Book Review: Monster Island by David Wellington

This book was recommended to me by Amazon as I bought my copy of World War Z by Max Brooks. It is the first in a trilogy of zombie novels, starting with Monster Island, then continuing with Monster Nation and ending with Monster Planet. The reviews for the book were very positive so I thought I would give it a go. To be fair to David Wellington, he has handled the zombies well in this book. The story, as you might expect, is the end of civilisation brought about by the dead rising again and devouring anything living they can find. The western world, soft and unprepared, is practically destroyed while Africa manages to carve out some sort of existence. A group of female teenage soldiers travel to New York by boat on a mission for their leader, only to be thwarted by the millions of undead residents swarming the city. Wellington's research isn't as meticulous as Brook's and there were times where I felt it weakened the plot slightly. The boat trip from Somalia to New York, wisely, is not mentioned, but the lack of detail seemed to apply an ease which I doubt such a journey could be accomplished with given the circumstances. His writing style and framing devices for the novel did at times clunk along and he failed to explore some of the interesting ideas presented in his tale to my satisfaction. Saying that, there are elements of this novel that still creep me out thinking about them and I applaud him for taking a more spiritual rather than scientific approach to the epidemic. A good read for fans of zombie horror, but be prepared to get nightmares after reading this before bed. 7/10