Deadlands is a YA book set in South Africa, somewhere in the near future. Most of Cape Town is now infested with zombies, and those unaffected live in enclaves, protected by the mysterious Guardians.

It starts with Lele attending the funeral of her grandmother, which takes a unusual turn when the Guardians arrive to take the body out to the Deadlands, where she will turned into a zombie by the existing ones. In addition, a lottery is held yearly, when teenagers are chosen to be taken by the Guardians, although no one knows why.

Lele now has to go and live with her father and step-mother, and start attending a new school, all of which provides some of the usual YA storylines. As the story develops she also has to deal with her attraction to two different boys. It’s interesting to see these usual YA themes wrapped up in a dystopian zombie story, but it works well.

When Lele is chosen by the lottery, she decides to escape, and find her way through the Deadlands – during this time she makes some new friends who teach her how to fight the zombies, and show her that there is a different way. Meanwhile things are changing within the enclaves, and she has to decide which path is the right one.

The level of threat is just right from the zombies – whilst it’s always there, it’s not too scary or gory for teen readers. As an older reader, I found it a pleasant change from other zombie books I’ve recently been reading, and I found myself captured by the story. The relationship aspect is well done, and isn’t too overpowering, and there are some interesting characters to explore. Lele’s story continues in Death of a Saint later this year, and I’m looking forward to reading it.

Never let it be said South Africa is slow to pick up on cultural trends: zombies have been the flavour of the new Millennium, young adult readership is a potential growth market and the target audience of many current publications and speculative fiction has come loud and proud out of the closet. And talking about closets, it’s also very cool to include at least one token gay character.

Deadlands, by local author lily Hearne, is all the above and more: a zombie tale told with panache and wit and, best of all, proudly South African, set in the Cape Town of 2010, ten years after a ‘zombie’ plague decimated South Africa and possibly, although this is never spelled out, the world.

It seems some unspecified calamity occurred at the time of the World Cup which caused the dead to reanimate and, true to traditional zombie form, to attack and infest the living who were overwhelmed in short order and forced into squalid enclaves, leaving the ‘Rotters’ [or Zombies] control of the suburbs.

Seventeen-year-old Lele de la Fontein has spent the years since the war in the Agricultural District living with her Grandmother and her brother and is horrified when her gran’s death necessitates her return to the enclave where she stays with her father and war-hero stepmother who now has a senior government position.

The tale wouldn’t be complete without deluded cultists who worship the Rotters and long to join them in ever-lasting life, and the Guardians, sinister hooded forces who control both the undead and, by extension, the living. Not to mention the smugglers who venture out into the Deadlands, former suburbs now overrun by marauding zombies, to salvage goods from a shopping centre – Ratanga Junction actually – in the heart of enemy territory.

Naturally Lele joins the smugglers – known as ‘Mall Rats’ – finds romance, adventure and a few things about herself. Despite the irritating prognostications of the first person narration, Deadlands is an exciting, well written tale – with ageless appeal so move over Young Adults – packed with wonderful pop-cultural references, and a uniquely South African favour which never gets in the way of the plot. ( )