Review of Cherie Priest’s BONESHAKER

Cherie Priest’s BONESHAKER is the story of an alternate history Seattle in the late 1800s. Fifteen years before the story begins, Seattle was rocked when a mining device called the Boneshaker tore through the city’s downtown. The creator of the Boneshaker, Leviticus Blue, was never heard from again. He left his teenage bride with a baby in her belly and a whole lot of bad will directed her way because of his deeds.

But the worst wasn’t the physical devastation wrought by the Boneshaker. Out of the hole it tore in the earth emerged a poisonous gas called the Blight, which turns anyone who breaths it into the living dead. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen: zombies!

To contain the Blight and the growing number of undead, downtown Seattle is sealed off with a two-hundred-foot high wall and  largely forgotten.

Briar Wilkes, the widow of Leviticus Blue, has raised her son Ezekiel with little knowledge of his father. Zeke is an impetuous boy who feels his father was wrongly blamed for the city’s destruction and hatches a scheme to clear his name. That scheme, unfortunately, involves entering the sealed section of the city to find a ledger book Zeke believes will show his father blameless. He sneaks off without telling his mother, which leaves Briar with no choice but to go in and rescue her son.

Did I mention there are zombies? And armored dirigibles? And pirates? And a mad scientist lurking in an opulent underground lair? And lots of fun and interesting characters living within Blight-infested Seattle? Well, there are, and you should meet them all.

There is plenty of action in BONESHAKER, but what carries the book are the characters of Briar and Zeke. Briar is a woman who’s made a lot of mistakes in her life (which she readily acknowledges), but she loves her son fiercely and will do anything to get him back. Her father was a lawman who is something of a legend within the walled section of the city, and she uses that to her advantage while searching for her son.

Zeke is a wholly believable fifteen-year-old. Part of what I liked about him is that he isn’t extraordinary in any way. He’s not a genius who can figure out the mysteries that befuddle the adults around him, or concoct a cure for the Blight; he’s never fired a gun and doesn’t know how to fight. He’s just a kid who never knew his dad who’s hungering for some kind of connection to his past.

BONESHAKER is the first Cherie Priest book I’ve read, but it certainly won’t be my last. I enjoyed it immensely, and encourage you to go pick up a copy.