Zombos Closet: Good
There's a little of Soylent Green and C.H.U.D mixed in with the greens in Matthew Costello's Vacation, where zombies are replaced by humans gone cannibalistic bonkers as global warming and blight bring food shortages and dietery change. Costello's clippy writing style–lots of one-sentence paragraphs– is often too lean where it needs to thicken in detail and depth. The basic premise provides ample opportunity for action, but it's hard to shake the notion you're reading yet another zombie-that-is-not-zombie gimmick; and Costello doesn't exploit those opportunities to pile on the action or terror, which is surprising given the subject matter potential.
Can Heads are what the human-chompers are called. They're fast, smell bad, crazed, and nearly unstoppable in their one goal: dine out often. Jack Murphy's a cop in the 76th Precinct on Union Street in Brooklyn. Things aren't going well for cops: the can heads are eating their way through the boroughs, leaving the city a no-man's land of dwindling hot and cold running safe places to live. An attack on an apartment building late at night–can heads only come out at night–leaves him hurting. His captain recommends a vacation before Jack rethinks his job status, and Paterville Camp in the Adirondacks is the ideal destination.
Jack, his wife Christine, and their kids pack themselves, along with lots of fire power and C4, into his Ford Explorer and head upstate. The New York State Thruway is fenced off, manned by checkpoints, and relatively can head free. A brief pee-stop at the equivalent of a qwik-e-mart provides brief action. The rest of the trip is uneventful. I've had more action traveling the NYS Thruway myself, rest stops included.
Traveling through a few small towns to the camp provides even less action, although Costello's staccato paragraphing keeps you asking 'are we there yet?' in anticipation. When they reach Paterville Camp, which is filled with rustic cottages and surrounded by the mountains, they're greeted by Ed, the camp director, and Shana, his assistant. It's all smiles and handshakes and Jack fixating on Shana's girlish figure. Jack, being a cop, is also fixated on seeing if the place is all it's cracked up to be. Another family, the Blairs, introduce themselves, and while Christine and the kids hit the lake, Jack goes exploring.
The electrified fence, the hidden cameras, and the service road he's not allowed to use start him wondering what Paterville Camp is hiding. All that firepower he brought along comes in handy, providing the most action-packed camp activity in the novel. When the camp's secret is finally revealed you won't be surprised, but Costello supplies enough action to keep you from being disappointed.
Vacation is a snack not a ful meal, but it will tide you over until the next zombie gimmick is served up.