I listen to young adult novels while at the gym, because I want to engage my mind while I’m engaging my body and I need something easy to follow and interesting. While perusing the library’s online collection, I came across this title, which captured my imagination enough to borrow it and give it a go. It’s a post apocalyptic novel in which there is an enclave of society surrounded completely by a forest teeming with zombies, which they call the Unconsecrated.
The most confounding thing about this novel is that I almost feel like I have Asperger’s when trying to read the social cues and figure out how to respond in this world. I do tend to be an immersive reader; I place myself in the world and gauge how I would react to the situation. And I don’t mean to make light of anyone on the spectrum who does deal with this issue, but from what I understand, my experience in this fictional world is similar. The main character is riddled with guilt for something which was not her fault and was the choice of an adult who should have known better. Her brother also blames her and kicks her out of the house so she has to live with the Sisterhood, this world’s equivalent of the Catholic church. She becomes a servant but runs around mostly unsupervised and straddles a boy in his bed. She is “in love” with that boy who has relatively little interaction with her and yet whom she feels a selfish need to possess, but that seems to be acceptable. She has almost no interaction with the boy’s brother whom she basically marries (it almost seems like an accident) but with whom she has yet to have a conversation with. Her best friend is bound in the same way to the boy the main character loves and seems sometimes jealous but mostly too weak to do anything either useful or dastardly. The main character vacillates between guilt and utter disregard for herself and others to the point of recklessness and I just don’t get it.
I have a sneaking suspicion that both boys like Mary, the main character. I think that Harry, the older brother whom Mary is bound to, loves Mary and because he knows that, Travis, the straddling boy, tries to stay away but finds it difficult because he’s attracted to her too. I also am pretty much on Harry’s side at this point because Travis has been mostly useless to Mary and this is worst case scenario world here. I mean, there are zombies right there, ready to eat them. There are more important things to be concerned with than holding hands. Also, the only conversation between Mary and Harry (too cutesy of a couple name so there’s no way that’ll last) convinced me that Harry truly does love Mary, because the only thing he asks her is what it will take to make her happy and then vows to do what he can to make her happy. I think that’s more like the kind of love I understand.
I had a conversation with my brother about this kind of situation. On the back cover the book asks if Mary should go with the boy she loves or the boy who loves her and I told my brother that I would definitely go with the boy who loved me. I figure that would probably increase my chance of surviving as he would be more likely to want to protect both of us, and me for sure, and I know that I’m not strong enough to keep someone safe in this situation. Like i said, there are zombies everywhere. It seems cold and unfeeling, and maybe it is, but this is worst case scenario here, I think a little thought to your own survival is warranted. Besides, the whole concept of love in this world is so skewed so maybe I have the right of it here. Who knows.
I also don’t get why a girl can’t just go out and have an adventure. Why does there always have to be a romance, and usually a love triangle involved? Sometimes I just want to go out and kick ass and struggle and emerge victorious after hardship. Shawn, my brother, says that that’s the only way you could get a girl to read the book (sexist bull) and then I said well then I must not be a girl. He said he’s been trying to tell me that for years…
Lunacy and Letters 