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Oct 14, 2011

karen rated it:

it is october.i am going to read a bunch of zombie books. this is the first.

and it was very okay. by now, she has written a sequel, and i am hoping that she has gotten her mythology tightened enough to allow her plot a narrow strait through which to flow, because the major problem with this one was trying to understand the rules; they seem awfully fluid and she frequently neglects to address the big picture.

quickly: so in this book, zombies can communicate with each othe More...

22 comments like (34 people liked it)

Jul 23, 2011

Cecilia rated it:

Who knew that zombies are offended by the term "zombie" and prefer to be called "undead" or "regenerators"? Who knew zombies could communicate with one another and actually have emotional drives? Well, that is what we learn from reading this novel. Plot-wise, it drags a little. But, I guess that may not be a bad thing considering that we are dealing with zombies. And, thanks to some kind of chemical accident, the living and the undead are evolving into somethin More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 09, 2011

Crystal Starr Light rated it:

Another Book Bites the Dust

NOTE: I received this book as part of the Amazon Vine Program

Nine years ago, Jessie and her parents died in a car accident. Now, Jessie is among the undead, the "zombies". She is a part of a gang in the Great River County Park. But things are taking a strange turn. A "hoo" (human) woman is found in a state not quite human, not quite undead. And their leader, Teresa, is beginning to look more human. What is happening...and does i More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2011

Missie rated it:

http://www.theunreadreader.com/2010/07/d...

Forget everything you ever knew about Zombies. I've got some new zombie factoids for you. Zombies have always existed; no one know why. Zombies have super human strength. And, zombies communicate telepathically with each other. Okay, so maybe we kind of already knew those things, but did you know that zombies can also dance and laugh and love... They can also make you cry, and not just in the 'OMFG! A Zombie is about to eat my brains' sort More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2011

Lacey rated it:

I have a love/hate relationship with zombies. I'm scared to death (haha) of them, but I find them fascinating as well. So when I picked up this book and started reading, I quickly found myself unable to read it at night. And then I realized I also couldn't put it down.

Joan Frances Turner writes zombies like someone who's also fascinated by them, and wants to understand what makes them who (what?) they are. Jessie is a great protagonist, a zombie who likes her undead life, but who also More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2011

Amanda rated it:

In the very first part of this story, Jessie's arm finally falls off. Nice image, that. She is in love with Joe, a maggot infested zombie. Undead, actually. Jessie hates the word 'zombie'.
The story is told in first person from the point of view of Jessie, a zom--undead girl who was killed in a car accident. She and her friends, the Fly-By-Nights, frolic through the woods hunting, fighting, playing tricks on hapless humans, and yes, even dancing. She loves who she has become, loves More...

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Dec 07, 2011

Chris rated it:

I'm not sure this is YA or not. The protagonist is a teen zombie. But that's not what's important.

I liked Jessie, the teen zombie--er--undead, and I liked the idea of a novel told from the perspective of the living dead. However, at times, the pace dragged slower than a zombie shuffle. I felt like there was supposed to be some great metaphor here, but darned if I know what it is.

I did find Turner's post-zombie "baby boom" world interesting. Though Turner never More...

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Dec 05, 2011

Linda rated it:

When I was reading this book I had a hard time thinking about how I was going to review it. It hovered between 2 and 3 stars thru most of the story. The protagonist died at 15 and then spent 9+ years reanimated. At times the book felt like it was written by a 15 year old. Maybe that is what the author was shooting for but there is a thick line between writing in a teen voice and writing as a teenager. The book lacked some of the polish and cohesiveness I prefer. Part of that lack of cohesiv More...

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Aug 30, 2011

Jane rated it:

In spite of my review, this book has the BEST first sentence of a book ever written: "Today, my right arm fell off." How great is THAT?

Something's rotten in the state of Zombieland - and it's not just the zombies. For 9 years Jessie's lived harmoniously with a clan of zombies - well, as harmoniously as zombies CAN live together, and apparently they have an entirely different definition of "harmonious" than we humans (or "hoos" as they call us) do. K More...

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Jul 05, 2011

Monster added it

If you can get past the fact that the heroine of this novel is a flesh-eating zombie, you might just enjoy this stand-alone novel. While the gross-out level is very high (these are zombies, after all) the story does have some poignant and tender moments (really, it does).

In this world, buried bodies rise as zombies; only cremated bodies stay dead. Nine years ago, 15-year-old Jessie was killed in an automobile accident along with her parents. Now, Jessie lives in the woods near More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 04, 2011

Patrick rated it:

I picked this book up on tour so I had something to read while traveling. I picked it up because Amber Benson had written a blurb for the cover, and that was enough to win my trust.

I start to read it and am pleasantly surprised. It's a zombie story told first-person from the point of view of the zombie.

I read it in one sitting that night on the train when I really should have been catching up on my sleep. It's a clever book, and I really enjoyed it.

Is it a perfec More...

7 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2011

MaryBookSwarm rated it:

Filled with rotting corpses, wriggling maggots, and smashed skulls, DUST serves up the kind of gross zombie-filled horror story so many of my students adore. The grosser, the better.

After Jessie dies in an unfortunate accident, she wakes up no longer a girl but as a zombie. A shambling, rotting, limb-losing zombie. But she's not out to eat humans. She leaves that for the city gangs. No, our main character much prefers a fresh deer or squirrel to munch on. That blood, still warm from More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2010

Karissa rated it:

I got an advanced reading copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program. When I saw this book which promised to be "a different type of zombie book" I was excited. I love zombie books and was looking for a fresh take. Overall the story is okay, but didn't seem all that original to me. The most notable thing about the book was the extremely graphic and gory descriptions given of all things putrid and nasty.

Jessica Anne Porter has been dead for nine years and she has been s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 28, 2010

Eva rated it:

Do NOT read this while eating! This being a zombie - or rather, undead - novel from the point of view of the flesh-eaters, there is plenty of rotting flesh, seething bugs, eating of raw meat, brain-stomping, and that is far from all. This novel purports to show that the undead have feelings and souls, too - and when they are threatened by a virus that kills them just as surely as it does humans, one might start to feel sorry for undead Jessie, who died and rose again 9 years ago, when she was More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2010

Andre rated it:

I'm a zombie purist in that I don't think zombies should have any sort of consciousness. It's something that greatly annoys me. So I almost gave up on this book after the first chapter. I don't really know what to think about it now that I finished. It wasn't terrible, but the prose was a bit weak at times and there was a lot of unnecessary repetition. The author tried so hard to make the reader think that the reader didn't have to think, if that makes much sense. There were several scenes that More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 12, 2010

Erin rated it:

Dust is a gamechanger in the world of zombies. It requires you to forget everything you have learned thus far about zombies. Forget the craving for brains. Nevermind the halting, staggering or the twitching, the tics and speed walking. Joan Frances Turner has written a novel that introduces you to zombies for the first time as emotional beings; they think, communicate, wonder, fight, worry, need and care. Under the decay of death the fear they instill, they are just trying to get by.

More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2010

Chelsea rated it:

Jessie barely remembers the day she died in a car accident. Her life did not end there. She is a zombie, but don't you dare call her that. She lives in the woods with a small pack of other undead, living and surviving in a sort of mock-society. They hunt, they sleep, they have a fearless leader. Then Jessie runs into her brother Jim, an uninfected human who works at a lab to research zombies. However, as Jessie's friends and acquaintances begin to get sick and die (again), she realizes something More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2011

Tonya rated it:

Dust is a groundbreaking new way to look at zombies; unfortunately it falls on its face little more than halfway through. I found it wonderful to read a story from the perspective of the zombie, oops sorry revived (zombies apparently don’t like to be called zombies, who knew?); until about the millionth time I had to read about their bugs and their musical communication. Yep, apparently zombies communicate via musical telepathy, which I have to say IS original. It just seemed so darn forced, “lo More...

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Apr 25, 2011

Michael rated it:

Jessie Anne Porter was killed when she was a teenager and her father crashed into a pickup truck. She remembers crawling out of her grave and being consumed with hunger and drawn to the scent of a rabbit in the cemetery. Somehow, she had become a zombie.

Jessie joins a group of zombies, the Fly-by-Nights. We learn what the zombies are thinking and unlike traditional zombies, these mutated beings show human traits. Florian was ancient and philosophical, Teresa is the pack leader and s More...

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Oct 17, 2010

Neil rated it:

Do we need a book that tries to make the plight of zombies sympathetic? If the answer is this book, then definitely no. Turner is not a bad stylist, but her story here meanders between gross-out scenes, whining, and a confusing plot that jumps here and there but somehow always produces one scene after another that is the same. Worst of all, Turner tries to invest all of this with capital-M Meaning, but honestly, it's very hard to care about the teen zombie protagonist.

Also, to make More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2010

Jodi rated it:

The premise for this book is terrific. What if zombies weren't mindless shambling corpses but rather mindful shambling corpses with brains that could communicate with the other undeads? Unfortunately, the mythos of this alternate history set on/in/near the banks of Lake Michigan, doesn't hold up at all. For example, the only way to kill a zombie is to burn them. If people are buried and then rise as zombies, why isn't it the law that everyone is cremated? If the situation has been going on since More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 07, 2011

Shelly rated it:

From my blog, The Books I Read...:

I first heard of this book through an email newsletter I get from my local library. The summary sounded rather interesting so I put it on hold.

First and foremost this is a zombie novel told from the point of view of the zombies. These are not your typical zombies; they communicate with each other, they form groups for company, safety and survival, and fun. Zombies, intelligent or not, are NOT sexy and Turner does not shy away from keeping tha More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2010

Trisha rated it:

Jessie is one of the undead, a zombie, living out her days with her gang in the woods, hunting and fighting. But a new disease is spreading through the undead and the living that may wipe out both. While this sounds all apocalyptic and exciting, the truth of the matter is that the novel dragged on for much longer than necessary.

The dirty, the disgusting, doesn't necessarily phase me when it is naturally integrated into a thought-provoking and entertaining story. With Dust, however, i More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2010

Jen (That's What I'm Talking About) rated it:

NOTE: I am running a giveaway for this book at my blog from Sept. 6-10, 2010. Please visit here for entry:
http://twimom227.blogspot.com/2010/09/du...

I’m going to start by telling you that this is my first zombie book. I didn’t know what to expect, but my ideas of zombies were formed by horror movies. This is NOT what Jessie is about. She is a teenage girl that died and was reborn into a new life of the “undead.” The undead don’t feed on human brains (unless they want to), but ra More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 01, 2011

Anita rated it:

This book will be deeply disgusting for the average reader. It wallows in rot, cannibalism, graphic depictions of animal hunts, human decomposition, vomit, vomit and more vomit, the effects of zombie-on-zombie violence and so much more. Dwelling in the head space I do, I only got creeped out by a couple of scenes and those were scenes that discussed in depth the insect infestations the zombies dealt with. The rest, sadly, became tiresome as the novel went on because the reader gets his or her se More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2010

All Things Urban Fantasy rated it:

Review courtesy of AllThingsUrbanFantasy.blogspot.com

I don’t know that I've ever had a book make me feel as physically nauseous as I did while reading DUST. It is grotesque, gruesome, and gory from start to finish.

I’m kind of marveling at the 180 that I’ve gone through with DUST. I liked the concept of a zombie novel written from the perspective of the undead, I loved the book trailers that spoofed the old Public Service Announcements, and I still think the first line i More...

11 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2012

Laura rated it:

I think I've finally got my thoughts in order on this. While I can appreciate the uniqueness of telling a zombie story from the zombie's P.O.V., there were a few things about the story that just rubbed me the wrong way. First off, in Turner's tale, the undead don't like being called zombies. Now, she's set her zombie tale in the culture of gangs, which, from that perspective, I can understand the distinction of names, as within some cultural subsets, past and present, certain peoples resent t More...

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Sep 16, 2010

Veronika rated it:

Any book written from the point of view from a zombie is a must read for me. Right from page one you really get a vivid picture of this brutal human/undead world. Strangely, you find yourself identifying with the undead at times and railing against the humans. The authors details are extremely visceral and it's a unique blend of literary and horror. Not something you see too often. If nothing else, the descriptions of zombie life are so grotesque, it's worth reading alone for the author's fantas More...

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Nov 03, 2010

Robert rated it:

Joan Frances Turner, Dust (Ace, 2010)

The recent glut of zombie novels, while sometimes tiresome (and always too much of a good thing), has had one exceptional positive effect: while most writers are content to just pull out the stock zombies and plunk them down into yet another scenario of survival, every once in a while you get someone who wants to pull a thread out of the paradigm and see where the sweater unravels. This has directly led to three of the best novels (not just zombie n More...

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Oct 27, 2011

Hannah rated it:

Maggots, rotting flesh and zombies? Sounds like a truly grotesque combination, but not so much in this originally crafted novel by Joan Frances Turner. While there are some truly gross moments (there’s maggots, OK?), I love this completely unique approach. Turner actually humanized zombies, something I never, ever considered.

Jessie fascinated me. I loved reading about the world through her eyes, and how her life changed since becoming undead. I enjoyed reading about the community tha More...

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