Peng Shepherd’s debut novel, The Book of M might not be about a plague of zombies roaming the earth but parts of it certainly read like it is.
When the William Morrow imprint sent me a copy of The Book of M, I was expecting something more along the lines of The Space Between Stars — just set on Earth instead of out in the universe. What I got instead was something more like The Walking Dead, just without any zombies and with a huge dose of mythology in its place.
The funny thing is that this isn’t really a bad thing. Buried deep in the hordes of the undead are some particularly fascinating themes to be meditated on, so long as you don’t get distracted by the gore. Here, though, it’s more about digging deep into memories; the plague here doesn’t kill you outright, but it does make you lose your shadow and with it, your memories, slowly but surely.
So, with all that in mind, here’s how The Book of M might be perfect for those who love zombies.
The journey in a ruined landscape
Whether you swear by The Walking Dead or can’t wait for the sequel to The Last of Us, both they and quite a bit of zombie-apocalypse fiction place an emphasis on the landscape and how it’s changed as the end of humanity draws near. The Book of M does the same thing, and it’s when Shepherd gets to describe things that she’s perhaps at her best. The ruins of cities rise up in the text, mirroring (sometimes literally) how people are changing.
But beyond that, everyone in the story is trying to get somewhere: New Orleans. But even without a destination like that, there’s always the goal of safety. Considering how long Rick’s group spends in the prison during the events of The Walking Dead, I’d say that lines up quite neatly as well.
Memories of the time before
Because the shadowless, as Shepherd and her characters call them, inexorably lose their memories, there’s something of a premium placed on those memories. We’re not talking just memories of the best days of a character’s life, either — but also simple things, like how to read. Photos and tape recorders end up playing major roles in The Book of M, providing everything from a motivation to keep going to a way to recall, at least a little, part of yourself.
Humanity
Even with all the weirdness going about, be it people without shadows or people who are dead, people are still people: irrational, clinging to hope, trying to make sense of the fundamental changes, and with connections to others. Shepherd does this really well, too, letting us inhabit multiple characters’ minds as they all have different experiences. Of course, that leads to the book being a touch oddly paced and not really grounded in the sense of time — but that is, of course, also a hallmark of a series like The Walking Dead, for better or for worse.
Next: 3 reasons you'll dig City of Bastards
Make no mistake: The Walking Dead is nowhere near as weird as The Book of M is, but The Book of M is stronger for it.