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Book #19 of 2020: Wye
Oct. 28th, 2020 08:12 pmWye by Jack Croxall
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Loved (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
If you looked up 'unreliable narrator', there would be a picture of this book.
When I saw this was a post-apocalyptic zombie book, I frowned. It was a newly added book on my Kindle, and I long, long, long since have been uninterested in anything zombie related. Why did I pick it up? I had no idea. I have no memory of getting this book at all.
Turns out that past-me made a good decision. This book was AMAZING. That being said, it will be hard to talk about the plot without spoiling it, but let's see what I can do.
Non-spoiler version: A virus wiped out nearly every person on Earth (ugh why do I have so many books on my Kindle about that?). A young girl nicknamed Wye was one of the few who survived. She and three other teens had to survive against zombies and roving gangs of the few adults who would kill/rape/rob anyone they saw. She and her friends were walking across England to get to a cottage her friend's uncle owned on the beach. A place they would be safe, could fish for food, could live out the rest of their life. Oh and a monster is hunting her.
Some, all, most, or none of the above paragraph is true.
I'd recommend you get the book and read it yourself, but if you want to see the spoiler version,
This was the coolest story ever. Through the first half of the book, hints are dropped that something isn't right. Things like pronoun "mistakes", Wye saying "me" instead of "we", things like that. Her mention of people who aren't really there.
As the story continues, we learn the other three kids are just in her head.
As it continues further, we learn there are no zombies. No biker gangs. She is the last person left in the world (as far as she knows). She wasn't avoiding the cities because they were full of zombies, she was avoiding them because there were tons of dead bodies there. She wasn't avoiding roads to keep from being found from the gangs, it was actually the sight of so many dead people in cars.
She's not insane, she's just a young girl in an unthinkable situation. Her brain made up the three friends. Through the first half of the book, she has conversations with them. They have roles in keeping their group alive. They seem to the reader to be real people.
The one and only thing I didn't like was the 'monster'. Turned out it was a black panther that the zoo keepers let out. She drove it off twice with her gun, which doesn't seem possible for a young girl. But hey, as unreliable as everything else in the book was, perhaps the black panther too wasn't real.
When it comes down to it, even the virus might not have been real. Since she traveled only through the woods, avoiding people as much as she could, maybe she was a girl having a mental breakdown.
I really, really love how we don't know what was real, even down to the most basic things.
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Loved (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
If you looked up 'unreliable narrator', there would be a picture of this book.
When I saw this was a post-apocalyptic zombie book, I frowned. It was a newly added book on my Kindle, and I long, long, long since have been uninterested in anything zombie related. Why did I pick it up? I had no idea. I have no memory of getting this book at all.
Turns out that past-me made a good decision. This book was AMAZING. That being said, it will be hard to talk about the plot without spoiling it, but let's see what I can do.
Non-spoiler version: A virus wiped out nearly every person on Earth (ugh why do I have so many books on my Kindle about that?). A young girl nicknamed Wye was one of the few who survived. She and three other teens had to survive against zombies and roving gangs of the few adults who would kill/rape/rob anyone they saw. She and her friends were walking across England to get to a cottage her friend's uncle owned on the beach. A place they would be safe, could fish for food, could live out the rest of their life. Oh and a monster is hunting her.
Some, all, most, or none of the above paragraph is true.
I'd recommend you get the book and read it yourself, but if you want to see the spoiler version,
This was the coolest story ever. Through the first half of the book, hints are dropped that something isn't right. Things like pronoun "mistakes", Wye saying "me" instead of "we", things like that. Her mention of people who aren't really there.
As the story continues, we learn the other three kids are just in her head.
As it continues further, we learn there are no zombies. No biker gangs. She is the last person left in the world (as far as she knows). She wasn't avoiding the cities because they were full of zombies, she was avoiding them because there were tons of dead bodies there. She wasn't avoiding roads to keep from being found from the gangs, it was actually the sight of so many dead people in cars.
She's not insane, she's just a young girl in an unthinkable situation. Her brain made up the three friends. Through the first half of the book, she has conversations with them. They have roles in keeping their group alive. They seem to the reader to be real people.
The one and only thing I didn't like was the 'monster'. Turned out it was a black panther that the zoo keepers let out. She drove it off twice with her gun, which doesn't seem possible for a young girl. But hey, as unreliable as everything else in the book was, perhaps the black panther too wasn't real.
When it comes down to it, even the virus might not have been real. Since she traveled only through the woods, avoiding people as much as she could, maybe she was a girl having a mental breakdown.
I really, really love how we don't know what was real, even down to the most basic things.
