The book is delicious.
Seriously, it's the only way I can describe it. You savour every tense minute of reading it. It's delectable, it's exquisite, it's JUST. SO. GOOD.
Summary:
The zombie apocalypse has happened.
I know, old news, right? Well, here's the thing. It's not like all the (entertaining, but frankly) stupid zombie movies you see being cranked out all the time these days. It's not like that because it uses the apocalypse as a backdrop, not the main event. The book could pretty much be set at any time period where apocalyptic-type things are happening, and it would be just as engaging and wonderful. Certainly, the zombie apocalypse presents a few interesting features to be explored, but again, it doesn't take over the plot.
So, if that's not the main event, then what is?
Well, amid the zombie infested wasteland left behind after everyone either died or found the Safe Zone, two brothers wander around, also looking for the Safe Zone. One is Michael, seventeen years old, and the other is Patrick, five years old, both total gamer nerd guys. Michael is eternally protecting his little brother. And everything after that much information is pretty much a spoiler. There are that many twists in the book.
So, if you don't want the spoilers, stop reading here, and just know that the book is utterly fantastic and wonderful and don't even think take time to think about reading it, just read it because it is just so utterly worth it.
Are the spoiler-less people gone? Good. Full spoilers ahead.
So, Patrick has some kind of special needs. It's never fully explained what sort of special needs that is, we just know that he's been to the mental hospital a few times and needs pills to calm himself down and stuff like that. We soon discover from Michael's memories that if Patrick gets too upset, he will Freak. Freaking involves harming himself, and then basically going comatose. It happened once before, and it was a miracle that he ever came back from that. So, when the apocalypse happens, Michael is very worried that it'll happen to his brother again, so he basically tells his brother that it's all a game. Like a video game. Which means that nothing can actually hurt them, so there's no reason for Patrick to get too upset. And once they get to the end (the Safe Zone) and find their mother, then the game will be over.
Sound screwed up? Maybe a little. But remember, Patrick is a five year old boy who wants to believe this, and Michael isn't doing it for the laughs, he's doing it to protect his brother.
It's also slowly revealed through their memories that Michael and Patrick come from an abusive home, where their step-father would hit their mother and eventually, hit Michael. That's how the first Freak came about - Patrick saw his father (Michael's step-father, Patrick's father) hit his mother. This seems like kind of a soap opera-y thing to throw in there, but it's executed so beautifully, where they reveal it slowly, until you're suspicious, until you're absolutely certain, and by that point it makes perfect sense to reveal it, because parallels are drawn between Michael's step-father and Captain Jopek, the soldier who saved them and brought them to the Safe Zone, which, whoops, isn't actually all that safe. THEN it's slowly revealed that the parallels drawn between Jopek and his step-father are actually kind of invalid, given that his step-father was, from what we can glean from the text (we only ever meet him briefly, in a flashback), basically just mindless mean muscle. Jopek, on the other hand, is crazy and murderous, but very skilled and very cunning.
Which makes Captain Jopek an absolutely delicious character. He changes his persona at the drop of a hat, and can be heroic and then terribly villainous and the truth is that he can do this because he's just totally insane. I've read and reread the chapter where he has Michael handcuffed and is "interrogating" him, and it's just so fascinating and great and, as Michael would say, yes-yes.
Actually, every character in this book is wonderful. They're layered and complex and yeah, I'll say it again, delicious. That is literally the best word to describe this book, as a whole. Michael is a character who lies his way through most of the story, but you can tell that he's trying so hard to be a good person. Patrick, young as he may be, is never ever shown to be stupid, just naive and innocent, which I appreciated, especially since he was special needs. Jopek is such a great character to read about just in general, and Holly, Hank and Bobbie are interesting and good as well in their own ways (while they last..... mwahaha).
But mostly, the book is just so clever. There are so many things in the book that I've never seen in relation to the genre before, but that make so much sense and are so plausible. Like, the Rapture. A group of people that believe the zombies (or the Bellows, as Michael calls them - they bellow every word they hear) are God's chosen ones. They actually protect and worship the Bellows. And often sacrifice people to them. Or to God. Or to whoever their insane priest says they're sacrificing them to.
And the idea of the virus that causes the Bellows to be Bellows mutating. At first the Bellows are stray and alone, then the mutation instructs them to band together, then the mutation instructs them to claw out their own eyes so they can go out in sunlight, then the mutation actually changes the Bellows into Shrieks, which can be shot multiple times without being killed, and can climb on the walls and the ceiling, until we finally see the end mutation, or, how Michael puts it in the book, the End Game.
Artistic license on science? Well, yeah. Cool idea? Damn straight.
Mostly, when I read this, I was (and am) just so enamoured with the real centerpoint of the whole thing, which is that Michael is eternally protecting his little brother, no matter what it takes. If that means throwing himself down a cliff on a bike, he'll do it. If that means getting shot in the leg, he'll do it. If that means running headlong into the place where the virus originated, and where all the Shrieks are inhabiting, and where the insane head of the Rapture is waiting, he'll do it. He does it. Because he will protect Patrick to the bitter end, and I think that's beautiful.
There's also this fun thing with Holly, who he meets at the (not-so-)Safe Zone. It's this teensy little teenage romance in the midst of all this, and I'm usually not into all that, but they play it on the down-low, and then when it does become a highlight it's absolutely adorable, so how can I not like it?
Alright, but out with the fangirl and in with the english teacher. Let's talk theme.
Well, obviously, there is fraternal love. That plays hugely into just about everything Michael does. Which, again, isn't that just so lovely?
But there's also this sort of slightly subtler one about spirituality and the great beyond. You don't really expect it to go anywhere, though, because it's brought up by Bobbie, who dies about halfway through the book - I'm allowed to say that because the spoiler-less people are gone now - but she talks about praying and believing in a greater power. Michael doesn't really believe in any of that, but he does note that sometimes he feels like something else is happening besides the adrenaline-pumped triumph of yes-yes. He describes it like clockwork, like things beyond his control are just aligning right. Also, the deer comes to represent spiritual hope, which, again, is kind of a metaphor that goes nowhere, until the end when the deer inexplicably saves Patrick from Rulon (the head of the Rapture) and it's just such a sense of wonder that you get when reading about it, which is what you're supposed to get, and it's just masterful. What's also good is the conclusion to that question that we get, and I quote:
"Bobbie could have been right, Michael supposed. There could be something watching over them. But if there is, he thought, I don't think I could understand it in a billion years."
What were you expecting, he'd find God? He'd get down on his knees and praise Him and sing Hallellujah? Maybe in a different story, but I find this conclusion much more realistic. And I find myself finding much more beauty in art when it really reflects life.
But, and I know I've said this before, but I love the character of Michael. Because he's just so undeniably flawed. He made so many mistakes through this story, I can't even begin. But I never liked him any less for those. And this isn't an atonement story by any stretch of the imagination, but you know that he's trying very hard to be a good person. Even when he makes those mistakes, he's not trying to screw things up. Usually, he's trying to help someone. And watching him wrestle with morality and how to be a really good person, it hurts my heart, but at the same time, it's such good reading, and strangely relatable? Maybe not in quite the same way, and it may be just me, but anyways let's not look too deeply into that bin of psychology.
There's also the theme of identity, and how Michael wants to be himself, but he also is aware of how he often makes these horrid mistakes in the wake of the apocalypse, and he calls himself a puzzle that only he is giving other people the pieces too, which is a metaphor that just spoke to me. Basically, he's giving the people around him only enough information about himself to make it look like he's much more savvy and skilled and good than he actually is. But he knows that he isn't that person, and slowly, the others find out that he isn't that person either. Before the plot goes into overdrive (which whew, so many things happening, delicious!!!) Holly comments that Patrick must really love him, and Micheal thinks, not love, more like worship, and has a feeling that love and worship are not the same thing.
By the end of the book, however? Patrick has seen the human flaws of Michael that he had to tried so hard to keep hidden, but as a result of that, Patrick now really does love him.
Basically, the core of what I'm getting at here, in the center of this (wonderfully analytical) dance, is warmth. Most zombie stories lack warmth. Dead people rise, more people die, people panic. This story isn't like that. This story contains such a human warmth in it, has such heart, and that's the point. People keep going, and even if the world is falling down around them, they won't give up, and they won't lose their souls to it either, like in Dawn of the Dead where everything is shooting and shouting and killing. (Don't get me wrong, I like Dawn of the Dead, it's a fun movie, far as horrors go, I just find that this book actually touched me on a deeper level). The first chapter is absolutely addicting by itself, beyond the shadow of a doubt, but the warm heart that keeps the story moving and keeps it emotionally engaging is what turns a good book into a great book. Or, yeah, I'll say it again, a delicious one.
Also, this is the epigraph for the book:
 |
| It fits the story more than it has any right to. |
Okay I'm done.
UPDATE:
Haha, just kidding, I wasn't done.
See, before I even knew about the book, I was subscribed to the book's author, T. Michael Martin on Youtube. I honestly don't know why I didn't think to do this before I posted this, but basically, I think it's necessary to show you what kind of delightfully thoughtful and intelligent mind we have behind The End Games here, because I found his videos thought-provoking.
Okay now I'm really done for suresies.
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