Reviewer: Holly Razor Girl by Marianne Mancusi
Series: Apocalypse Later
Publisher: Love Spell
Publication Date: 2008
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Time Travel
Pages: 308
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Series Rating:
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: The Magic Kingdom, where everyone knows it’s a small world after all.
It was with some trepidation that I started this novel. As I mentioned before, it’s hard for me to break out of my comfort zone and try new things. Beyond that even, I was somewhat nervous about this particular book because Molly Anderson is based on the character Molly Millions, most notably from Johnny Mnemonic and Neuromancer (Side Note: I always want to type Necromancer in stead of Neuromancer – no idea why this is: End Side Note), and those are some pretty large shoes to fill.
Six years after a Super Flu wipes out most of humanity, Molly Anderson emerges from a bomb shelter where she and her mother have been holed up. Her father, genius mad scientist Ian Anderson, has turned Molly into a Razor Girl. She has ocular implants over her eyes and 4 inch retractable razors under her fingernails. These are necessary because of “The Others”, victims of the flu who died..and then came back. The living dead. Flesh eating zombies.
Just after leaving the shelter, she runs into Chase Griffin, her high school boyfriend and the one she betrayed the night she was locked into the bunker with her mother. He and his older brother Tank – along with a couple other adults – have been living in the local Wal-Mart with about a dozen children. He invites Molly to join them, but she has to travel to Disney World to meet her father. He told her before sealing her inside the bomb shelter that he and his coleagues were going to reestablish society there. Molly had to move fast, because the nanos her father had implanted in her to make her stronger and faster are going to start breaking down, making her tired and ill.
Shortly after Molly arrives Tank and all the other adults are killed, leaving Chase and Molly in charge of all the children. They decide it would be better for them to travel together to Disney World in hopes of finding a new society. But Molly and Chase are also battling personal demons – and an attraction to each other.
Non-stop action packed. That pretty much describes this novel to a T. I was drawn in from the beginning. Though the tone of the novel is somewhat dark in post apocalyptic America, there is humor interlaced throughout. I literally laughed out loud several times. The world building was fantastic. I was totally drawn in by it.
It flips between past and present from one chapter to the next. At first I thought this wouldn’t work, but it does – surprisingly well, actually. The backstory of when the flu first struck is told throughout the present, which kept me interested. The chapters are also short, which I think helped.
While I enjoyed Molly and Chase as separate characters, I’m still on the fence about them together and how they reacted to each other. There were several misunderstandings, and more than once one or the other decided to make the “ultimate sacrifice” for the other. While I was able to forgive all in the end, it did mar my enjoyment somewhat.
Overall, this was a fast paced action-adventure with a fun twist on an old story. There were a few flaws, but I enjoyed it. I’d say my first foray into the Shomi world was a huge success, and I can’t wait to pick up the next novel.
4.0 out of 5
This book is available from Dorchester August 26, 2008. You can pre-order it here.
Great review, Holly.
I get a kick out of the use of The Magic Kingdom as the locale for a non-zombie survivor settlement.
. . . where everyone knows it’s a small world after all. Very clever. 😉
Wow, what am I doing not reading these books? Great review Holly sweets. Dude, I’m missing out. Once my TBR is under control I’m so reading this one.
OMG, you said WAL-MART. I rarely go there, try not to and now it’s in a book. A book I like the sound of.
Is this sponsor placement perhaps? LOL, well, then there’s Disney World, so that theory sounds off when they enter the picture.
Interesting…very interesting. Thanks for the review!
Well, love Wal-Mart or hate it, it makes sense that it would be a good place to go in post-apocalyptic America. It has everything you need, right? And enough supplies to last a lifetime if you’re careful.
Hah! No, no paid product placement for Wal-Mart. 🙂 It just seemed to me a perfect place to hole up in the event of an apocalypse! 🙂
I remember watching a movie where Natalie Portman gives birth to a baby in a Wal-Mart. I think that’s what first gave me the idea…
Marianne
I just saw your plagerism in a grocery store. I really hope Gibson, or whoever currently owns the copyright to the Original Molly sues you for every cent so that you can never befoul another good character again.
While I have a great deal of respect for romance authors, there’s nothing lower than a romance author who rips off another writer to cover for their inadequacies.
You, lady, are no author, you are an untalented, unoriginal, hack and the day you lose everything for ripping off an original and fascinating character will be a good day indeed.
Actually I don’t use Gibson’s character in Razor Girl. My character’s father is obsessed with Gibson and Neuromancer so he gives his daughter similar enhancements to try to recreate her abilties for the apocalypse. However, Molly Anderson’s personality is vastly different than Molly Millions’, the girl she’s supposed to live up to – which causes problems for her in her struggle to survive.
I do hope that when people read this they see it as a homage to Gibson and go and check out his book if they haven’t read it already. Such a wonderful novel!
I decided to use the Razor Girl image after reading an article called “Razor girls: genre and gender in cyberpunk fiction”. I think it’s online somewhere still. I thought it was an interesting topic to explore. In this book, the heroine’s father wants her to be tough as Molly Millions, so he outfits her with similar cybernetics to help her survive the apocalypse. But cybernetics aren’t really what makes Molly Millions Molly Millions, are they? There’s something inside of her that makes her who she is and I wonder even if she still had her tear ducts intact, would she prefer to spit rather than cry?
So the father’s experiment fails, in a way. He can’t recreate a razor girl. Cause a razor girl is not what’s on the outside, but what’s on the inside. My Molly is very different than Molly Millions. She’s vulnerable, scared, and has to come to terms with the fact that it’s okay to be admit her humanity and that she doesn’t always have to exude the kind of bravado she’s expected to, due to people’s expectations based on what she looks like on the outside. Anyway, I used the term as a sort of cultural iconic reference I guess. The story itself has nothing to do with Neuromancer. It’s actually a zombie apocalypse novel.