Highway Bodies

Highway Bodies
Written by Alison Evans
Apocalyptic, Survival, Diverse, #LoveOZYA
367 Pages
Published February 2nd 2019
Thank you to Echo Publishing
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★★★★★
Who will you rely on in the zombie apocalypse?

Bodies on the TV, explosions, barriers, and people fleeing. No access to social media. And a dad who’ll suddenly bite your head off , literally. These teens have to learn a new resilience…

Members of a band wield weapons instead of instruments.

A pair of siblings find there’s only so much you can joke about, when the menace is this strong.

And a couple find depth among the chaos.

Highway Bodies is a unique zombie apocalypse story featuring a range of queer and gender non conforming teens who have lost their families and friends and can only rely upon each other.
Highway Bodies centres on three groups of adolescents throughout Melbourne during an apocalyptic outbreak, our humanity and resistance. Fraternal siblings Rhea and Jojo are awaiting information from their mother, a first responder and emergency nurse during the initial epidemic onslaught. Social media websites are being censored by government officials and journalists are reporting of a factory explosion in a neighbouring suburb.

Imagine rendered defenceless as your father decimates his family. Your only solace is nestled within the large topiaries masquerading as sentinels in your garden. The deceased faltering throughout the streets as you hear a young woman, a survivor needing assistance.

Poppy, Jack, Zufan and Dee are enjoying their freedom, composing and performing among the cicadas of their ramshackle cottage as communications go down. Venturing into the nearest town, the roads are abandoned, blood congealing on pavements.

These three narratives sharing a common ambition, to survive. 

The narrative is experienced through three perspectives and although taking place throughout a terrifying outbreak, it centres upon the survivors. Resilient adolescents that are adapting to their new environment. It's survival against humanity. Throughout their journey, the adolescents are consistently challenged by morality and the debris of human life, dangerous adults recruiting survivors and demanding idolisation under the guise of protection. It soon becomes apparent that it's the living that should be feared. 

The diversity of characters is wonderful, various identities, cultural backgrounds, genders and pronouns, all wonderfully representative of a multicultural and diverse Melbourne landscape. Genderqueer, bisexual, transgender, lesbian, Ethiopian, Pakistani she and they pronouns, facial scarring and amputated fingers. As each character introduces themselves, they also offer their pronouns. A wonderful and inclusive gesture, being that pronouns are also our own individual identities.

The prose is striking. The discourse and interactions allow readers to empathise with characters, their terror and sorrow is palpable. As a debut, Alison's IDA was brilliant and a wonderful precedent of how authors can write diversely. Alison Evans' writing has matured and flourished, their vibrancy shining throughout the narrative by enthralling and captivating readers until the final page.

11 comments

  1. Ooh this one makes me super curious! I do love a bit of END OF THE WORLD AND ALL THINGS narrative, and especially if it's set in Australia!

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    1. It's absolutely brilliant, so well written and captivating!

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  2. Zombies and Melbourne, YIKES! The cover is very atmospheric and the blurb ominous. I think this may be the first zombie novel in Australia I've heard about...

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    1. We've had a few apocalyptic type young adult novels but not specifically zombies. Being a huge fan of The Walking Dead, this was absolutely incredible Verushka, the characters, the setting, all superbly written!

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  3. Wow, this sounds intense! I love the diversity of the cast of characters too. The Australia setting has me curious too.

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    1. I'm completely biased but I love reading Australian young adult literature. If you're a fan of zombies, apocalyptic reads or survival stories then you'll absolutely love this Suzanne!

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  4. This sounds fantastic. I like how you said it's the living they should fear, because I can honestly see how that would be if there were ever a zombie apocalypse or you know, something similar. I'm glad it had such great diversity and that's wonderful all the characters introduced their pronouns.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

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    1. The dead were predictable but it's the living that survivors should fear most. It's so wonderfully diverse Lauren, I think you'll absolutely love this one.

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  5. Awesome review Kelly.
    Even though I tend to stay away from Zombie tales (they freak me the hell out), as this is Alison Evans, I'm looking forward to reading it in March as part of our #AusYABuddyRead <3 :-)

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  6. I have been meaning to comment on this for literally WEEKS now because holy crap this sounds amazing. And like SUCH a Shannon book. Also, I cannot tell you how many books are on my "notify me" list on Book Depository because of all the OZYA books you recommend and aren't available here yet- why do they all sound AMAZING? Your recommendations are seriously fabulous!

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  7. I think I forgot to mention in my review how much this book makes you care about the characters and really lets you dive into the experiences they have during the book so I love that you mentioned it, Kell! I think Alison has grown as a writer and I cannot wait to see what they produce next :)

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