Monsters! Werewolves, Vampires, Living Dead...Oh My!...

Vincent smiled, "Some say it was extraterrestrials. A sonic boom, perhaps?" 
Myers reflected. "It mimicked the explosion of June, 1908, when something exploded high above the atmosphere over Siberia with the same strength as one thousandd atomic bombs. It destroyed the tundra. Most scientists agree it was a fragment of a comet." 
Vincent shook his head. "However, no virus was recorded after that explosion, contrary to the one three years ago. Last year, the combined world governments asked all major corporations to work on solutions to containing the...the problem."
"You are, of course, referring to the victims who caught the virus. Everybody knows that the virus first appeared two years ago. It infected pockets of the population, spreading worldwide within four weeks, creating a pandemic that was brought under control through containment. They have isolated the victims control through containment. They have isolated the victims in sectioned-off campuses in the wilderness, until you decided to enclose them in your theme park. Why use plague victims?" 
Vincent grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellowed teeth. "I prefer to call them zombies."
 "We don't like to refer to them that way. The politically correct term is vitality challenged."
"You can call them anything you like," Vincent said with a leer. "I like to call those flesh-eating catatonic creatures zombies."

There was a fight over his finger. He didn't even try to retrieve it.
He watched in disgust as two men tore at each other for the price morsel. They shouldn't be fighting over flesh, some small part of his brain reasoned. They were fed regularly. Usually it was recycled food from institutions, refuse they used to feed the hogs. Someone had to feed the plague victims before they fed on each other...
~~~

"That sounds a bit extreme." Joe shook his head. Vincent leaned forward, his face intense. This was a subject he was passionate about--he spoke urgently as if proving his point, and his voice rose. "This disease is responsible, not I. Once their minds are infected, they can no longer control the primal urge to eat. Their single-minded determination and lack of coherency make it impossible for them to be at large with the general population. They are a danger to themselves as well as everyone else. What would you have the government do? Kill them?" 
"Of course not," Myers said, placating him. "Keeping them isolated has kept the spread of the disease under control. Don't you think it's a risky exposure?"
"Nonsense. No one enters my zombie suburb without protective gear. My labs are working on a cure, dear man." Vincent inclined his saturnine head graciously. "I intend to see the eradication of the virus within five years."
"That is, if it doesn't spread. You'll lose a great portion of your theme park, Dr. Conrad."
"I think we have enough to keep people entertained. With my discovery of werewolves in the Everglades--"

~~~

Monsterland

By Michael Phillip Cash
Now published under Michael Okon!

Aimed toward our youth who love monsters, as we did when young, or if you still crave for horror stories as an adult, do check this book out by prolific writer Michael Cash... If  you scrupulously read the book, you may pick up the very few clues to alert you...that's my only hint...because the story moves quickly and smoothly into a new theme park like no other! Where all of the monsters, except for the few that are used as enticement into various sections of the park, are all real!

The lead male stood, his head tilted. He heard it again. It was music, the strange organization of sounds, predictable as well as dangerous. Where those rhythms originated meant only one thing--they were not alone. They all rose, tense and alert, searching the waterway. Billy pointed, his dirty hands silently parting an outcropping of trees to expose a flat-bottom boat with strangers floating slowly toward them. It was filled with people, excitedly searching the banks of the swamp, their expensive khaki bush clothes ringed with sweat...
What were the interlopers doing here? Billy thought furiously. This was their territory...
~~~

The main reason the concept of  Monsterland came up is that a disaster occurred within the last few years and all over the world there were now those, still living, but horribly infected and deformed by what occurred. The government of course had worked to handle the disaster and had shut all those infected in camps and had even did the "politically correct" thing to call them "vitally challenged..." OMG, only in America... Because no matter how you put it, they are the living dead--zombies as we first knew them... 

Only in America
can a poor,
homeless boy find
employment
and work his way
up the ladder of
succeed."*
~~~

A very rich man, Dr. Vincent Conrad, had come to the fore, offering to build not only one but more theme parks across the world to, first, give a community in which the zombies can live, but also to allow research to go on so that, hopefully, the virus may be stopped. Although representatives of some of the other involved countries come to the U.S. opening, all of the action takes place in the Unites States(openings were occurring all over the world at the same time...)

The story focuses on a family and several close friends who all have a cult-like interest in horror characters--the ones who are to be included in Monsterland...

A never-ending discussion from Wyatt, Melvin and Howard who had become friends because they are not accepted at school, is based upon study of these various monsters, continues on which of the three would be the winner, if they fought each other. It was kind of fun to see how much each boy had studied his preferred group and will describe the various attributes that made his choice the obvious superior being...

Raoul nodded in assent. Things had been terrible since they arrived. The doctor oozed charm when he painted a picture of recreating all their former glory. Instead, Conrad gave them shabby reproductions of eighteenth-century clothing, and he stuck them in a sterile version of his concept of East Germany. They were assigned roles in a cheesy rock musical, the music so embarrassingly bad it was more painful to perform it than hear it...
~~~

The family, a new husband and father plus wife and two children from her first husband, who had since died, are experiencing much of the turmoil that could evolve. In this situation, neither of the boys are willing to begin to call Carter White, their father...One minor issue hit me later in the book, noted purely from this reader's viewpoint, was that some of the scenes were not realistic, given the ages of the two boys... Still, if it takes monsters to bring them together as a family, hey, I'm all for it! LOL

This is a fun book...and sad...because once again, there is a criminal motive underneath it all...But when it got to the scary part, I'm not even sure that the original monster, Vincent Conrad, knew how bad it would be...

Scary good as the Chiller channel proclaims! Monster lover alert! Given the number and variety of horror books and movies out there, I thought Cash's book was original, complete with a family drama to detract from the gore, and yet weirdly different as at long last, we see just who would win in a monster fight...

GABixlerReviews

*Can you guess who this is?

Michael Phillip Cash is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. His novels are best-sellers on Amazon under their genres - Young Adult, Thriller, Suspense, Ghost, Action Adventure, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Horror. 

Michael writes full-time and lives on the North Shore of Long Island with his wonderful wife and screaming children. You can follow him @michaelpcash.

Connect with Michael on:

Facebook: facebook.com/michaelphillipcash

Twitter: twitter.com/michaelpcash

Web: www.michaelphillipcash.com

Email: michaelphillipcash@gmail.com