Review: My First Taste of a Great New Author
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 30, 2011
Could there possibly be a worse place in which to find yourself when the dead decide to rise than a body farm? These reanimated corpses aren't your stereotypical slow, shambling, semi-sentient creatures found in the majority of zombie fiction, either. They're fast, the more-newly-dead retain a dangerous amount of cognitive ability and memory (how to open a door, for example), and the group as a whole seems to have some sort of hive mentality, enabling a flow of information and cooperation.Uh-oh!The Body Farm also provides a solid scientific basis for the cause of reanimation, something that is rarely done in the genre. ("We don't know how it happened, and don't have time to worry about it, what with fighting for our lives and all," being the norm.) This "novelette" is just over 10,000 words, giving more depth and dimension than a shorter work, and could easily read as the first few chapters of a full novel set in this world, though I don't know that Marissa plans any such project. (Marissa... hint, hint!)In a comment on my post about romantic elements in the horror genre, she claims to write "romantic horror," a practice I endorse wholeheartedly. I loved The Body Farm, and will now begin reading my way through the rest of Marissa's books and stories.