Dead Things Are Closer Than They AppearReview posted October 5, 2024
Simon & Schuster, 2024. 405 pages.
Review written October 2, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review
Given the title, I wasn't surprised when this turned out to be a zombie book. I was, however, surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
Sid Spencer is an adopted American teen girl who lives in a town on a fault line - but not an earthquake fault line so much as a magical fault line. It's not the only such town in the world by any means, but tourists come from all over the world to see the magic seeping up from the cracks like rainbow mist. Among the townsfolk, eight people are Guardians, but no one knows who they are. Each Guardian has a magical power, but also a Key made of bone that secures a segment of the fault line.
And then, one segment of the fault line comes open - and besides earthquakes and a magical forest taking over, zombies come out of the fault, attracted to living people and able to kill them with their bare hands. When it hits, Sid is alone at home and manages to trap a zombie in the basement after she sees it kill a neighbor. When Brian, a friend of her brother's, breaks into her house, Sid tasers him before she realizes who he is. He tells Sid that he's a Guardian, and so is her brother Matty. And the reason the fault line came open was that one of the other Guardians is dead. The man who killed him stole that Guardian's key, but he was able to pass his power to Matty before he died, so no one can use the key but Matty. Oh, and the dead Guardian also put a magical wall around the town, so everybody on the outside is safe (including the rest of Sid's family), but no help is coming to save them.
So the mission is to somehow navigate the town full of zombies, get the key from the bad guy - who turns out to be invulnerable to magical or physical attacks - and get it to Matty, whom no one has seen since before the breach. This is not an easy mission, as besides his own magic powers, the bad guy has teams of thugs with guns doing his bidding. He knows who all the Guardians are, and he wants all their powers and all their keys.
Thus, a saga begins. The task is daunting. But along the way, magic is leaking out of the breach, and ordinary people are developing magical powers, with each one unique to them.
Sid's magic power ends up involving connecting with people. And that's also the power of the book. The magic for me was a little muddled and confusing in spots, and yes, there was plenty of death and gore, but the story of found family and connections and working together against all odds - was powerful and moving. There was also a theme about friendship and forgiveness - for the past months Sid had been estranged from her best friend and her boyfriend because of something that happened - but the disaster puts all that in perspective.
This isn't a relaxing book to read. The zombies are scary and strong, but the human villains are even worse, and the task seems impossible at times. But joining in Sid's adventure just felt so warm and human. She's a flawed teenage girl trying to survive - but also to help the people she loves - and even new people she meets. It turns out that disaster makes her shine, and it felt like a privilege to witness that.