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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stellar!, August 22, 2008
This review is from: Razor Girl (SHOMI) (Mass Market Paperback)
When Molly was fifteen-years-old, people thought her dad, Ian Anderson, was a mad scientist. Ian was a scientist, but just because the man totally believed that the end of the world, as we know it, was about to happen did not mean he was insane. Ian bought an old fallout shelter, packed it with food and supplies, and gave it a timer so it would unlock after six years. Convinced the end was close, he made Molly come home directly after school and practice martial arts with him for several hours.
When a super flu begins spreading, no one really gives it any serious thoughts. But when rumors begin about hospitals turning people away, no matter how sick they were, Molly and Chris Griffin (a neighborhood and school friend) listens. The pair go to a local hospital to see if rumors are true. Not only do the two learn that it is true, but they see their first zombie! Of course, they tell no one. Who would believe the daughter of an insane scientist? But after Molly sees a zombie kill someone, she agrees to her dad's numerous suggestions of allowing him to perform surgery to give her a few enhancements for defense. It is very shortly thereafter that Ian escorts Molly and her mom into the shelter beneath their home and locks them within for six years.
Twenty-one-year-old Molly emerges from the fallout shelter a different person. After hearing the shelter unlock, Molly's mom dies. Once her mom is cared for, Molly begins her journey to Florida (two states away) where she is to meet her dad at Disney World. According to Ian, while Molly was in the shelter, he and some scientist friends of his would be creating a safe haven for any humans that manage to survive the apocalypse. Molly has no doubt she can make the trip alive. Thanks to her dad, Molly has four inch razors under her nails (that she can extract and retract at will). She also has ocular implants (to see in the dark), mirrored plates covering her eyes (fused to her skull), an internal GPS navigation (linked to an old-time satellite to allow her access to special databases Ian left up and running), and her body has nano computers (which make her stronger and faster).
It does not take Molly long to come face-to-face with her first zombie. She also meets up with Chris. He is now called Chase and explains that the "Others" may be cannibalistic zombies, but unlike the old horror movies, the Others are smart and often hunt in packs. Chase and a few guys have a small camp set up in the toy section of Walmart. They take care of eight kids found since the apocalypse. Disaster strikes, leaving Chase and the kids alone. Molly, Chase, and the kids must band together and struggle toward Disney World in hopes of finding safety.
***** This book will appeal to a large audience, especially for those gamers out there who played "Fallout". This book runs much like two stories. One chapter shows before the apocalypse, the next shows afterward, and it continues to alternate. Normally I detest this type of set up; however, the author did a terrific job and this method actually works extremely well. Molly and Chase are easy to identify with, no matter your age. (Anyone teen and up anyway.) There is a romance which blooms between the two main characters, but the story remains focused on the plot at all times. As with all good books, this opens with danger and will grab your interest immediately. Stellar! *****
Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful!, March 10, 2009
This review is from: Razor Girl (SHOMI) (Mass Market Paperback)
Razor Girl alternated between two timelines that eventually intersect. The first chronicles the events in 2030 leading up to the apocalypse and Molly entering the bunker. The second chronicles time from the moment Molly leaves the bunker in 2036.
Molly is real, humble, and likable. I liked finding out about her past and present relationships to Chris/Chase, who was a pain in the bum but who eventually redeemed himself. The world they live in is very different from ours, but in a way that is entirely possible in the future. Kids now play virtual reality games, and most have never played a sport in real life. Everything is electronic and high tech, from tiny cell phones to televisions to refrigerators. There is now an AIDS vaccine, and sex is not allowed without a license. Ken dolls are now anatomically correct.
Molly and her family are different though. Molly's mom is mentally ill and needs to be taken care of. Molly's dad, a paranoid scientist, believes the end of the world is coming and makes Molly physically train every day to prepare for it. He refuses to use new technology in his home, believing the government uses it to monitor and control people. He ends up "improving" Molly with razors under her fingernails, ocular implants in her eyes, and nanotechnology in her bloodstream that makes her faster and stronger.
Molly and her friend Chris witness the start of the apocalypse when they discover an elderly neighbor who is coughing up blood. They call for an ambulance and instead a government van comes and takes the woman away. The government covers up people getting sick, and all the hospitals end up full and guarded by soldiers with guns. When Molly and Chris go out to investigate, they see a zombie, plus a dumpster full of rotting corpses. They come home to tell her dad, and he begins preparations to use the bunker keep his family alive.
After the six years in the bunker, Molly meets Chris again, though he has changed dramatically. He brings her to a Wal-Mart where he has been living with three other men and eight children. Molly intends to only stay there one night, so she can rest and get supplies. She promised her father that she would journey to Disney World when her bunker time was up. He expected scientists to be gathered there working on rebuilding society and curing the plague, and he'd implanted a secret message in Molly to be retrieved at a later time. Also, he programmed her nanos to start breaking down after six years, so she could die if she doesn't get there fast enough.
Molly ends up heading to Florida with a group from the Wal-Mart, and battling pus-ripping, hungry zombies and more on the way. What was really entertaining about this book was all of the pop culture references, including ones about the Thunderdome, the movie 'Pretty in Pink', Barbie dolls, and more. It was clever how Mancusi tweaked the future and also incorporated the past. I loved Razor Girl and definitely recommend it.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Almost became a two star book, September 14, 2009
This review is from: Razor Girl (SHOMI) (Mass Market Paperback)
"Razor Girl" is an odd hybrid. It mixes the zombie, apocalypse, medical thriller, and romance genres together into what could have been a great novel. Unfortunately, despite being a solidly entertaining post-apocalypse adventure novel for the first four-fifths of its length, the extremely weak last fifth nearly sinks it and which downgrades it from what could have been an enjoyable five star book.
The novel starts off with Molly Anderson saying goodbye to her mother who has just died, and to her home of the last six years, which is an underground shelter whose time lock is opening today. Plague and disease, which had caused Molly's brilliant, but paranoid and unstable father to have locked her and her mother in the shelter in the first place has turned most of the world's populace into zombies.
She finds that the world has in the last six years gone to hell, zombies (the "Others") walk, the plague's survivors are few and far between, and most of the world's people are dead and gone. Molly is soon confronted by some of the living challenged, but is rescued by Chris "Chase" Griffin and his brother Trey "Tank" Griffin, who is oddly immune to the zombie disease. Molly finds that there is a bunch of young survivors that are in the care of the Griffins and are holed up at a near-by Wal-Mart. Molly has been "enhanced" by her father into a kind of superbeing before he locked her into the shelter, so she's no push-over, and she wants to go and find her father, and she wants to do it solo. Unfortunately due to circumstances she soon finds herself reluctantly in charge of the survivors, and having to abandon the store she takes them with her on her quest.
For the most part this is a pretty good novel, Molly and Chris are good sympathetic characters, you keep rooting for them, and the adventures that they have are constantly interesting, and range from the hopeful to the totally cynical. Realizing that there is no such thing as a totally original take on the zombie apocalypse Mancusi decides to wear her influences on her sleeve; Mancusi constantly has Molly tell us that she was created from a template found in William Gibson's "Neuromancer", we get touches of Romero, superhero comix, and even Joe Lansdale and Mad Max as Molly ends up in a town that practices zombie/people wrestling (to the death) in an enclosed arena. I often wondered while reading this novel if she was also influenced by Andre Norton, as Norton's once popular "Dark Piper" was possibly the first apocalyptic novel from a young person's viewpoint that was ever published. Those that like the tone of "Razor Girl", would probably like that novel as well.
Despite being a breezy and entertaining read, what almost sinks the whole novel is the incredibly idiotic and unbelievable ending. Now, I have no problem with happy endings, especially ones in context, but here Mancusi gives us a worldwide miracle that has you going "WTF"?!?! The basic problem is that the ending feels incredibly rushed, or to have been altered by a third party. I keep thinking that this was a concept that should have been a duology or even a trilogy, as Mancusi explores her characters and her character's destroyed world a lot more. Yes, there is time limit as Molly enhancements are starting to break down, but that is a time limit that could easily have been fixed. But that's a coulda woulda shoulda, and it's not what we have, and after reading "Razor Girl" and "Moongazer" I'm wondering if the inability to give her books the ending they need is going to be a continuing problem with her. This could have easily been a five star book, but the unbelievable ending brings it down to a mere three stars, and if the novel had been less entertaining and less interesting it would have only gotten a one or two stars. I can't help but think what an entertaining comic or graphic novel series this would make.
Like most Shomi books "Razor Girl" has an attractive cover, both in the illustration and in the typography, and like most Shomi books, unfortunately both go uncredited.
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