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Raising Stony Mayhall

by Daryl Gregory (Goodreads Author)

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 939 ratings · 218 reviews

In 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda — and he begins to move.

The family hides the child — whom they name Stony — rather than turn him ove...more

Paperback, 422 pages

Published June 28th 2011 by Del Rey

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Jul 17, 2011 Ceridwen rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Bird Brian

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Mike

Shelves: alternate-history, america-and-environs, ghost-stories, the-movies, zombies

I was talking with my husband the other day about Ragnarok, the Norse Armageddon, and kind of jokingly saying it was the first alt-history. Ragnarok is this really specific telling of the last days of the Norse Gods, a catalog of who will kill whom and how. It's understood to be told in the future tense, something that hasn't happened yet, but will, with exactness and finality. He was like, but isn't that prophesy, like Revelations? I admit my knowledge of Revelations is a little crappy, but I d...more

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May 23, 2012 Michelle, the Bookshelf Stalker rated it 5 of 5 stars

Made the list for

Best Badass Zombie Books..

http://badassbookreviews.com/the-best...

Part 1

This is the story of a little baby found on the side of a road. He is clearly different. He should not be.

Wanda Mayhall does not care. Stony is a baby. She will protect him from the world, and make sure he is raised to be loved and cherished just like her three other children.

Sadly for Stony, he knows he is not like his sisters. His physical self is not only different, but he feels no pain, and things that...more

24 likes · like · see review

Dec 29, 2011 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

Though this is certainly not the very best novel I have ever read--or have read this year, or this month, or even this week--this is definitely the most super funfun time I have had reading a book in ages. I know that by saying that I am running the risk of driving people away from Stony Mayhall out of sheer literary fussiness and general taking-self-too-seriouslyness (not saying I'm not guilty), and that is truly a shame because it really is quite well-written on top of being fast-paced and che...more Though this is certainly not the very best novel I have ever read--or have read this year, or this month, or even this week--this is definitely the most super funfun time I have had reading a book in ages. I know that by saying that I am running the risk of driving people away from Stony Mayhall out of sheer literary fussiness and general taking-self-too-seriouslyness (not saying I'm not guilty), and that is truly a shame because it really is quite well-written on top of being fast-paced and cheeky in all the right ways. I should thank goodreaders Mike and karen for their reviews which piqued my interest in this one, as I probably would never have even considered picking it up otherwise. I'm glad that I did, as the pacing combined with the at times dark and at other times wholesome and heartwarming humor is well-balanced and makes more out what could otherwise just be same ole zombiesplatter nonsense. In fact, it is particularly non-splattery. Oddity number one.

"Zombies, snore" you may be saying, but don't give up on them just yet. I realize that they're almost as all-up-in-yo-face as sparkling vampires these days, but can we at least agree that zombies are a helluvalot cooler than those assholes to begin with? Besides, Daryl Gregory knows what he's getting himself into, and he calls himself out for every embraced or deliberately curtailed staple of zombie mythology throughout the story. This is not some redundant Land of the Dead bullshit; there is something else going on here. It's not quite wacky enough to be likened to Shaun of the Dead, but also not anywhere near gory enough to bring any other major zombie film to mind. (Sorry, I must use examples from film since I love zombie movies, but have never read a single other zombie novel.) Raising Stony Mayhall rests somewhere in between these standard approaches, a family-centered coming-of-age tale based around the idea of a post-infection, generally non-violent, hunted and oppressed zombie minority. Most people fear and shun them, even though they have to bite you to share their "disease," and they don't even have the urge to do so ...well, not anymore. Throughout the whole thing, I just kept thinking "AIDS epidemic, AIDS epidemic, just come out and say it, Daniel...AIDS EPIDEMIC." It's not just that simple, however. There is a whole lot more social critiquing going on (as fictions about zombies tend to exhibit), and the layers aren't just something a thesis-writing FVS or Lit student has read into it after the fact. It's all placed with care.

I should just get to the point. This novel is sort of like those microwavable Amy's burritos that you buy at the health food store; sure, it's not the very best thing you could be consuming, but you could do a whole lot worse and damn is it tasty anyway.*

*You know, even that may be unfair. I think I'm being too harsh because reading a zombie NOVEL just makes me feel silly. Never mind my baggage, this is quality literature despite the constraints it has set up for itself from the beginning. It's gooooood.

(less)

20 likes · like · see review

Oct 18, 2011 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

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

zombie novels are usually about other things, where the zombies/zombie situation is just standing in for whatever larger theme, whatever personal political or social point the author wants to make. zombies are a conveniently adaptable menace: the fluidity of their ontology, the mechanics of their movements and behaviors: fast or slow? sentient or no? brain eating or no? zombies suit the needs of many different authors to many different ends.

this book is no different. it is zombie novel as "what...more

53 likes · like · see review

Oct 09, 2011 Bonnie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: zombies-like-brains, read-in-2011, seriously-disappointing, dystopian-post-apocalyptic

Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my blog!

In Part I, the Mayhall family find a woman long dead on the side of the road with a baby wrapped up inside her coat. Shortly after, Wanda Mayhall realizes what he really is, yet decides that they are going to keep him anyways and hide him from the world. We watch Stony change and literally grow from a baby into a young man just as any normal living human being does. We watch him become an integral part of the Mayhall family and develop into his own...more Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my blog!

In Part I, the Mayhall family find a woman long dead on the side of the road with a baby wrapped up inside her coat. Shortly after, Wanda Mayhall realizes what he really is, yet decides that they are going to keep him anyways and hide him from the world. We watch Stony change and literally grow from a baby into a young man just as any normal living human being does. We watch him become an integral part of the Mayhall family and develop into his own unique person. This was my favorite part of the novel.

Following Part I, which I was absolutely in love with, there was a major shift in the story and I wasn’t exactly on board with it. It became overly political, it became slightly philosophical, and I realize in retrospect that this was the world that the author was creating but it wasn’t exactly how I thought the story was going to go (or how I would have preferred it to go). I did enjoy the scientific aspects of the story and how the Living Dead were researching to find out what made them the way they are and what made it possible.

’Here was Thomas’s blood before he died, six hours after the bite: perfectly normal. And here was Thomas’s blood after he passed, at the 6:12 mark: dark, viscous, waxy. The transformation had occurred between observations, like the state change in a quantum particle. Like death itself.’

Many parts of this book required a certain amount of imagination. The idea behind the zombies in this book was that “Consciousness was the key.” At one point Stony explains how he once removed one of his toes and yet it still failed to decompose even though it was completely separated from his body. Once the toe was finally off his mind and he had failed to continue checking on it and thinking about it, only then did it finally start rotting and decomposing. I found this to be quite an interesting concept yet extremely hard to understand. Was that the only thing that kept these zombies ‘alive’? That if they had stopped thinking about themselves as a living dead person would they simply cease to exist?

’Where one dead thing ended and another began was largely a problem of perception and definition.’

Final Thoughts
I was overall disappointed with this book; however, I think that was largely because I was expecting something different entirely. I thought the storyline with the LD ‘governments’ and the plans being hatched by them was pretty strange and largely unbelievable. I had a hard time understanding where all the money came from… how one person could be the sole benefactor of so many. Also, the ending was inevitable but a bit too anticlimactic I thought. I loved Stony in the beginning but I was pretty disappointed at how the rest of the story unfolded.(less)

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Apr 25, 2012 Carlos rated it 5 of 5 stars

Este libro es lo que uno espera de la literatura de género. Que use las convenciones, las pervierta, las dinamite y haga algo totalmente inesperado. Gregory no sólo tiene una idea brillante, sino que la desarrolla con competencia más que solvente.

No sé con qué cara se podrán crear nuevas obras de zombies sin hacer el ridículo al lado de Raising Stony Mayhall. Y quien lo haga y no sepa que el buen Stony es el fantasma que vigila a los LDs, mejor que no cuente con mi atención.

5 estrellas para un l...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Janene rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: zombies, fiction-family-issues, horror, favorites, horror-paranormal, paranormal-fiction, humor, thrillers, twisted, suspense

Occasionally a novel comes along that totally changes the way you view things and your perceptions of what 'should be'. This book was so touching and different. It was one of those books that the further I got, the slower I read. Not because I was bored or uninterested...no. It was because I was afraid of what was coming..the unknown and didn't want to say goodbye to Stony and try to find something equally as precious. There are several great reviews here... all I'll leave you with is....read it...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Marvin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

At first, this novel begins like The Waltons meets The Walking Dead. It's a clever quarter of a novel that introduces our hero Stony Mayhall as a zombie infant that does something no other zombie does...grow up. The setting is interesting too. It begins in 1968 in an alternate reality that has witnessed a zombie epidemic shortly before that year. The zombies have been pretty much killed off by the government yet small groups still exist The kind Mrs. Mayhall sees that there is something differen...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Ian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, halloween-2012, society, alternate-history, post-apocalyptic

Okay. It was never easy for Stony Mayhall. He was born a poor zombie child. He remembered the days, sittin' in the basement with his family, diggin' and readin' over in Iowa...

(Apologies to Steve Martin)

Seriously though, this is an incredible bildungsroman about a boy born dead named John "Stony" Mayhall who grows up in an alternate version of America in which John Romero's 1968 film was actually a documentary. For unknown reasons, the dead rise in the Eastern US, hungering for human flesh and...more

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Jan 06, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Zombies, single mothers of zombies

Shelves: zombies, science-fiction, coming-of-age, audiobook, alternate-history, contemporary

I'm not sure why zombie novels are all the rage right now, or why I'm reading so many, but Raising Stony Mayhall was unexpectedly good. From the description, I was expecting it to be kind of a one-note gimmick based on the thin premise of a "zombie baby," but some positive reviews convinced me to give it a try, and I'm glad I did.

This is a book written by someone who knows the zombie genre and treats it with appropriate respect, while adding something of his own to the zombie mythology. The back...more I'm not sure why zombie novels are all the rage right now, or why I'm reading so many, but Raising Stony Mayhall was unexpectedly good. From the description, I was expecting it to be kind of a one-note gimmick based on the thin premise of a "zombie baby," but some positive reviews convinced me to give it a try, and I'm glad I did.

This is a book written by someone who knows the zombie genre and treats it with appropriate respect, while adding something of his own to the zombie mythology. The background is that in 1968 (yes, that date should ring bells if you know your zombie movies), there was a brief zombie outbreak, which was quickly contained after a large number of deaths. Unbeknownst to the public, however, the zombies weren't all destroyed, because it turns out that zombies are only mindless brain-eating monsters for a few hours after they "turn"; after that, the madness passes and they become their normal selves again... except, dead.

The government has been imprisoning or destroying every zombie they find and keeping their existence secret.

Stony Mayhall was a zombie baby found in the arms of the dead teenage girl who had recently given birth to him. The baby is found by a single mother and her daughters in 1968, just after the outbreak, and instead of turning it in, they keep it. Somehow, this "dead" baby grows up. Stony has to live his life in hiding with his adoptive family, though he does have one childhood friend who knows about him. Other than being undead, he matures mentally like a fairly normal kid, until one horrible night when he is a teenager, events force him to flee and go underground. He discovers that there is an entire secret society of living dead hiding from the authorities. They are divided into factions: some want peaceful coexistence with the living, others want to start a zombie apocalypse.

This book has many strengths. The writing is a cut above; Daryly Gregory does not write this like a pulp horror novel, but more like a literary bildungsroman. Stony is a compelling, sympathetic character, as he's smart and introspective and while a good person, he's also capable of learning to become a hard-bitten, cunning one. The book raises many issues concerning the morality of the living dead and what defines a human being; to its credit, it never goes for camp and while there are some funny parts, it's not satirical. Gregory has thought out the rules for his zombies very carefully, and everything is internally consistent. He confronts certain physical impossibilities head-on, which become important in the final climax.

My only complaint is that it skips around in time a bit, spending the first half of the book with Stony's upbringing from 1968 into the 1980s, and then jumping around from the early 90s to the present day. So the overall chronology of the book isn't always clear.

Other than that, though, this was an excellent read. I've never read such human zombies, nor a zombie novel with so many touching moments. It's entirely self-contained and there's absolutely no need for a sequel, so I recommend it for anyone even mildly interested in the genre. It wasn't quite blow-my-mind awesome, so I'm giving it 4.5 stars.(less)

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Apr 20, 2012 Juan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-english-pila, favorites

"The dead stick moves in the wind, and believes it moves itself"

Si te digo que este es un libro de zombis, seguramente, lo primero que pensaras es "vaya, otro más sobre zombis. Ya cansa tanto muerto viviente. Paso de leerlo". Es una reacción normal, lo reconozco. Es tanta la avalancha mediática sobre este tema, que la mayoría de nosotros estamos ya bastante saturados. Sin embargo, te diré que si esa es la razón por la que no piensas leer este libro, te equivocas de cabo a rabo.

Este no es un libr...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Bandit rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book. A really great book. I originally came across Daryl Gregory's books while browsing amazon.com and thought they looked very interesting, so particularly with my love for zombie genre, this was a case of judging the book by the cover (or description really since the cover is not very descriptive) and it definitely paid off. There is an epic quality to this book, which easily transcends the genre limitations and simply transforms it into a great work of literature with strong...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Lightreads rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: disability, fiction, horror, science-fiction

Bravo. This is the zombie book I didn't know I wanted. It's a grim, slyly funny, philosophical story about a zombie baby found beside the road in alternate history 1968 Iowa, and the women who risk their lives to raise him (raising, get it? No really, I swear, it's actually very cleverly funny). This is a book that draws its political horror in broad dashes, but does its interpersonal work in tight, minute, precise gestures. It's thinking about zombie fiction, but not in that irritating way wher...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Jacqie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Definitely the best "zombie book" I've read, not that I have a lot to compare. The book really is about taking a look at humanity, marginalized groups, and morality. There, now I've made the book sound boring. It's really not!

Stony is an LD (living dead person) who was found as an infant. He mysteriously and miraculously grows, sheltered by the family that found him. Then he is forced to flee and becomes part of the fascinating, strange LD culture. The living dead are ravaging monsters for the f...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, historical-fic, horror, suspense, zombies, dark-fantasy

First off, I have to admit that this book wasn't quite what I had expected when I picked it up. I was picturing it being more about the difficulties of raising a zombie child, when in fact we only spend about fifty pages on Stony's youth, before we move into his adulthood and the years leading up to and surrounding the second zombie apocalypse in 2010.
I enjoyed the book, as much as I can enjoy a macabre book like this. I thought it offered a viable and impressive new take on the zombie genre. I...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Reynje rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011

Gregory’s take on zombies in Raising Stony Mayhall is both unusual and ambitious, blending an alternate history, a Living Dead divided by ideology and politics, and musings of the existential variety.

It is an intelligent book that has a lot to say, occasionally taking a philosophical turn as Stony wrestles with the paradox of his existence and the events his life has set in motion. The first part, detailing Stony’s early family life, is strong and richly observed. The characters are written wit...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Rusty rated it 5 of 5 stars

First off, I wish I could give half stars, I want to give this four and a half, because while I absolutely loved this. Some of the religious allusions got to be just a tad too thick for me to really feel it was perfect.

Oh, what's this about? Imagine that George Romero's Night of the Living Dead was a documentary about a real uprising of the undead. The world moved on, because the governments told the masses that it was over. But really, when the dead rose from their graves and attacked the livi...more First off, I wish I could give half stars, I want to give this four and a half, because while I absolutely loved this. Some of the religious allusions got to be just a tad too thick for me to really feel it was perfect.

Oh, what's this about? Imagine that George Romero's Night of the Living Dead was a documentary about a real uprising of the undead. The world moved on, because the governments told the masses that it was over. But really, when the dead rose from their graves and attacked the living, that was just the beginning. Because a couple of days later all those dead people regained their ability to be rational. Yes, the mindless, flesh eating, shuffling zombie is only during the first 48 hours. After that, things tend to get back to normal. Well, except that the zombies are still, you know, zombies.

Wow, when I explain it like that, it sounds stupid. Trust me, it's not. This book was absolutely amazing. Stony Mayhall is a zombie, but unlike every other zombie in the world, he seems to have some other purpose, a higher calling so to speak. A destiny.

I said before that the only thing in this book that detracts from it is that it really treads the line of becoming a religious allegory, I don't think that's what the author intended. But as the story went along I started thinking that I knew kinda sorta how it was going to end, because I knew the bible story that this zombie tale is based on.

Am I sounding downbeat about this. Let me focus for a moment on the good stuff. This is a pretty philosophical book. I loved that the main character is obsessed with understanding not only who he is, but how he functions. He wants to know (Just as I, as the reader, does) what makes a being that is by every definition, dead, suddenly be able to walk, talk, and think. His quest in life, is to find the answer to that question.

The characters are engaging, the story is powerful, and I have just become an enormous fan of Daryl Gregory.

Great novel.

Oh, makes me wonder, I've read several fantastic books in the past year that were all zombie tales. I'm impressed at the number of incredibly skilled authors that have taken on the genre. (less)

1 like · like · see review

May 06, 2012 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: zombies

This was a fun read. It's the first time I've read a book from the perspective of the zombies, so it was very intriguing and a nice change from the run-of-the-mill zombie books. It was exciting, humorous at times, and had a few scenes that left me teary-eyed.

I thought Stony was a great lead character (once I got used to him after a few chapters!). To me, he was one of those characters who you'll root for until the end of the book. The girls of the Mayhall family were really likeable characters,...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Robert rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: zombies

Oh my. Rating something on Goodreads can be easy if--

1) A novel is really great
2) A novel is a bit stinky

When a novel is "OK" It gets two stars, but if I say "I like it" then it gets three stars.

So Raising Stony Mayhall was "OK" so it gets 2 stars-- It feels so harsh to give it two stars! but I was on the borderline of liking it the whole time and I noticed so many reviews where it was given five stars-- Again it feels harsh.

Half way through I had thought this audio book may have been abridged,...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Twobusy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Man, Daryl Gregory is an interesting writer. This is a zombie novel, but it's utterly unlike any other zombie novel I've read (and let's be clear: from The Angels Are The Reapers to World War Z and Breathers, there's a wiiiide range of very good ones out there). Why? Because our title character is a part of the Living Dead community —and he's as rich and fully realized a character as you'll ever come across: an individual loved by his family, first hidden from and then feared by the world, and d...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Snapekat rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Michael

It's not often that you just grab a book off the library shelf, give it a glance and it ends up being a REALLY good book. I did that and got lucky. Let me say that if the jacket description that I quickly glanced through had used the "z-word" up front I probably would have put it back. But it wasn't until I was a couple chapters in that I realized this was indeed a book about the zombie apocalypse, but not a very common one. The characters, including the living dead are touching, interesting, ve...more

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Jun 04, 2012 AdultFiction Teton County Library rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: zombie lovers and new zombie beginners

Shelves: sci-fi

Author: Daryl Gregory
User Rating: 3
Review: TCL call #: SF GREGORY D

Stephanie's rating: 4 MAGIC stars

Never before had I ventured into the sci-fi world. I tended to stay away merely, because I never understood the allure of it. I read more fantasy based books, and that kept me happy. However, things have changed! Somehow this book has introduced me to a new whole different aspect of the science fiction world. ZOMBIES!!! The apocalypse!!!!!! Then end of the human race!!!!!!!! I've seen all the zom...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, audio, author_male, pub_post-1945, scifi, type_fiction, zombies, young_adult

I thoroughly enjoyed this decidedly different zombie novel. The story was highly engaging, telling the tale of a world in which a zombie plague was unleashed but snuffed out years earlier. The remnant population of “LDs” (Living Dead, or “differently living”) has gone underground to avoid the reprisals of the intolerant dominant society of “breathers.” As the years stretch into decades and their undying bodies deteriorate from wear and tear that cannot be repaired, many of the LDs become philoso...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Chris Branch rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fantasy

I'd like to say this was an original take on the classic zombie stories, but I have to be honest, I've never read the classic zombie stories, nor seen the classic zombie movies. While I'm a fan of dark fantasy, I always saw those as being more in the straight horror genre. But luckily those tropes have become common knowledge even among the non-zombie fans, so I'm fairly confident that this book is unique in the genre for its portrayal of the living dead.

Of course this book couldn't exist witho...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Leah (The Pretty Good Gatsby) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, badass, fantasy, favorites, horror, paranormal, zombies

http://sosaysthewhale.wordpress.com/2...

I could simply say drop whatever you're doing and read this book. Now. That wouldn't do it justice, though. This is the kind of story that needs to be discussed, demands to be gushed over, and ultimately stays with you long after you've finished those last words.

It is traditional to end with the Last Girl, the sole survivor, a young woman in a blood-spattered tank top. She drops her chain saw, her sawed-off shotgun, her crowbar - these details differ - and

...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Dana * rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, zombies, young-adult

A different take on the zombie story, where the zombies go into a stasis after their initial desire to eat humans, and become just another misunderstood minority. Of course, no one wants the dead to wander around freely, so the zombies / living dead are persecuted and destroyed. Some manage to survive underground and are deciding how to proceed as a group, to come out and try to get equal rights, or to just take over and make it a zombie world.

Their unofficial leader is a zombie that was turned...more

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Jun 18, 2011 Ethan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

What a fantastic, odd, little book! In Raising Stony Mayhall, Daryl Gregory manages to bring a heartfelt, character driven story to zombie fiction. In this modern combination of Frankenstein and Pinnochio, John "Stony" Mayhall is adopted by a recently widowed mother and her three daughters. From the moment the mother picks up the child, she knows he is special. As young Stony grows, he realizes that he is, in fact, a zombie and not a normal boy. Usually, the idea of a zombie novel would have me...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Rachael rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a person that is normally not into zombie books/movies I was pleasantly surprised at my love of this book. I thought the concept of a baby zombie that was able to grow and be raised by a living human family and the complications that would arise was really interesting. Stony, the un-dead main character was very kind, compassionate and absolutely felt love for his family and few friends even though he had to stay in hiding his whole childhood and adolescence. I especially liked the idea that t...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Pam McNew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Zombie story and that almost prevented me from reading it, but the opening, yes, trope knowledge of the cinema type pulled me in and I never stopped once I started.

May I say that Daryl Gregory does childhood so very very well? Of course I can, and he does, he does. But that isn't all, not even close to all the surprises and twists to this book. Our zombie is extraordinaire without being overwhelming. I'm as comfortable with his character as I am with the neighbors who lived down the gravel road...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Rosa rated it 2 of 5 stars

You know that book you start out reading and you're like, Wow, this is so good - this is going to be fun! and then at some point that you don't even realize, you think, Hey, this is kind of boring, but maybe I'm just in a rough patch - I'm sure if I get through this section, it'll be good again... and then you keep going and keep going, repeating that mantra about the rough patch, and before you know it, you're 3/4 of the way through and thinking, This isn't over yet? when will this be over? but...more You know that book you start out reading and you're like, Wow, this is so good - this is going to be fun! and then at some point that you don't even realize, you think, Hey, this is kind of boring, but maybe I'm just in a rough patch - I'm sure if I get through this section, it'll be good again... and then you keep going and keep going, repeating that mantra about the rough patch, and before you know it, you're 3/4 of the way through and thinking, This isn't over yet? when will this be over? but you're in way too deep to give up on the book now, plus you remember that sometimes books get more interesting towards their conclusion, so you soldier on, and then 30, 20, 10, FIVE pages from the end you're like I can't believe I'm *still* reading this book (and in the meantime, you keep finding other things to do [trimming toenails, trimming the children's toenails (typically an avoid-at-all-costs chore), watching crap tv that you normally never watch [hello Guy Fieri!]), all instead of reading the book because it's that much of a labor, and you can't just pick up another book because it doesn't make sense to abandon a book that you've already invested so much time in, so in essence, the book Kills Literacy for you? Well, this was that book for me. I loved the opening and all the chapters about Stony's childhood and adolescence, but once it became Oz (HBO's Oz, not Dorothy & rainbows Oz) meets 24 meets network nighttime medical soap drama, it was just unbearable for me. I like the idea of what Gregory wanted to explore with what defines existence, what makes a being a being? but the execution was just painfully dull for me... strange, because the protagonist has a very humourous outlook & witty delivery - normally, that's all it takes for me to heart a book, a wise & funny protag, but there were just too many tedious & overly-convoluted machinations (political conspiracy, medical/political/social implications of a mass epidemic, etc.) plotwise that take all the focus off the characterization... I think Gregory has genuine talent, but I'm not sure I would read any of his other work, based on my experience with this title.(less)

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About Daryl Gregory

Award-winning author of Pandemonium, The Devil's Alphabet, and Raising Stony Mayhall.

He is also the writer of comics such as Dracula: The Company of Monsters and Planet of the Apes, both from BOOM! Studios.

His first collection of short stories is Unpossible and Other Stories, by Fairwood Press (October, 2011).

Daryl lives in State College, Pennsylvania.

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Planet of the Apes Vol. 2: The Devil's Pawn

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9466865-raising-stony-mayhall?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1326125621l/9466865.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9466865-raising-stony-mayhall?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory[/url]

Raising Stony Mayhall

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