This novel is by the same author as Let the Right One In, which was made into pretty much the best movie of 2008. I enjoyed reading both these novels, but I found Handling the Undead much creepier.
The premise is that something very bizarre causes a segment of dead people (basically those who have been dead two months or less) to come back to life. But though they are 'reliving', their bodies are still mostly dead: they have the wounds and diseases they died with, their skin is dried out (in some cases) or destroyed and bloated. And they act very strangely. Are these reliving good? evil? neutral? Are they still the people they used to be? What should be done with them? Where do they belong? Everyone seems to arrive at different answers.
The characters are multidimensional and well-drawn, and I read this book almost straight through, even though I don't find zombies interesting generally.
The Postman - David Brin - 3.5/5
I have a love/hate relationship with sci-fi. It can be so satisfying, and it can be so frustrating. My main issue with it is that as a genre it is so male. Sci-fi seems to be men's counterpoint to women's romance novels, and both genres suffer from their one-sidedness.
I thought The Postman was pretty typical in that way. It is an interesting take on a post-apocalyptic landscape, but the main character is male, it has a very masculine sort of vibe, and most of the peripheral characters, with two notable exceptions, are men. The first notable exception is a woman who is the de facto ruler of a small settlement, and the other is the main love interest, a sort of technosavvy Amazon. Unfortunately, what eventually becomes of her rather annoyed me. I am still torn as to whether it was believable or not, but either way I didn't like it.
Still, thought-provoking and a valid view of what happens after everything crumbles.
Wild Child - Mary Jo Putney - 3/5
Mary Jo Putney's novels are always better than your average romance. For one, she tends to write strong female characters who are at least as likely to do the rescuing as be rescued (usually there's a little of both going on). For two, the conflict between her love interests is pretty much never the fault of the lovers themselves, which is refreshing. Most conflicted romance—in any genre or medium—stems from the stupidity of one or both of the lovers, and this at times makes it hard for me to care even if I otherwise enjoy the book/characters (hello, Scarlett O'Hara).
Wild Child is not my favorite of her books, but it was still enjoyable. The ending seemed a little bit rushed, but that could be because I was reading it at one a.m. as fast as I could so I could finish it and go to sleep.
The American Claimant - Mark Twain - 4.5/5
I read this some time ago but figured it was time for a revisit. Oh, Mulberry Sellers. Oh, Gwendolyn.
It's about a quintessential American dreamer, always quick with a get-rich idea and his ability to gullibify anyone, most especially himself. And it's hilarious. Mark Twain skewers the British peerage and multiple American pretensions at one go.
I was reading this on the subway when I got to the part about Spinal Meningitis Snodgrass, and I was laughing so hard I was getting multiple weird looks and knowing smiles, but I could not stop reading.
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