The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell by Mira Grant

The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell by Mira Grant

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read this novella for the first time in October of 2014. Almost but not quite three years ago. Immediately after finishing the story I wanted to read it again. It is a very compelling story. Very interesting.

It tells a tale that doesn't really need the rest of the series to tell, though a few modifications would need to be done to allow readers to have just slightly more information. Or less. Just a few words here or there to indicate: 1) a zombie outbreak had occurred prior to the story here; 2) zombies still roam the earth but society didn't fall, just morphed; 3) zombies still roam because even if all the dead currently stumbling around as a zombie were killed . . . there still would be zombies - because everyone, every man, woman, child, everyone is already infected. And there's no cure. Spontaneous 'amphication', or a word like that, can occur - spontaneous zombification, but mostly people become zombies when they come into contact with an active version of the virus. Blood, bite, what have you. Or having a heart attack and falling over. Dead. Only to then rise again as a zombie. The dead don't stay dead in this world. Which is why there still are zombies.

All of the above is already known by someone who has read the series up to here. And considering the way the story is structured, there wouldn't have to be too much effort to add some of that. It's 'not needed' now because, I assume, there was an assumption that only those who read and enjoyed the series would read the little side stories that the author released over time.

So, with all that above, what's this story here about? Well, as noted, zombies are real and they are everywhere. And everyone is already infected. You, the reader, can read the story in two different ways, either might be more enjoyable. Read it straight through, every little bit, or ignore the odd little before and after sections in different formatting. The 'different formatting' stuff is what links this to the rest of the series. Because side characters from that series are investigating and reporting on an event that had occurred something like 7 years before their own time. And they drop things, they mention things in those sections that hadn't, yet, occurred in the story.

So - on one level you have a reporter examining and writing up a report on an incident that had happened at a school something like seven years before the reporter started working on the story. On the other level you have the story itself.

And what is that story? A young woman works as a school teacher. Trained to be a teacher, and trained to deal with dealing with the zombie issue. She's a first grade teacher. The students in her class are on the edge of being able to be zombies themselves - there is a certain weight that needs to be reached; while at the same time are not 'aware enough' to know the dangers that await them.

The day begins for this teacher. She sets up her class for the day. Gets her students. Conducts class. Then leads them out for a 10 minute recess. Which is where the trouble starts, though it isn't known nor obvious until much later. I don't wish to give everything away, of course, so let us just say that one of the students injuries themselves, blood flows, and they hide the blood from their teacher. They are too small to amphify, so they don't set off any alarms when they go back inside (there's a lot of blood testing that occurs). By hiding the event, though, they don't protect others. And someone who is large enough to amphify (I should note that the word is used to indicate that the individual moves from being a carrier of the zombie virus, to being a zombie) touches that blood.

And then all hell breaks loose. Zombies float through the school. And the story follows that young teacher as she tries to shepherd her students, to try to save them.

Rating: Only those stories that I've read more than once can rise to the top level, rise to six star level. I am very much inclined to add this story to that shelf. But it is the top tier. And I must guard against overrating things. Crowding the best of the best shelf. So I'll rate this story 5+ stars and think about whether I 'induct' it to 'best of the best' status. The 'internal communications' that occur years after the events unfolded are the 'thing' that might hold back this story from rising to that level.

June 22 2017



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