This book really surprised me in terms of zombies and what they can do. It never occurred to me to think of a zombie with a mind still intact, let alone a zombie who can control other zombies with his mind. Most zombie stories that I have seen in both film and books tend to be more about action and less about characters. I think Monster Island had both dynamic characters as well as an action-packed plot which made it into a really good story that was believable. Also, Wellington's story wasn't overdone. There was grotesque description when needed but it wasn't overdone. This detail of all the zombie gore was lightened by dark humor throughout the book through characters like Gary's remarks and Kreutzer's “I don’t know if either of you has accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior...but now might be the time.”
At first I thought it was hard to keep up with switching between the first person narration of Dekalb and the third person narration of Gary. Deklab was easily relatable as well as underwent a lot of changes from a man who wouldn't shoot his gun a man who was slicing off zombie's heads. I think Gary was my favorite character and he was an interesting foil as well. When I finally got to the end of the book I was blown away when Deklab said “You’re probably wondering how I can know what he’s [Gary's] thinking. How I could write all those passages from his point of view, describing things I never saw or experienced.” That completely just made my day and it explained the strange switching back and forth of the storytelling narrator as well.
I thought that the zombies' lack of brains was a metaphor for humankind's fear loosing their humanity. I think zombies have become really popular because people sometimes feel like zombies when they feel like they are mindless slaves that can't control their instincts. The usual reason for a zombie apocalypse is usually an epidemic or some kind of genetic experiment gone wrong. This reflects our fear of science and bioengineering.
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