RAZOR GIRL

Author: Marianne Mancusi ISBN: 9780505527806 9/2008 ACTION/PARANORMAL Publisher: DORCHESTER

The world has ended, Molly. What are you going to do now? Molly Anderson is not your average twenty-one-year-old. It’s been six years since she and her family escaped into a bunker, led by her conspiracy theorist father and his foreknowledge of a plot to bring about the apocalypse. But her father’s precautions didn’t stop there. Molly is now built to survive. Yes, Ian Anderson’s favorite book gave him ideas on how to “improve” his daughter. Molly is faster, stronger, and her ocular implants and razor-tipped nails set her apart. Apart, when—venturing alone out of the bunker and into a plague ravaged, monster-ridden wilderness—what Molly needs most is togetherness. Chase Griffin, a friend from her past, is her best bet. But while he and others have miraculously survived, the kind boy has become a tormented man. Together, these remnants of humanity must struggle toward trusting each other and journey to the one place Molly’s father believed all civilization would be reborn: a magic kingdom, where everyone knows it’s a small world after all.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Zombies are cool. In the recent years it seems like zombies have gained a resurgence in the media between books and movies. For me, Zombies have always been cool. It was with great pleasure I began reading RAZOR GIRL, Shomi's new book in their Action Romance line, and breathless anticipation of reading some butt-kicking zombie fun. The description made Molly Anderson seem like Alice from Resident Evil, but with a not quite as shady past.

The book is told from two different times—half the chapters are 'before' the apocalypse, detailing Molly's final days before the illness spread and ultimately showing us how her choices effected the 'present' time, and then the other half of the chapters are the world 'after', detailing Molly's adventures in the world six years later when the hatch opens. At first I thought this would only go on for a few chapters, but no, that's the whole book. Mostly what you learn in the 'present' chapter, a mystery or past event indicated, for example, is described then in the next 'past' chapter.

Cybernetic Molly is actually pretty cool, if a little creepy. I'll give you a hint—those aren't sunglasses on her face. Her father modeled her after a science fiction character called 'Molly Millions' from William Gibson's novels. A 'razor girl' who spat when she was sad because her tear ducts were rerouted to her mouth, Molly Millions had very few deep emotions, had no time for sentimentality and was a lethal fighting force. Throughout the book Molly Anderson, before and after the apocalypse, tries to remember the fact that she is a razor girl as a way of coping with the absurdity of her life before, and the cruel world she walks out into later.

Much time is spent on how crazy Molly's genius scientist dad is—predicting the 'End of Days', toiling away in his basement lab, training Molly to be a 'hero', denying her basic comforts of life in 2030 for more outdated comforts of our present time. Her mom, by comparison, is a nauseatingly normal Suzy Homemaker sort from a rich family who was initially pleased with her marriage, but later soured when they realized he was a nut job. She sticks by her man though, even if it's by being in complete and utter denial that there is a problem.

My real problem was near the end, when Molly finally finds her father and things are straightened out. That's when Mancusi's explanations for things gets a little iffy. Actually, they get vague to the point of 'this happened and suddenly this happened' in a past tense, 'this is a trip down memory lane' sort of way. Maybe I've been jaded by the zombie flicks where they find the cure and 'Oh, no, it's too late, the world is doomed!' ending, but the ending seemed unreal.

Also Molly's reaction at the end to her father's revelations (which you might be able to guess at during the course of the book) and the consequences there of, are utterly ridiculous. Family is family, but her father showed an alarmingly indifferent outlook on the world at large and his family in particular.

Alexandra Cenni