Your Brother's Blood by David TowseyThomas is thirty-two. He comes from the small town of Barkley. He has a wife there, Sarah, and a child, Mary; good solid names from the Good Book. And he is on his way home from the war, where he has been serving as a conscripted soldier.
Thomas is also dead – he is one of the Walkin’.
And Barkley does not suffer the wicked to live.
Your
Brother's Blood
is the debut book of David Towsey which was released last month by Jo Fletcher
Books. David Towsey is an MA graduate of the Bath Spa Creative Writing course
and continuing his studies as a Ph.D student at Aberystwyth University. The
synopsis of Your Brother’s Blood really
got me curious. With solely the mentioning of the Walkin' you can pretty much
guess the direction this story will go into, however it seemed to me that with
a main protagonist as a Walkin' it could be interesting. And Your Brother's
Blood proved that it was indeed so, at many fronts. I have to confess that
I was expecting a quite gruesome and horrifying story, because that is where
zombies lend a helping hand in. If you think the same, you will be in for a huge
surprise when you read Your Brother's Blood. David Towsey has ventured
where no author (to my knowledge) has gone be for and produced this one of a
kind beautiful yet haunting story.
In Your Brother's Blood you follow Thomas, who wakes up as quite something else. I can't seem to recall to have read or seen any fiction that focuses the story on a main protagonist who is Walkin' (the undead, a zombie). Like I mentioned above don't expect the drooling, brain dead kind of zombies. Instead they are able to commune and walk and even work the field, the only exception is that they live forever and yes their dead. Upon finding his new life, Thomas now has to choose between going to spend his life with the other Walkin' or go back to his village. Thomas is stricken with guilt and wants to see his wife and daughter one last time to say goodbye. But this visit doesn't start and end well. Because the village of Barkely, Thomas' hometown does not suffer the wicked to live. It's heavily religious and sees the Walkin' people as a scourge to mankind, messengers of the devil and the only thing that does them right is either on the pyre or with one it's head less... Barkley's strong conviction to the Good Book translates into the eternal hatred eradicate each Walkin' and Thomas' return to Barkley only puts more fuel on the flame and it's just the beginning of Your Brother's Blood as he now finds himself fleeing and fearing for his life and that of someone who is quite dear to him.
There are a lot of things to like about Your Brother's Blood. For starters Thomas, I really liked how he was shown, now that he is one of the Walkin', it somehow feels that through his eyes several essences of the storyline and ideas behind the book only become that much clearer. He says that he might not be the best follower of the Good Book but that he abides the rules and tries to live his life as close to the rules of it. And at first and still along the way questions how he could have become one in the first place. But with keeping the memories intact of the Walkin', David Towsey does allow a unique point of view for their perspective to be shown. Thomas just want to visit his family and makes his character even though he is dead, relatable and human. The "humaness" of the Walkin' only becomes that much more stronger as you see the clergyman of Barkley and their utter devotion to the Good Book. Via them and how you see Thomas and two of the other Walkin' earlier on I really had the feeling that the tables are turned in Your Brothers Blood and that the Walkin' aren't the scourge of mankind, but that it is mostly the believers of the Good Book. Turning the perspectives around from bad guy, good guy really made the story for me. The witch hunt that follows is action packed, engaging and compelling. Overall the storyline and idea behind the book are just super. Because first off, I hadn't expected this kind of zombie fiction and secondly David Towsey, crafts this fascinating story around it.
The setting
of Your Brother's Blood also leaves a lot to your imagination. The story
is set in a post-apocalyptic world and actually in the storyline of Thomas you
don't really get to learn that much more of the world. But there are some
articles in the starting of each part of the book that briefly recapture some
of the setting of the day and age in which Your Brother's Blood takes
place. This makes the whole setting of the story that much better, since you
are free to interpret the level of destruction for yourself. The dates
mentioned in the article steer towards the late 2900, so it's set almost a
thousand years of where we are right now. But it also mentions the automata,
the Automated Age and the Automated Man's fall from scientific grace. And this
left the world in a western sort of setting. I for one imagined large
civilizations returning to the outposts in the desert just trying to fend for
themselves and bartering for useful items with your neighbours and just trying
to get by. Just brilliant.
I can go on
for quite some time how super Your Brother's Blood is. David Towsey has
created something new and quite amazing in his debut. Re-interpreting the well
represented zombie genre, flipping it upside down and front to back. Shifting
the perspective of experiencing what a Walkin' is, to be into the main
protagonist of the story wasn't the first flip. If you take this together with
the switching of the good guy - bad guy interpretation you are left with Your
Brother's Blood. It might seem weird to write this down for a book that is
set in a post apocalyptic world and has zombies but, Your Brother's Blood is
utterly captivating and defines and inspires a whole new set of rules in it's
genre. Definitely recommended!