And Then I Woke Up

In Devlin’s (You Will Grow Into Them) latest, the world is healing in the aftermath of a deadly mass delusion caused by an infection that induces hallucinations of zombies in its victims. Having survived the illness, jack-of-all-trades protagonist Spence now resides in the Ironside rehabilitation facility; there he meets Leila, a new Ironside inmate. Both of them committed gruesome acts of violence when they were afflicted with the zombie hallucinations, convinced that they were surviving the apocalypse. Spence, who’s still plagued by guilt, agrees to help Leila escape to find the loved ones she left behind. The plot twists in Devlin’s novel turn the archetypal zombie story on its head and make for a thoughtful, if quick, read; readers who balk at metafiction can enjoy it as a horror story, while others can have fun with the novel’s genre savvy.