The Walking Dead, Rise of the Governor

I have always been drawn to those characters in film who are struggling with inner demons. I am fascinated by stories of men who are leaders, self-sufficient, but who are then broken down bit by bit. It doesn’t have be a trauma that gives them this mesmerizing vulnerability. It can be a woman or it can be Armageddon. It can be a disappointing child or a personal illness. It can be a handicap or a familial loss. I am utterly fascinated by men who are knocked off their pedestals, put through hell and come out the other side damaged, but coping.

This is why I like Rick, the star of the Walking Dead television show. He is their leader and is self-sufficient. He has been put through hell by this zombie apocalypse and has been damaged by it. Every new attack, every new infectious bite, every haven lost or brain smeared on the wall, it changes him. There are moments when the viewer thinks he’ll break and yet he pushes on. When he does crack, just a little, I am on the edge of my seat to see how he will cope. He gets his group through each day, but what gets him through? What will happen to the group when their leader falls?

I wasn’t very excited by the prospect of the Walking Dead novel, Rise of the Governor, as it focused on a cast of characters unrelated to the televised ones. I was, if you can’t tell, a bit enamored with Rick, as well as the relationship between Rick and Shane. Not having that dynamic, nor the one between the Dixon brothers, felt like defeating the purpose of a novel. As a writer myself, I wondered why you'd take a popular universe such as that of the Walking Dead and yank out its cast like so much intestines.

Do you remember reading those books that catch your attention immediately? The ones with first lines, first paragraphs, first chapters that just hook you, almost as if you're a fish catching your fat lip on a lure? Well, Rise of the Governor was NOT one of those. Sure, the action was high, the tension unrelenting, the gory descriptions frequent, but I felt the character relationships were lacking. It didn’t have that shared desperation the show sported, that particular brand of camaraderie that only arises amidst apocalyptic situations . (It is easy to bond with with someone who kept your calves from being chewed on like an ear of corn)

The novel featured two brothers named Philip and Brian Blake, Philips daughter Penny and two of their friends. The world had gone down the proverbial blender, leaving nothing behind but walking balls of blood, gore and hunger. With their chances grim and their optimism grimmer still, I couldn't help wanting to know what kept them from putting the muzzles of their guns in their mouths and just blowing themselves away.

It’s the zombie apocalypse right? In a world gone to hell, what do you have to keep you going? If the plague hit our 2012 world now, what would you need to keep the muzzle out of YOUR mouth?

Philip and Blake do not get along. Philip and his kid Penny are distant with each other due to the recent death of the wife and mom. The two friends tagging along don’t know Penny or Brian, so they couldn't care less if they get their toes gnawed off by undead. Brian is the wimp. Philip is the leader. Penny is the child whose innocence is getting washed away by the rotting zombie stench.

Throughout the novels 300 hundred pages however, they all change. You see the strong get beaten down and the weak stand up. You see the ones with morals lose them after their first kill. You see the ones without morals; discover them following the kills of too many. By the end of the story, the tune of the tale changes from “let’s find a way to live” to “let’s find a way to just survive.”

Every person in this group of five undergoes a metamorphosis. When I'd finished the last page, I flipped back to the very first paragraph and just shook my head.

This is why I loved this novel. It started out an adventure with nondescript faces and then turned into a bloodbath full of baseball bats and bullets. The middle brought peace and that vulnerability man thinks undoes him, but actually gives him depth. Towards the end, there was gut-wrenching heartache, souls that long ago stopped looking like souls and several twists that just leave you gasping for air.

What I want most out of my movies and my books is that GET UP moment. You know the one I’m talking about. No, it’s not that one where the sports loving dude gets up from the couch and pumps his fist at the Big Game. It’s like that moment in Rocky where he’s down and they’re counting and he’s breathing hard and they’re still counting and he can’t see straight and their counting higher and all you can do as he’s laying there is scream…..

 GET UP MAN, GET UP!

That’s the get up factor. This Walking Dead book had my heart beating and then aching for those characters and no, my heart wasn’t beating in response to all the undead ones flying through the air, skewered on nail guns. That’s just sick people. Who would read about that?