Eva Pasco

5.0 out of 5 stars

Raising the Bar!

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2024

Verified Purchase

Prolific author, J.S. Frankel, whose Teen & Young Adult works of fiction never fail to strike at the heart of social matters, once more, raises the bar in “Raise the Dead”. A zombie outbreak metastasizes into a pandemic from the bite of a single carrier, resurrected and mutated from a botched medical experiment. The dire situation keeps Frankel’s readers stepping furtively over rotted corpses strewn along the streets of Newton Town, Oregon.

High school classmates, Harmon Hapwell and Britt Besch, eye witnesses to a “resurrection” become part of the ever dwindling zombie-slaying team under the auspices of FBI agent, Criswell. Duly noted, the names of some teammates: Veronica and Betty; Wilson and Pickett; Barnes and Noble.

The odds are stacked against them due to a massive cover-up involving a pharmaceutical company, the army, and government. Then, there’s the breakdown in social order, resulting in looting and preying upon vulnerable humans—the protagonists, included.

Hapwell and Besch, two unsung heroes, transform reticence into resilience in order to survive and do their part in destroying the undead.

This worthy read is a far zombie cry from your stereotypical story with a happily-ever-after ending. “Raise the Dead” raises the bar for citing the hidden horrors perpetrated by government/military collusion, and for showing the true colors of your next-door neighbor in the face of adversity.