Drugs and Zombies

I am in the middle of reading Edward Bloor's book A Plague Year and so far I am not too sure what I think about it.

It is well written and the main character Tom is a likeable, hardworking kid. He lives in a small Pennsylvania town that has a growing drug problem, specifically Meth.

The books promotion seems to be trying to tap into the current Zombie craze by drawing comparisons between addicts and zombies. If it is done well, I think it might work. Some of my favorite moments in the television show The Walking Dead are when the survivors, particularly the sheriff Rick Grimes, show sympathy for the undead.

I have yet to read the graphic novels the show is based on. But I believe the same sentiment is displayed there.

There has been one very notable scene in A Plague Year so far. It struck home to me the incredible sadness of addiction.

A character in the book is trying to describe addiction to a room full of students and he starts by asking two of them what they love. This is what he says:

"You love to read, miss. And then you get high, and you love to read even more when you're high."

And you love to play video games, Tom, and then you get high, and you love to play video games even more when you're high."

"But then something bad happens. You find that you don't love to read anymore when you're not high. It's not good enough."

"Now, here's the really awful part."

"Miss, you soon realize you don't love reading anymore even when you are high. And Tom, you don't love video games anymore, high or not. You don't love anything anymore. Not books, not games, not even getting high."

"But you keep getting high anyway because..well, that's what you do."

"That's what you do, so you keep doing it. Even though you hate it now. You have officially arrived at zombieland. You don't love anything. You don't like anything. You don't care about anything. It has all been taken away from you...by drugs."

A powerful statement.

Nate - Snohomish Library