Review: Another action-packed zombie apocalypse novel from David Wellington.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 6, 2012
Plague Zone, by David Wellington, begins with Tim, a librarian, at an American Library Association's annual conference in Chicago. During the conference an extraordinarily virulent plague that turns people into flesh-eating zombies began spreading throughout the country. Despite the efforts of the military and other authorities to evacuate people from infected areas, only a small portion of the people in infected areas can be saved. Tim happens to see a TV news report about Seattle, his home town, which was ground zero for the plague. Incredibly, in the report he sees a video of his wife and his young son being attacked by a zombie who Tim recognizes as a former person from his neighborhood. Of course Tim is overwhelmed with grief, but he also becomes obsessed with vengeance and manages to make his way back to Seattle to seek revenge on the former person who killed his family. Now ... as a retired librarian who worked in academic libraries for over 33 years, I know that librarians tend to be knowledgeable and resourceful about a lot of things. I also know that librarians tend to be very strong and assertive people, although most people probably don't realize that. However, the protagonist of this zombie-apocalypse novel is a badass, tenacious, vengeance-seeker that should illicit both admiration and revulsion from all librarians and everyone else. Tim battles with totally dysfunctional infrastructures, the US Military, and hoards of ruthless zombies to get back to his neighborhood in Seattle, where he gets some help from a renegade gang to try to pursue his vendetta. Wellington is an accomplished writer in the horror genre and has published more than 15 novels. His zombie series, (Monster Island, Monster Nation, and Monster Planet) and his vampire series (13 Bullets, 99 Coffins, Vampire Zero and 32 Fangs) are exceedingly popular. Plague Zone provides lots of frantic action, suspense, and savage attacks by hoards of ruthless zombies. In addition, it also provides an interesting protagonist who is driven by revenge. It's a fun read for those of us who can suspend logic and realism to appreciate that tragic and bizarre events bring desperate people to extreme behaviors.