“In 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda—and he begins to move. The family hides the child—whom they name Stony—rather than turn him over to authorities that would destroy him. Against all scientific reason, the undead boy begins to grow. For years his adoptive mother and sisters manage to keep his existence a secret—until one terrifying night when Stony is forced to run and he learns that he is not the only living dead boy left in the world.”
As I continue to read Daryl Gregory books, one learns he is a very clever man who can balance darkness with macabre humor. They’re also wickedly entertaining, fast paced and often heartfelt. Of course, your mileage may vary when coming to Raising Stony Mayhall, a tale of zombies in a current marketplace where this genre is rampant.
Gregory skillfully takes the themes and ideas presented in the film Night of the Living Dead, which is played out like a “documentary” film instead of a fictional film, as fact and spins out a generational tale of what happened after those few dark nights (it lasted all of 72 hours). It did make me wonder, as I read, if this was intentionally written as a sequel or some sort of spin-off, or just Gregory’s love of the film and decided to create this tale. I mean, though, the book starts in the same month as the film, it’s set in Pennsylvania where the outbreak originates and Stony’s biological Mom was from Evans City, PA, so who really knows the intention here.
There are rules Stony must live by on the farm where he grows up with his mother and three sisters. While he generally has no issues in that department, he always feels fear of being discovered, even as his sister Alice begins to study why Stony is what he is. There’s also Stony’s adorable friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Choi and their son Kwang, the Korean family who lives next door and who knows his secret. Kwang becomes his best friend and despite issues and new friendships at school, the boys are still very fond of each other.
For those tired of zombies to begin with, this book does try and offer something a bit different, if only because it seems Gregory realizes how limited the premise is to begin with. So he creates groups of different zombies that are still existing after the 1968 event (both free and captive by the American government), and gives them complex, yet familiar problems, thus becoming more than just mindless killing machines as depicted on TV and films (think of the 2012 film Warm Bodies and the TV series iZombie). So we see groups of the living dead who are in disagreement with each other. The issues dividing them include those who never want to turn another human, those who want to turn enough humans to prop up dwindling numbers, and those who want to start another full-scale uprising –AKA, the ‘Big Bite.’ So like the regular folks, the LD’s are having the most human of existential crises that are seemingly being denied them: wanting to choose their own fates.
So, yeah, the premise is a few steps above what others are doing and is a bit deeper. The question raised here is can the living stop fleeing for just a moment and ponder the notion that maybe not all of the undead are monsters? It's an interesting thought, especially when you consider Stony’s ability to grow, to learn, and to not decay brings evidence of that fact. Gregory’s attempt to show us “monsters” who are thoughtful and reflective makes Raising Stony Mayhall less a horror novel and more a deconstructed look into the genre itself, even as you ponder the writers favorite theme of what happens when you alter the human condition, but set against the everyday, sometimes predictably mundane aspects of everyday human existence.
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