andy wolverton

 


For the longest time I couldn't figure out the title's reference, then I finally stumbled across it reading the New Testament. (It's from Matthew 13:39, if you're interested.) You can make sense of the novel without the context of Matthew, but I recommend that you read both Matthew and Bell's novel. Bell (whose name is actually Joshua Gaylord, a high school English teacher in NYC) has given us sort of a Southern gothic zombie novel, but probably not the one you're expecting. Fifteen-year-old Temple has grown up in the post-apocalyptic South and has never known a time when zombies did not roam the land. She knows how to deal with them and how to take care of herself. After an unfortunate encounter with a non-zombie, Temple is on the run from a man who's out to kill her, a man who is not a zombie, but just as deadly. Maybe deadlier. Make that definitely deadlier.   

The Reapers Are the Angels is part Faulkner, part Cormac McCarthy's The Road, part The Walking Dead. The novel is very good, but not great. I don't know if it resonated with me because I am a Southerner or because I like zombie tales  (or both), but this is definitely a book I'd revisit. It's more "literary" than I'd originally expected, but that's actually a welcome surprise. Bell is not a Southerner and his Southern voice sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. I don't think, though, that he's going for authenticity as much as he's trying to create a mythos, which he does quite well. Recommended.

Last Week's Progress:

School is taking its toll, but I'm still getting a few books read, a few miles run and a few pages written.

Writing: 3.5 hours; Total for 2011: 20.75 hours

Books Read: 2 novels (including the one mentioned above), 1 graphic novel; Total for 2011: 13

Miles Run: 6; Total for 2011: 28