The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell: A Newsflesh Novella Kindle Edition

You know... the last few weeks I've had a lot of Mira Grant on this blog. There is a great reason for that. She is a horror genius.

The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell is horrifying in so many ways. Some may say that it is zombies and we've all seen and read that over and over but Mira Grant has a way of hitting that button that we all have for the HOLY S*** that tells our bodies to fight or flee.

In this novella she is able to once again hit that button but more than she ever has before. This is about children, and not only children but kindergarteners and first graders. What can be more horrifying than those innocent children getting eaten by zombies. What's worse? It was all because of one of these first graders that an outbreak happened in the school. It wasn't his fault but technically it was.

The teacher in this situation is remarkable and I wish Mira Grant had pushed to tell us a little more about her at the end. I wanted more. But that is the only downside to this. Well, other than the obviousness of children being eaten by zombies. That's as bad as pets being eaten or turning into zombies. Both of which Mira Grant has done!!! And still I love reading her. It's because she talks about these horrifying things that makes me love her writing so much!

In this very short story we have a teacher that has to deal with not only trying to survive, but trying to save her innocent and trusting students. I have to admit, I understand the few times when she thought about running and saving herself, but I'm so glad she didn't. What she did have to do was agonizing and absolutely horrible but also very brave.

This is just another of her fabulous stories that adds a bit to the Newsflesh trilogy. If she adds any more of these I will be one of the first people to scoop them up. Even though they are horrifying I just cannot get enough!

Twenty-two years after the Rising, they thought they were safe. They thought they knew what to do to protect the children. They had safety protocols in place: blood tests, desk restraints, automatic locks, shutters.

But on March 19, 2036, in Seattle's Evergreen Elementary, these all failed. The doors didn't lock, the guards didn't notice blood on a young boy, and the dead roamed the halls.

This is Elaine Oldenburg's story. Though many used her as a scapegoat for the disaster that happened at Evergreen, this novella shows us a courageous young woman who did the best she could in the circumstances gives to her. Set Twenty-two years after the Rising and four years before the start of Feed, we are given a new look into the everyday lives of those living in a word surrounded by zombies.

It was really neat to see the different methods that they tried to use to control an outbreak. The internal communications shared between Alaric, Mahir, and Maggie allow us to compare the conditions in 2036 and what they are in 2044 when Alaric is researching the outbreak at Evergreen. We also find out that Elaine may have been someone we met before in one of the previous Newsflesh novels... but I don't want to spoil anything so I'll let you discover who she is for yourself!

This is a great addition to the Newsflesh universe, and I'm very happy to add this to my collection.

This is the first in this series I've read and OMG, very suspenseful! I don't read this genre often but found this book compelling.This is a well-told tale, superbly crafted and paced. I could not put it down -- even though I knew the basic outcome from nearly the start. The setting (an elementary school) makes it especially horrifying. And while zombies aren't real (are they???), I could easily relate to a common problem we all experience in real life -- the malfunction of system after system, designed to help or protect us, that led to catastrophe. A great read!

Mira Grant created a fascinating world in her NEWSFLESH, is a masterful piece of hard science fiction, combining medical detail with political intrigue with intricate worldbuilding. Her characters were so real that the end of the first book in the trilogy, Feed, reduced me to tears.

Since completing the trilogy, Grant continues to write about the world she created. With the novella The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell, she may finally have returned to the well once too often. It’s a solid story, detailing the day-to-day issues presented to schools when blood becomes a deadly substance. Grant skillfully builds suspense for those less familiar with her world as she tells of the consequences of one 6-year-old child’s tiny lie about skinning his hand at recess. But ultimately, she has so completely explored the implications of her thesis in her previous tales that anyone who has read the trilogy will find this story predictable.

The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell is about a first grade school teacher in Seattle, Elaine Oldenburg. Children continue to attend public school despite the zombie threat because of their need for socialization. Most drop out by the fourth grade to study with private tutors or entirely by means of the internet, but younger children still need to learn about how to deal with others. In addition, kindergarteners and most first graders are too small to amplify into zombies, even should the antibodies in their blood be triggered in some way. While the dangers of schooling are not minimal, they are outweighed by the children’s need for other children.

Steps have been taken to make schools safer, but as has ever been the case with schools (and other government projects), safety equipment has been purchased from the lowest bidder. And, as has ever been the case, the lowest bidder doesn’t always produce the best product. One would think that when it comes to protecting a community’s children, only the best would do; but that’s not the case in Grant’s world, and it never has been the case in ours. Grant expertly manipulates real world habits, politics and economics to create a completely believable scenario.

Yet despite Grant’s skill, this tale feels like it’s already been told. Her skills are sufficiently great that genuine admirers of her work will feel impatient with this novella, wishing that she would move on to tell new stories of different biological threats. Thus, while Grant has written a thoroughly competent story with much to recommend it to those not already steeped in the world of NEWSFLESH, those who have read her previous works are likely to become impatient for the next book in Grant’s new PARASITOLOGY trilogy, Symbiont, which is due in November.

Originally published at Fantasy Literature website.