Review-Contaminated

I was looking at upcoming releases on the Barnes & Nobel website and I stumbled across this book, so I looked at the summary and decided it sounded good.  I shared it with another blogger friend of mine who has very similar taste in books and she found that it was up on netgalley, so of course I requested it.  First, I'm not really sure about the cover, because the only thing it really shows is that it's a zombie book, which, in actuality it isn't.  In the book there are zombie-like people, but it's not a virus, it's caused by prions (proteins that eat away at the brain, like Mad Cow Disease) and the people who contract it did so because of a contaminated drink that was supposed to help you lose weight.  They are still very much alive, they just have no control over their rage or what is socially unacceptable, so they sometimes eat people.  They also still feel pain.  Some of them have been taken back by their families with special collars, like shock collars on dogs.  This is where we meet our main character, when she finds her mom in a kennel full of contaminated people, and the story goes from there.  Being a huge fan of zombie books I was excited to see what Garner brought to the table, and in the end I was very pleased.  One thing that always bugged me about zombie books/movies was that no one was immune, but with this type of problem it's not a matter of being immune, it's a matter of were you exposed or not.  The author had a logical reason for what happened, and the truth is things like this do happen.  Mad Cow Disease is real, and it's possible what happened in the book could happen in real life.  The characters were all really strong personality wise, and the author did a great job at creating a world filled with chaos.  I was really pleased with the book as a whole, and with the ending that leaves some things open I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel so I can find out what happens next.  Although not really horror-y/gory it was a good book and I would recommend it to zombie fans and those who have weaker stomachs but still enjoy a bit of thrill and mindless shuffling.

Out July 23, 2013

4.5/5 dust spirits

*Thanks to Egmont for providing me with the e-galley in return for an honest review