SELECT * FROM uv_BookReviewRollup WHERE recordnum = 1592 Plague Town, by Dana Fredsti Book Review | SFReader.com

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Plague Town, by Dana Fredsti
Genre: Zombies
Publisher: Titan Books
Published: 2012
Review Posted: 9/18/2013
Reviewer Rating:
Reader Rating: Not Rated

Plague Town, by Dana Fredsti

Book Review by Michael D. Griffiths

Have you read this book?

The first thirty pages of Plague Town had me a little nervous. I had just read Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry and that was the best Zombie novel I had read to date. What had worried me was the, more emotion than action, paradigm that began the novel. For a moment, I thought I might have a zombie 'Twilight' in my hands, but this quickly turned around and failed to be an issue. Instead, Dana Fredsti steps up and delivers a hard hitting experience that any zombie apocalypse fan will love and most Speculative Fiction fans would enjoy.

The story centers around, Ashley, a former wild child that is finally getting around to starting college. Ashley is a spunky, of course extremely hot, and very funny woman. In fact, the book itself is pretty comic. Fredsti has a strong sense of humor, which stays consistent throughout the novel and is probably the factor that drives it all the way to a 4 star book for me.

Early in the book, Ashley is just about to get heavy with her boyfriend when they are set upon by zombies. Not only is her boyfriend killed, but Ashley is bit, an odd way to start a zombie novel, until we discover that Ashley is what the military is calling a "Wild Card." Wild Cards are people that have been bitten, but are immune to the plague. They can still be torn to shreds, but they could get zombie guts over inch of themselves with no risk of negative effects, other than say vomiting. And yeah, that happens to this odd miss-matched group of heroes quite often in this novel. The guts covering more so that the vomiting.

Ashley quickly joins the other Wild Cards to fight off the beginnings of a plague while many of the soldiers are falling ill. The Wild Cards are an odd team and great fuel for Fredsti's comic talents. Yet, once the area is quarantined and they start running low on soldiers, it quickly becomes a serious situation where everyone inside of the quarantine zone could perish.

Possible downsides of this novel could include that the Wild Cards get almost too quirky sometimes and are constantly cracking jokes when screaming in terror might be more likely. There is plenty of action, but a lot of it is implied and it left me feeling less concerned over the safety of the light-hearted Wild Cards. This changes at the end of the novel when things truly become life or death for everyone involved.

Ashley is a likable character and a fun heroine. I think both men and women would enjoy this work and I will certainly grab a copy of Ashley's second adventures. Fredsti makes a new twist on the genre with her use of Wild Cards, which allows the zombie hero to be a little more casual for the merest knick will not have them moaning and eating brains. This is a strong novel and perhaps more importantly an enjoyable read. It is a little easier to digest that some books, not a bad book for the beach or a vacation.
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