The Infection [Paperback]

First of all, I love zombie books. However this was a bit of a disappointment...

The setting was very typical with having the army heroes and then couple of civilians with a mixture of all types of people (priest,teacher,student,housewife) and all of these fighting for survival and looking for a safe haven. We get little bits of information on each of the characters past throughout the book which I found interesting.

At the beginning the infection starts with a big portion of people taken ill, sort of falling into coma causing chaos in hospitals, then 3 days later they wake up.

Then it got a bit silly with all these weird monsters and giants and monkey/spider/spiky things. If it hadn't been for this I would have probably rated this 4 or even 5 stars. The first half of the book was very good and I enjoyed it up until these weird creatures came out.

The Infection by Craig DiLouie tells the story of six survivors traveling in an armored vehicle, while trying to find a safe refuge, after a mysterious virus infects millions of humans. The infected people collapse into comas; when they wake up, three days later, they attack all the non-infected. After just a couple of weeks, some of the survivors discover that the Infected are mutating into something much worse than zombies. The main theme that is woven throughout the storyline is the violent transformation of humans into monsters.

"There were things in the garage, Sarge. [censored] monsters. Dark shapes that flitted around the cars, always just out of sight. Then we saw one..."

This novel made me think, "This is what happened to the rest of the world, while everyone was reading about what happened in the grocery store in The Mist by Stephen King." I know I'm not the only one who has made this comparison; some other reviewers have even mentioned The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I understand why, but I think DiLouie goes into far more detail with his characters' suffering than King or McCarthy. The story is told with third-person narration in the present tense; flashbacks provide the personal backgrounds of each of the six survivors. Their reasoning and motivation for their current behavior becomes quite understandable, after only a few chapters.

"They have all done the things one had to do to survive. They have all killed people or they would not be here."

I usually try to imagine myself in the world that I am reading about, but I wanted no part of this setting. Living infected hordes are one thing, but DiLouie describes abominations that would rival HP Lovecraft's leviathans. He goes to nightmarish extremes when pairing the brutal twists of the viral outbreak with the amorality of various people that the survivors encounter. Of course, even though I felt mentality assaulted by the end, I loved reading very moment of this traumatic horror novel.

Written from multiple points of view, the views of a number of characters embroiled in the story, the novel starts with Ethan, a teacher who watches in horror as people start screaming then collapse for three days apparently in a coma. They are diagnosed as SEELS, 'Sudden Encephalitic Epileptic Lethargic Syndrome' - 'cause everyone needs a label!

After the three days are up, the screamers wake up, attacking their loved ones, eating their flesh. The diseased bite their victims, paralyse them in seconds then take control in minutes.

The infection has killed so quickly, it is assumed by scientists that is an engineered virus. The narration switches from past to present tense when talking about the survivors at the beginning. It is a little distracting as a writing technique but works, as the action switches from memories of events to the current action. Amongst the survivors, we also meet Anne, who the others see as a leader, though a battle of wills ensue as Anne (homemaker) and Wendy (cop) fight for leadership of the small band of survivors. Then we meet Sarge and the crew of the Bradley, a military vehicle left after the apocalypse. Just days before, they dropped off six soldiers to test a non lethal device on the walking 'dead' or diseased. But this is to no avail. The Bradley, taking on these survivors, also takes in 'The Kid' a young boy of around 16 who rapidly grows up. The band of survivors set off to reach Camp Defiance, a refugee camp that is apparently infection free.

All of the stereotypical characters are here, but there is a strength and creativity to them that makes this book a cut above the usual zombie fair. The tone is very bleak and DiLouie is incredibly descriptive with his vision of the apocalypse.

Things seem to be travelling along a normal route until they are on their way to the Children's hospital to gather supplies. The narrator remains a little distant until the offhand mention of the name Sarah, a character's wife, and the question of what has happened to her. It is in these musings that the writing becomes much more emotional. It seems as though the unnamed narrator is almost trying to retain their sanity as they relate the events.

The Bradley's occupants are intent on destroying the hospital, the source of infection, its last mission. The majority of the novel is set nine days after infection and uses flashbacks to tell the story of each survivor when the screaming started.
It is at the hospital that things get really insane. Without giving away too much, extra creatures have developed through the infection, and these other creatures, other mutations, come across a little like Stephen King's The Mist. The survivors have to now fight these monsters too.

Poignant, brutal, yet at times heart warming, these characters and their plight for survival stays with you.