better from there. I won't tell you any more about the plot, but if you like to make your own spoilers you can read the synopsis of Frail for a bit more info.

Be warned, Dust can be a little gross. Another reader had said that she couldn't eat while reading it, she was so grossed out. It's true, the story from a zombie's perspective does leave lots of room for icky and colorful descriptions. And it starts on page 1.

With about an hour left of reading to go on this one, I have to decide whether to move directly into Frail or hit the horror stack for another read. I usually like to space installments a bit, a quirk of mine, but I want to know where this one is headed. The temptation might be a little too big to overcome. We'll see!

Dust is book one of the Resurgam Trilogy. Frail, book two, is out now. Book three is in the works.

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