David Wellington - Monster Island

I think zombie concept is one of the most popular “what if ?“ scenarios out there. And I see some really good what if stories more and more each day. Like Superman – The Red Son, where superman is the pride of Soviet Union and Lex Luthor is the smartest man and the hero of America. Great graphic novel, I recommend to everyone. Especially to the ones who enjoy reading stories where things are upside down. David Wellington's Monster Island is one of them. Things go upside down in this story. In many ways.

In Monster Island, we have a doomed world. A world with full of zombies, almost completely full. We learn that the most developed counties of the world are overrun by zombies and we have a chance to take a look at things at deserted streets of Manhattan in Dekalb's (the main character of Monster Island) perspective. So far things are pretty cliché for a zombie scenario right ? It still can be a good “what if” story even it's a cliché. But what differs Monster Island from other zombie stories is that in this scenario least developed 3^rd world countries are in charge of things especially Somalia, despite their fanatic (also scarry, to some people) ideological ideas, they are the only hope of the world - which is a great “what if” scenario when combined with the zombie setting. Dekalb is an American citizen, surrounded by Somalian girl soldiers (who are in school uniforms and very young and cold blooded – wow) and together, they seek something which they need desperately in streets of Manhattan and eventually many interesting things happen there. Not only in terms of action scenes but also in terms of cultural and social issues. Like the shock of an american character when he finds himself in Time Square with no lights while the world is full of walking human corpses. There are little things like that worth underlining in this story and I really liked the Wellington's sensitive attitude about it.

In Monster Island, we have an undead who's capable of thinking – another good “what if” to add to the story – Gary who used to be a medical assistant. I think he is a such an unfortunate character in terms of things that happen to him. But really interesting to read. In chapters which Dekalb and Gary are separate we see things in 3^rd person in Gary's parts and in Dekalb, we see things from his point of view. I think combination of this 2 different writing styles adds energy to the story and helps to keep things interesting for the reader.

If I had to recommend this book to someone in one sentence I would say “it's the combination of Walking Dead and Y, The Last Man on Earth” I think, that would explain enough.