Sleepy26177 reviewed on 3/1/2009 + 218 more book reviews

12 years and the life as we know it has become a place in our heart, a valuable memory for the older ones, a memory of gore and rage for those who grew up in both and a confusing, questionable one for those who were born into this new world. Zoey was born the day after the world ended. She was raised in a museum whose borders in time have been grown due to the help of Milton their leader whose half-dead ability to lead the undead into fenced places to lock them away gave a piece of security for those desperate to survive.

Popcorn has grown up and began calling himself Will at one time. He's never forgotten what happened to him and the effects of what the prisoners did to him as a child and being a warrior at the age of 10 changed him. He prefers to be alone or out chatching zombie together with Milton.
He already noticed that some zombies are more gentle than others but when one particular male zombie shows more and more of a functioning brain his curiosity is huge. To learn that this exemplar understands what he says, can read and write impresses him. He bonds with the undead easier than with the living and after years enjoying more company of the undead than with his living companions he soon developes a friendship.

His name is Wade Truman. He doesn't remember what happened before he woke up on the pavement one day. He knows things, understands words and can read but sometimes the connection to what he reads seems to be missing. He doesn't understand the way those who speak are but he understands he's done terrible things to people and that must be the reason why he lives behind this fence.
But he feels lonely between those raging others of his who don't seem to care abut anything. He's glad he's got his friend Lucy who must have been a violin player a long time before all this started.
Befriending Will, the speaking one, is a nice change and being taken out of the fence for walks is such a pleasure for Lucy and him. Will seems to be so different from the other speakers.

The world outside of the fence is dangerous and soon Wade and Lucy have to learn that those who speak not only struggle against those they call zombies but also with themselves and those around them. Confusing as they are they even kill each other. Wade needs to make decisions beyond what he has done the last 12 years. A decision between saving the life of those that chased and put him away or just watching what happens.

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Like the prequel Dying to Live: a novel of living amongst the undead" I had hard times to put this book down and time just flew by.
The sequel is on such a personal and deep level and very different from most zombie novels. Lacking the gore and survival tactics usually used in this genre, the novel makes a stride towards how the society formed into what I believe is the best possible solution but at the same time very idealized.
To know what is going on inside of a zombies brain, his slowly attempts to fathom what is going on an react to it, his caring and worrying are more than a lot of human survivors can offer.

Pfaffenroth might disappoint those who want to read the same story over and over again but he certainly gives the thinking reader some salty mind crackers. His philosophical angle, his turning of something old into something new is impeccable and leaves the reader satisfied.

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