Saturday, July 30, 2011

Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory


Raising Stony Mayhall



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.



I had no idea that this book was about zombies when I started to read it.  If I had, I might not have read it.   I am really tired of the vampire, werewolf, zombie books that have been published since the Twilight series .  I avoid these kinds of books without hesitation.  None of them seem to have an original plot idea and feature the same type of characters.  Boring!

I am happy to report that this book has something new to offer!  

The character of Stony is well written with a unique quirkiness that endears him and his family to the reader.  The story follows Stony through a childhood and adolescence in seclusion with only a few close friends aware of his existence.  As he reaches adulthood, the plot gets a little weird, but I found that I was able to accept the strange twists in the plot because the character of Stony was so believable.

This book also includes some interesting social commentary and really made me think about some issues that I have not encounter in other books of this genre.

Stony is a character that stays with you long after you finish his story.

I would recommend this book for young adults as well as adult audiences.

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