Review: One of the best short stories I've read this year
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 9, 2012
"Flesh & Blood" is one of the very best short stories I have read -- in any genre, in any format, by any writer -- this year. Maybe last year, too.The story opens with a heartbreaking scene and goes on to break your heart again and again. This is a coming-of-age story wrapped in a zombie/horror yarn, and it works on every level.The characters are fully alive, except perhaps when they are the walking dead, and you care about them and their fates. Jessie (the narrator of the story) grows up in ways and at a speed no boy should have to. Sarah and Pa, the other major characters in the story, are complete individuals.And as his Pa says, "Gotta take care of your own, boy." Jessie does.I almost never give 5-star reviews because there's always something that pulls me out of the story just a little. This one is just about perfect.Even if you think you'd never want to read a mere "zombie apocalypse foolishness," give this one a try.