The Deading

In Baywood, CA, a mysterious disease moves from birds, shellfish, and other wildlife to humans, causing them to die and come back to life again. Quarantined by the government, the town is forcibly cut off from the rest of the world to keep the virus within. The inhabitants include birder Blas and his older brother Chango, eccentric neighbor Ingram, and Ingram’s friend, a widow named Kumi. As the sickness takes hold, they must find a way to coexist, whether they are part of the growing cult of “Risers” or are yet uninfected. Luis Moreno, Robb Moreira, and June Angela narrate, communicating the creeping dread enveloping the town and the characters’ desperate hope for survival. Unfortunately, while Belardes’s horror debut shows much promise, the novel jumps erratically from one point of view to another, quickly changing from first-person singular and first-person plural to second-person, making it hard to track the characters. The narrators’ steady performance helps, but the story remains disjointed nonetheless.