topfivebooks.com.au

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Kim Kingston — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 23:18:35 +0000

Devastating and horrifying, but brilliant.

Best to read it before you have children.

The post The Road by Cormac McCarthy appeared first on topfivebooks.com.au.

The Girl With All The Gifts by MR Carey

Kim Kingston — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 06:21:57 +0000

I’m not normally a fan of post apolocolyptic zombie novels, but this one is so good. Technically they’re not zombies; they are ‘hungries’. Twenty years ago, humanity was infected by a variant of fungus that causes people to lose their minds and eat human flesh, thereby becoming hungries.

The small number of remaining humans are heavily guarded by the military, who also perform tests on subjects like ten year old Melanie. Melanie is an intelligent second generation hungry and she is kept under tight control in a prison until the base is invaded by hungries and she and four humans flee.

This is disturbing, compelling, thought provoking literature and everybody character is well drawn. I particularly love the shock ending. It forces you to question your assumptions. Why do we assume that, in this scenario, the survival of humanity is the right ending? Do humans deserve to survive, or should we evolve? Discuss, after reading this book.

The post The Girl With All The Gifts by MR Carey appeared first on topfivebooks.com.au.

The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey

Kim Kingston — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 22:08:05 +0000

Never thought you could love a zombie novel?? This one, and its predecessor The Girl With All The Gifts, are game changers. Both are set in a post-apocalyptic world where a virus has turned the vast majority of humans into flesh-eating “hungries”. The Boy on the Bridge sees some of the remaining decent and not-so-decent humans pitted against one other in the claustrophobic environment of an armoured vehicle where the atmosphere inside is only slightly less hostile than outside. The action sequences are breathtakingly good and the depiction of a surreal landscape devoid of humanity compelling. But what is truly riveting is watching each human struggle with their conscience, and one another, to answer the essential question of what they are prepared to live with in order to survive. This novel is an unexpectedly uplifting meditation on humanity while still being a riveting read. Bite into it.

The post The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey appeared first on topfivebooks.com.au.

I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Kim Kingston — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 04:44:31 +0000

This disturbing little thriller will make you believe in ghosts again. Try not to be alone when you’re reading it at night. Seriously. It has all the best elements of Sigurdardottir’s writing; an isolated village in Iceland, a mystery with something deeply sinister at its core, and people being picked off one by one. Beautiful and creepy. Just read it and you’ll see what I mean.

The post I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir appeared first on topfivebooks.com.au.

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Kim Kingston — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 02:48:31 +0000

After the catastrophic events of what survivors call Last Night, what’s left of humanity try to impose order on Zone One, formerly known as New York. Our protagonist Mark Spitz is quite a beautiful bumbler, smart or lucky enough to have stayed alive after most people have turned into flesh eating zombies: “[h]is aptitude lay in the well-executed muddle, never shining, never flunking but gathering himself for what it took to progress past life’s next random obstacle.” He has little hope for the future envisioned by the new power order but nevertheless he pitches in and does his bit, becoming deeply attached to those he works with despite his essentially pessimistic view of the chances of any of them surviving. The insights in the novel are equal parts hilarious and sobering: “you’re still the same person you were before the plague, you tell yourself, even though you’re running for dear life through the parking lot of some shitty mall, being chased by a gang of monsters. I have not been reduced.” This is such a clever and surprisingly beautiful novel: you don’t know whether to root for humanity or give in like Mark Spitz, but certainly you want him to survive. A real gem.

The post Zone One by Colson Whitehead appeared first on topfivebooks.com.au.