Sadie Walker is Stranded Review

Todd Jepperson

The Golden Princess cruise liner carried a disease to the continental U.S. by way of Seattle’s beautiful Puget Sound. As this type of thing tends to do, the plague spread itself across the country and eventually the whole world fell into ruin. When the dead refused to lie down and let the living have all the fun, there had to be safeguards put in place. Towns were locked down and people were left to carry on with the small semblances of normal life they still had.

One morning, as Sadie Walker is out marketing her illustrations, she has a run-in with her boyfriend who should be home tending to her orphaned eight year old nephew. He assures her that the boy is safe with his “friends” and she has nothing to worry about. Like any good caretaker would, Sadie refuses to accept his words of comfort and instead runs back to their fortress like apartment complex to get the boy; but what she finds there is the sickening truth about times of crisis. Carl’s friends are actually human traffickers who belong to a sect of “Rabbits” or Repopulationists whom have paid an unknown sum of money for the boy and plan to sell him to the highest bidder. As a diversion, they opened the perimeter to the city which allowed hundreds of lurching, hungry corpses to wander in and begin a rampage of feasting upon the people therein.

So, what do you do if the only safe place to go is on the water? After all, it’s the water which brought this whole mess in the first place. If you’re Sadie Walker, you refuse to go down without a fight. You rescue your nephew, meet up with your somewhat shady best friend and have her smuggle you onto the last boat out of town. It’s not an easy choice to make, but what better choice is there? When the boat takes on a few new passengers they beach it and make the best of what they have. New characters are introduced and Sadie and the group find a small sort of home on their tiny little island… or do they?

Sadie Walker is Stranded is the sequel to Allison Hewitt is Trapped; a realistic urban fiction novel where people are allowed to be people and the zombies are definitely out for blood. Dystopian, but at times comical, it’s a not just a continuance of the first novel; it’s a wholly separate story in which Sadie Walker looks up to and draws inspiration from the strong female lead from that first book. Sadie is clearly the protagonist here, but she enlists the aid of her tough-as-nails bff, Andrea, and her rapidly maturing nephew, Shane as they make their way through a contemporary world filled with cannibalistic undead.

Well-written, and very easy to read, I recommend this book to any pop-culture zombie fan. Pick your copy up today at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, or request it at your favorite local retailer.

MADELEINE ROUX received her BA in Creative Writing and Acting from Beloit College in 2008. In the spring of 2009, Madeleine completed an Honors Term at Beloit College, proposing, writing and presenting a full-length historical fiction novel. Shortly after, she began the experimental fiction blog Allison Hewitt Is Trapped. Allison Hewitt Is Trapped quickly spread throughout the blogosphere, bringing a unique serial fiction experience to readers.