Sunday, August 28, 2011

Frail-Joan Frances Turner

Frail
Joan Frances Turner
Ace, Oct 4 2011, $24.95
ISBN: 9780441020706

Zombie was always a part of the population, but unless there was a significant outbreak, normal humans assumed these creatures were a George Romero Pittsburgh myth. These reanimated corpses exist filled with maggots and rotting leaking flesh. One bite of a living human changes the victim into a zombie.

The Feeding Plague turned America to Dust changing humans and zombies into something else. Amy is one of the humans in post-apocalyptic America who did not catch the Feeding Plague. In fact in her small-town, Amy is the only pure Frail human left. She befriends an Ex, Lisa, who like all of her species is invulnerable; as the Ex populace is stronger, faster, and deadlier than the two groups they evolved from. The pair is kidnapped and taken to a community run by Exs who enslave the Frail. Lisa protects and constantly saves Amy from the masters until she is brought to a scientific lab run by an Ex. There she learns about the Frails and Humans, a place where both groups are treated equally.

Frail is an incredible horror thriller that contains plenty of post-apocalyptic action while also asking what makes a sentient being human as readers will consider Descartes: “I think therefore I am.” and Sartre’s “I am, therefore I think.” Amy is a courageous human who is very afraid but uses her fears to escape from essences who want to harm her. Her relationship with Lisa affirms that diverse beings can become friends. Joan Frances Turner provides a tense thriller that readers will devour.

Harriet Klausner

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