Review: Highly recommended
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 18, 2011
Wow, wow, wow. This book blew me away. When Joshua contacted me and asked for a review, I said that Zombie novels weren't really my kind of thing, but I said I'd look at it, anyway. One of the reviews he showed me said the novel had heart and that appealed to me. But this book doesn't just have heart, it has soul, it has meaning, it's thought provoking and it's deeply moving.The blurb says..When Georgina Fulci's plane crashes into the Atlantic, her troubles have just begun.Desperate to get home to her family, Georgina and a handful of survivors must find a way to escape an uncharted island... while fighting off hordes of the living dead.Mercy isn't just another horror story with Zombies.  It's real people, fighting a real life problem (that just happens to be zombies) and dealing with the very real kind of issues that would come up for this particular group of characters that band together from chance, or is it, as Leroy would suggest, design. The story is written as journal entries, told in a simple down to earth voice that tells the facts without embellishing the gruesome details and even manages some tongue in cheek humour. There's no melodrama and the story is more powerful because of it. Yes, nasty things happen, but the overall feel of the book is richly heartwarming because of who Georgina is and how she tells the story.Joshua Patterson weaves the stories of the supporting cast into the story of the unfolding events, so we can follow their individual inner journeys as the story progresses. When you're stranded on an island, after you've dealt with the animated rotting corpses that are trying to eat you, and picked your daily does of berries and nuts, there's plenty of time for contemplation on the meaningful issues that arise when the world as you know it has crumbled.  The character's reflections on their lives and their thought processes around the decisions they have to make give the book it's depth.I think the best thing about this book, and the really clever thing, is how each of the main characters becomes `noble' (a hero/heroine) in their own way and in the end find a positive place in a severely altered world. The seeds of their `nobility' are there in them at the beginning, but it's the dire situation that brings it out and makes them stronger and richer.I can't fault this book, and if you read my reviews regularly, you'll know that's a rare thing. I cried at the end, not because it was sad, (it wasn't) but because it was deeply moving. I recommend it for everyone.