Grave

Turner's Resurgam Trilogy (Dust and Frail) finishes on a high note with this well-written dystopian novel. She opens with a typically sardonic observation by teenager Amy Holliday: "The world may be good as ended, but there's still a Shop-Wel pharmacy every fifty yards. That's a beautiful thing, really." Amy's world is beyond grim; in response to an explosion in the zombie population, scientists developed a chemical weapon targeting the walking dead that ended up killing most of humankind as well. A few, like Amy and her friends, were immune. Others, known as exes, sickened and died and rose again worse than zombies, "impervious to disease, injury, mortality." As Amy and her friends make their way through this surreal landscape, they must contend with Death himself, who intends to end all life%E2%80%94and may be dying too. While the contours of the plot are familiar, Turner stands out with a gift for well-turned phrases ("The thin creeping curl of a grin twisted up his mouth"). (Feb.)