Consumption is a
great twist on the apocalyptic zombie genre, because it adds a philosophical
aspect to ‘consuming’ folks. These ‘Walkers’ not only eat flesh, but the soul
of a human being. This carnage of flesh eating monsters is contained within the
small town, Cavus. If this apocalypse is contained within its Plato cave, then
the world will be saved a soul, or two.
This plot line of saving, introduces a number of would-be
heroes, and heroines. The first two are Erma and John, a couple on the road to
mending their marriage. The oppositional dynamics of loss and need drew me to
these two characters; I found myself rooting for them, and not just Cavus. For
example, they both wanted a family, but one of them was terribly afraid to
start one, and that fear was swallowing them both. I would have liked to have
seen more of Erma and John, but as mentioned there were too many other
characters sketched in, but not truly developed as well as the first two, Erma,
and John.
There was Star, a typical, troubled teen and her potential
boyfriend, Javier. Neither of these characters moved past surface feelings of
anger and loss. I didn’t find myself rooting as hard for them as Erma and John,
despite the fact that Star and Javier had tremendous loss in the book. Other
characters included, Riley, your stereotypical sheriff with baggage, his
daughter, Izzy and his crazy Aunt Bunny. The last two good folks introduced was
Jessi and Pill, a married couple in direct contrast to Erma and John. I wish
I’d seen more of them, and sooner.
The bad guy, Grady was so evil you couldn’t bleach him good. There was
no dual nature to Grady. He was plain bad, and not very interesting; however,
he served his purpose making Consumption follow-through
to a pleasing, if not bloody favored ending. I would recommend this book to
adults who like a fast read with writing similar to that of Joe Hill, but
horror closer to Stephen King’s ideal where evil is evil and there’s no
in-between.
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