Daryl Gregory: Raising Stony Mayhall

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Err
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Daryl Gregory: Raising Stony Mayhall

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Daryl Gregory: Raising Stony Mayhall

In Iowa, 1968, a widow and her three daughters are driving home through a snowstorm when they find a teenage girl dead along side the road clutching her newborn son who has also succumbed to exposure. Not wanting to leave the baby, the mother takes him back to her house to call the police. However, just as they reach home, the baby opens his eyes. As the mother and daughters try to revive him they notice several peculiar things. The child has no heartbeat, his skin remains cold, and he doesn't draw breath.

Thus begins the story of John (Stony) Mayhall. Darrel Gregory takes the classic zombie tale and imagines it as actually coming to pass. In 1968, there was a zombie outbreak in the US. No one knows the exact cause and it was quickly put down before it could spread. However, those zombies that escaped became coherent again after the "fever" that typically lasts 24 to 48 hours after being bitten. They are technically no longer alive but can still move and think. They spend their lives in hiding waiting for salvation. Stoney, after years of hiding with the mother who found him, has to flee to protect his adopted family and hide with his kin. Here, he discovers who is really is and learns more concerning the strange circumstances of his birth.

Gregory's novel examines what it is like to be a zombie through Stony's perspective. It is a well written book and I enjoyed it as well as his other two novels, "Pandemonium," and "The Devils Alphabet." I'm looking forward to more from this author.
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normalicy
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Post by normalicy »

Odd. So does he grow up?
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Err
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Post by Err »

normalicy wrote:Odd. So does he grow up?
His physical growth doesn't happen until a family moves in to a neighboring farm and discovers him. They have a boy who is about 7 and Stony, still a baby, gets "linked" to him and from that point on grows rapidly to match the other boy's appearance and then matches him year for year. The reason is explained later in the novel.
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