Plague Town by Dana Fredsti is set in a small college town in Northern California. The story centers on Ashley Parker, a college student who is recovering from Walker’s. Walker’s is the name of the flu that is sweeping the town and its inhabitants.

What sets this novel apart from others is the writing style. Told in 1st person using Ashley as the primary character, the reader is pulled into her scholastic world as she makes snide comments and struggles with academia. Toss in a zombie outbreak that is an offshoot of the Walker’s flu and you have the makings of a fine addition to the genre.

Ashley soon discovers there are worse things than recovering from the flu, being the unintended center of attention from a teaching assistant and trying to spend some quality intimate time with your boyfriend. That intimacy is interrupted by a few zombies who have no sense of timing. Escaping from the encounter, she soon finds out that some of the college professors aren’t who she thought they were.

Ashley discovers out that although bitten while escaping from the infected, she is what is referred to as a ‘Wild Card’. Wild Cards are people who are bitten but somehow don’t succumb to the infection. This makes them immune from the virus and affects their senses, reflexes and healing ability. This by no means makes them super hero zombie fighting machines. They can still die but being bitten won’t kill them.

Volunteering to help given her new found abilities, Ashley is tossed in with a mixed group of similar survivors and trained to go out and engage the infected. While they immunity to the infection is an obvious benefit, the primary mission is to secure the perimeter of the town and search for survivors.

Ms. Fresti’s writing is articulated in such a way that is places the reader directly in the situation with her characters. Plague Town has a well developed plot. It doesn’t bog down or lag unnecessarily and has a distinct journey for each character throughout the course of the novel.

But, there are a few minor issues when it comes to the military aspect.

Just to clarify, what I’m going to mention does not affect the overall story or reading experience. This is just what I noted during the read through.

In one sequence, a small squad is clearing buildings and when one soldier spots a zombie he actually says this, ‘Zed Identified’, he then gets a confirmation from his NCO who states, ‘Fire’ followed by the phrase, ‘On the way’. What you may ask is wrong with this wording?

Infantry doesn’t use that type of verbiage. The sequence of Identified, Fire and On the way is something that soldiers in Armor units use when inside a tank. They would identify the target, get confirmation to fire from the tank commander and then the gunner would shout ‘on the way’ as he fires the silver bullet at their target. Infantry just doesn’t go through that entire sequence. Later there is mention of soldiers ‘stacking’ outside a building before they clear it. (Kudos for using that terminology in correct context.) The operation they are conducting would be a ‘sweep and clear’. That means they are sweeping the buildings for survivors and infected and would most likely be using a shock and awe type of entry. Dynamic Entry is another common term meaning that they are using methods to enter the building quickly such as breaching charges, or a battering ram and the addition of flash bang grenades.

In a later chapter, one of the Wild Cards ‘unholsters their M4’. That is something I’d truly love to see. The M4 is a rifle so it’s very unlikely that it would be holstered. Maybe if it was in a scabbard slung across someone’s shoulder or back it could be unholstered or rather unsheathed.

A few other items relate to the use of clips in place of magazines, cartridges and rounds and placing rounds in pouches and mags in pockets. The term ‘clip’ dates back to WW2 if not earlier and relates to the M1 Garand rifle which used a stripper clip. Modern military rifles, the M4 in particular, use a magazine. Rounds and cartridges are the same thing so if one were to load cartridges into rounds, not going to happen. Rounds are loose cartridges so to load rounds into pouches would be a futile exercise as one would prefer those rounds loaded into magazines and those magazines loaded into their pouches.

But, hey this is just me pointing these things out and by now everyone should know how anal I am about military details and accuracy.

Overall, Plague Town is an excellent novel, well developed characters, exceptional plot evolvement and a pleasure to read. I look forward to the next book in this series.

Available on Amazon