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Frail (Dust #2)

2.94 of 5 stars 2.94 · rating details · 110 ratings · 24 reviews

Being human is a disadvantage in post-apocalyptic America...

Now that the Feeding Plague has swept through human and zombie societies, it seems like everyone is an "ex" these days. Ex-human. Ex- zombie. Except for Amy, that is. She's the only human survivor from her town-a frail. And if the feral dogs, the flesh-eating exes, and the elements don't get her, she just may disc...more

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published October 4th 2011 by Ace Hardcover

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Oct 20, 2011 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: death-is-not-the-end, october-is-spooky

warning: this is totally going to be phoned in. school has me by the balls right now, so i am pretty distracted. i suppose if i cared more about this book, i would make the effort, but it was only just okay, so it gets an only just okay book report.

this is part 2 to the book Dust. i imagine there will be more written after this, as it ends on an action-ellipsis. the main character is a human, a "frail", one of the few remaining after the action in the first book where zombies took over, then zo...more warning: this is totally going to be phoned in. school has me by the balls right now, so i am pretty distracted. i suppose if i cared more about this book, i would make the effort, but it was only just okay, so it gets an only just okay book report.

this is part 2 to the book Dust. i imagine there will be more written after this, as it ends on an action-ellipsis. the main character is a human, a "frail", one of the few remaining after the action in the first book where zombies took over, then zombies and most humans fell victim to a different contagion that left zombies near-indestructible and humans like zombies. but there are different ranks of zombies: those who were already dead and became zombified in the grave, zombies becoming so after dying from a zombie attack, zombies who were just humans succumbing to the other contagion... but none of them eat people. which takes the fun out of the zombie book, you ask me. it's a new kind of monster, but they are more like gods on earth than flesh-eating monsters who will attack you at the mall.

and as such they are less interesting.

so this frail meets up with the sister of the protagonist in the first book, who was the first human-turned-zombie-through-(view spoiler), and they end up getting captured and kept in this town where zombies are basically the jailers-town council and humans are their pets/worker ants/mistresses. but there is still tension. and seeecrets.

stony mayhall featured zombies who were not in attack-mode, either. in that world, the infection leaves its victims in attack-living-human mode for a time, and then subsides into a more socially-acceptable undead state. and that book is great - it doesn't need to be all bloody-mawed and reaching. this book is trying to be a horror novel still, but with defanged zombies. oh, there is still violence, there is still bloodshed. in fact - that is what this author is particularly good at: the gross-out. in both books, there was all kinds of bodily fluids and stenches and detailed descriptions of the breakdown of the body and how bugs contribute to that etc etc. she's got a great sense of that. but the rest of it is just muddled.

i know i still have questions about things that happened in the book, but already, it is quickly fading from my mind. maybe as a result of my preoccupation with school, or maybe because this was just a passing entertainment, nothing that is going to revolutionize the zombie genre (although it is certainly trying). it's october - read a zombie book or two, but maybe read a different one first.(less)

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Sep 28, 2011 Katie(babs) rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: dnf-award, gag-worthy-book

Frail is the second book in Joan Frances Turner’s Dust series. I heard great things about the first book Dust, which gives a different spin on the zombie apocalypse much like Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies. Dust and Warm Bodies are both from the POV of a zombie character. The difference with Dust is that it’s more horror while Warm Bodies is more of a dark comedy. I thought Frail would introduce me to a unique and different perspective on the world during and after the zombie apocalypse, much like M...more Frail is the second book in Joan Frances Turner’s Dust series. I heard great things about the first book Dust, which gives a different spin on the zombie apocalypse much like Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies. Dust and Warm Bodies are both from the POV of a zombie character. The difference with Dust is that it’s more horror while Warm Bodies is more of a dark comedy. I thought Frail would introduce me to a unique and different perspective on the world during and after the zombie apocalypse, much like Mira Grant has done with her Newsflesh series. Frail is such a book that repels the reader. Why? Because it’s so badly written and extremely unclear with the characters and their action and thoughts.

The zombie apocalypse has hit the world. Humans are barely surviving. Fifteen year old Amy lives with her mother, who’s on the front lines, more like a security officer to keep the zombies out of their town and destroy them if they attack. One day her mother leaves without any warning and Amy is left to fend for herself. Around this time a new plague has started. People became sick with a disease that can’t be diagnosed. The ones who become ill have an intense hunger and eat anything and everything. Even the undead have the same symptoms and soon no one can tell the living and zombies apart. Amy hides from these insane creatures along with a few grownups from her town, but then they die or fall victim to the disease. With no plan, Amy strikes out on her own, knowing she may not survive. Her one goal is to find her mother, who she hopes is still alive.

Along her travels she meets Lisa, who is known as an Ex. Lisa is a zombie, but is still human in her thoughts and feelings. She doesn’t have an insane hunger and doesn’t want to eat human flesh. Plus if she’s hurt, she recovers, as Amy learns when Lisa cuts herself and there’s no scarring or bruising. Amy doesn’t trust Lisa, but since she’s all alone and there’s also feral dogs running around with an extreme appetite for meat, she goes with her.

Mother Nature isn’t on their side either because a tornado rips through their shelter and destroys all their food and items. And then a man and woman in a car drive by. They’re both Exs and force Amy and Lisa to come with them to a compound run by Exs where they make the humans, known as Frails, work the land, cook for them and keep everything running. Amy wants to escape in the hopes of locating her mother and because both the Exs and the Frails, who are slowly going crazy (mostly likely because their brains are rotting) may end up destroying themselves and anyone else around them.

Frail is a convoluted mess. I wish I could tell you what was going as I read. I couldn’t figure out what the characters are saying and really have no idea what happens as the story moves along. There’s a massive amount of nonsense, major lack of world building and the purpose for things are just thrown out there as if the reader will be fine with it and take it at face value. There’s no reason given why this plague has happened and why it affects everyone, even the dead. There’s no plausible explanation for anything and the writing lacks an overall sense of cohesiveness.

I couldn’t figure out who Amy is and what her motivation was. She comes across emotionally stilted, which I guess is understandable because of all she had been through, but she’s so unresponsive to the world around her, as if she has become one of the mindless undead.

Frail really has me wondering how it got published. There’s nothing about it that’s promising, original or thought-provoking. It became a challenge to read and when I got to the point where I had to read a page three times because my brain couldn’t connect with the material, I decided to DNF it.

Frail is what I call a train wreck and will mostly like be one of my worst reads this year.(less)

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Dec 07, 2011 Book Sp(l)ot rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-release

Frail is Joan Frances Turner's second zombie novel, after Dust. Now that the Feeding Plague has made its way through the country - both human and zombie societies alike - the country is full of 'ex's. Everyone is either an ex-human or ex-zombie. Everyone that is except for Amy. She's the only human survivor in her town, a frail.

With exes - flesh eating ones - everywhere and ghost dogs only she can see - survival in this new America is all Amy has on her mind.

And the ex-human Lisa she meets on he...more Frail is Joan Frances Turner's second zombie novel, after Dust. Now that the Feeding Plague has made its way through the country - both human and zombie societies alike - the country is full of 'ex's. Everyone is either an ex-human or ex-zombie. Everyone that is except for Amy. She's the only human survivor in her town, a frail.

With exes - flesh eating ones - everywhere and ghost dogs only she can see - survival in this new America is all Amy has on her mind.

And the ex-human Lisa she meets on her journey, she may or may not be able be able to trust is the only one she can turn to when things get even more dangerous.

Frail is an amazingly well developed, well thought out zombie novel - or just novel period. I did not read Dust so I don't know how much, if at all, the two stories build on each other or overlap or how much knowing that novel and its events would help a reader be drawn into the events of Frail.

There was trouble (for me) getting into the first half or so of this book. It was still good enough to keep me reading, it just read incredibly slow for me. (I put it down and picked it back up a few times.)

The last third to half of Frail is what really draws a reader in, though. It's when the novel really gets more action, suspense and things about the society start to get explained. It's when you really cannot put the book down.

The world Turner has developed for Frail is unbelievably well developed and all encompassing. While some books are ones that seem like they would transfer well to film (and ones readers would love to see made into movies), Frail is one that would make a great television show. While it would have to be on cable - if not a premium cable channel - there is so much story there and the society is so completely developed that it would be a joy to see it unveiled over multiple episodes.

There is not a lot of gore in this novel - a fair bit of violence and some disturbing things, but not that much gore. The language/swearing (along with some of the events) pull it up to to an older YA/adult range.

7/10

thank you to the publisher for my copy of the book for review(less)

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Oct 30, 2011 Hannah (The Irish Banana Review) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-release

I really just didn’t think anything could shock me more than Dust (Book 1 in the trilogy), but I was clearly wrong. While Dust was told from a zombie’s point of view, Frail ups the ante on the horror by showing how humans have fared in Joan Frances Turner’s post zombie-apocalyptic world.

The story follows Amy, a frail (or regular human) as she tries to survive after an illness created a new breed of super humans/zombies that seem almost immortal. She bonds with Lisa, an ex who is struggling to h...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Keith In Ky rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have to say after reading the first book in this series (Dust), that I enjoyed this one more. The different story arc was refreshing since the end of the first book was just plain strange. Now, I am not saying that this one didin't have alot of strangeness to it, it did, but the writing improved. This book flowed much better, I didn't have to reread somethings to try to understand what was happening. I just let the words go by and didn't question things that probably should have been. But, all...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-and-sci-fi

I really liked this book. I don't know why many of the reviews are so negative. I didn't find it confusing like many people seem to have(and I didn't even read the first book in the series!)

This is the first zombie genre book I've read, so I'm not really familiar with how those books are "supposed" to be, but I thought this was an interesting take on zombies. The author wasn't hyper-original, but the characters were likeable, believeable, and unique. This author has an incredible gift for descri...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars

Amy is one of the last living humans from Lepingville (same town Jessie is from in Dust) and she's decided it's time to move on. Traveling through the wasteland of neighboring towns on her way anywhere, she meets Lisa, an ex -- Lisa was human before the outbreak that turned everyone, human and zombie, into something other. Then Lisa and Amy are taken to a small town where exes are masters and frails have become all but slaves.

It's hard to tell at this point just where the trilogy is headed. As...more

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Dec 24, 2011 Cherish rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ms. Turner took what could have been a great apocalyptic zombie thriller and made it into a book about a teenage girl with a sad story. The mental health problems one would encounter after having gone through what the protagonist, Amy has gone through seemed logical and flowed well within the confines of this story. Where the author fell short was making us care, creating any kind of real danger, or even characters that made sense to the story. The ending was abrupt and rife with mystery. I do n...more

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May 05, 2012 Scotchneat rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: vamps-faeries-weres-and-supes

Amy survives a zombie apocalypse and wants to know what happened to her mother. And there's a twist with these zombies before they go "over" - they hit an eating frenzy stage that includes things like bricks.

Picked up and taken to a compound of mixed zombies and human "workers", she makes some friends, and traces back how and why this all happened.

Some interesting ideas and characterization, but I wasn't riveted.

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May 13, 2012 Holly rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopian, zombies, ya, science-fiction

I loved this book when I began reading; the combination of lyrical prose and zombie dystopia appealed to me on every level. Unfortunately before I was a hundred pages in the style changed, the language became more common. There was a period in the middle of the story where there were so many characters, all with suburban names (Amy, Lisa, Billy...really? An evil overlord named Billy?) Some character names began with the same first letter, adding to my confusion. I made notes to tell them apart....more

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Mar 29, 2013 Trish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Was an interesting enough book but I'm curious on the direction it took.

The first book was told from a Zombies perspective, which could've been great, and now this one from a completely different angle.

The series, so far, does leave you asking questions. But, I'm just confuzzled by it.

Not saying I didn't like the book, I did. Just don't know why she changed perspectives.

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Sep 10, 2012 Emilia Mahaffey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Perhaps it would have helped if I'd read the first book in the series, but I generally found the prose heavy, and the main character - Amy- difficult to connect with. Not only was she not letting other characters within the story to see her, the reader found it difficult to understand her motivation s and emotions.

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Dec 09, 2011 Linda rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: dec_2011

This book was harder to follow than the first. The writing is very disjointed and becomes harder to follow as the book progresses. The only reason I finished this book was because every few chapters there was a interesting one or a good plot twist. But overall I am disappointed.

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Apr 12, 2013 Al rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In a post-zombie world, life is what you make it . . .

Since a devastating, morphing plague swept through human and zombie populations, almost everyone who survived is an “ex” these days. Ex-human. Ex-zombie. Both creatures crave flesh, have the strength and speed of predators—and are seemingly immortal. Pierced skin and broken bones mend, but their all-consuming hunger never dies . . .

Amy is the only purely human survivor from her town: a frail. For a girl used to going it alone, trusting any

...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Todd rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to finish.. it's a bit "twilightish" and geared toward young girls.. no wonder my sister in law likes this stuff :)

Follow up 1/24/12- Couldn't get past page 100. It's definitely geared for the romance-girly/fantasy readers.

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Dec 09, 2012 Cheryl rated it 2 of 5 stars

Disappointed in this second book of a trilogy. DUST was first book in Resurgam trilogy. Draggy and frankly boring for a zombie book.

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Apr 06, 2013 Chris Pederson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: zombies

Am I reading too many zombie books? Pish posh!! There's no such thing as too many zombie books!!

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Oct 01, 2012 Helen added it

could not finish it. Writing was too choppy

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Apr 16, 2012 Jennifer rated it 1 of 5 stars

Could not get through this book. The concept of the series is good, but gets way to hard to follow. Should have just stuck with the simple plot instead of throwing too many differnet things into it

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May 14, 2013 Catherine rated it 1 of 5 stars

Not my cup of tea.

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May 21, 2012 Lisa Eirene added it

Shelves: couldn-t-finish

Realized this was book 2 in a series, so gave up since I haven't read the first one.

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Oct 22, 2011 Maggie Moo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

So many questions!

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Feb 12, 2012 Charity rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sfrevu-com, purchased, ebook

Finally skimmed through the end of this.

A few interesting ideas but not enough to hold it together. not enough distinction between the various types of zombies and ex humans to make sense. predictable ending.

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Nov 09, 2011 Inti rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: zombies

This sequel was disappointing. The writing was disjointed and hard to follow. Not enough zombie mayhem. The central character in the story was annoying. The first book was genius. This one, not so much.

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May 15, 2013 David Sharp rated it 2 of 5 stars

May 14, 2013 Karen marked it as to-read

May 10, 2013 Amy Parker rated it 4 of 5 stars

May 07, 2013 Nicole marked it as to-read

Shelves: own

May 06, 2013 Anastasia Hoffman marked it as to-read

May 10, 2013 Frances rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

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About Joan Frances Turner

Joan Frances Turner is the author of Dust, forthcoming from Ace Books on September 7, 2010. Dust is a story of the undead from their own point of view, as they battle time, decay, the loved ones they left behind, encroaching humanity and each other. Or, think Watership Down with zombies instead of rabbits. She is currently working on a sequel, tentatively titled Frail, from the all-important human...more

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Frail (Dust #2)

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