“The Wild Ones: Book 2” by Jack Hunt – The Heart of the Pandemic

A Deadly Journey with Jack Hunt

Zombie epidemic books these days are a dime a dozen, to the point where it's likely civilizations from the distant future will assume we had to deal with this problem on a daily basis. A little while ago the novelty of the genre wore off rather quickly, which in turn pushed many authors to try and come up with new twists to keep it fresh.

Today we have zombie apocalypse books of all kinds, littered on the entire spectrum between action, horror, comedy and even romance. While many of them are seeking to simply cash in on a craze with a lazy idea, there are authors like Jack Hunt who truly strive to move a blockaded genre forward, as he did in his first book of a series titled The Wild Ones. In it, we followed a group of teenagers as they were faced with a zombie outbreak while, rather conveniently, being in the middle of zombie survival camp.

In the second book, very aptly-titled The Wild Ones: Book 2 we are once again reunited with our heroes as they managed to tame the threats of the Adirondack mountains, somehow surviving against all odds. Now they simply need to figure out where to go and what to do with humanity more or less laying in ruins around them. It doesn't take long for the opportunity of a lifetime to present itself: there is a doctor who might very well have the cure to the monstrous pandemic. Unfortunately, the group must travel through the heart of the country to protect humanity's last hope, something much easier said than done with human threats thrown into the mix now. Cruel gangs now roam the lawless streets, revelling in their new world order... even with the epidemic cured, is there any hope left for humanity at all?

​A High-Octane Affair

​In the previous book, Jack Hunt managed to masterfully combine meaningful character development with a plot which kept on ploughing forward regardless of what was happening. In my opinion, the pace of the second book is even faster, putting character development in a bit more of a secondary role than before. We follow the events of the story through Scott's eyes, so in that sense we do become even better acquainted with him than before and witness the changes he's still undergoing on a spiritual level. The characters surrounding him aren't paid as much attention, and while generally I would say it's a bad thing, in this case it felt logical considering how much attention was dedicated to our first-person narrator. The author makes it very clear we are reading Scott's story at this point, and in my opinion he is an interesting and complex enough character to carry a story, at least this particular one.

​With less character development to get in the way of the book's events, Jack Hunt certainly made good use of the extra page space to weave a plot moving almost too quickly for us to process it. From one page to the next something is happening, someone is in danger, and some threat looms either close or far in the distance. There is nary a moment of respite or safety, with a certain atmosphere of restlessness permeating from start to finish.  There is a constant urgency to the characters' goals, which in turn prevents the book from ever feeling stale or boring. Even the few passages which draw on cliches we've grown tired of in the zombie genre don't feel like a burden, but rather like a familiar stop we pass on the bus every day.

​The Chaos of a Ruined Society

​One of the common difficulties authors tend to run into when writing a book is presenting their own social and/or personal commentary in a very ham-fisted way. All too often authors come across as if they're beating you over the head with their ideas, putting a solid stop to the story to try and shove their beliefs down your throat. This might not even be done on purpose, because frankly it takes a fair amount of skill to do what Jack Hunt does and simply weave all his thoughts and meditations seamlessly into the text. The old dogma of showing rather than telling applies here more-so than in other cases; instead of directly explaining his concepts, Jack Hunt creates a world where we can see them in action and judge for ourselves.

As you might imagine, a lawless society can make for a rather interesting canvas to explore the inner workings of society with and without order, the makings of personal identity, the hedonistic cravings we suppress, what shapes our morals and values, and so on and so forth.

​Hunt really makes the most of this canvas, constantly thrusting his characters into situations where they witness manifestations of this new world order, pushing us, the readers, to reflect on the presented concepts on our own. Honestly, even if you aren't a fan of philosophical and spiritual debates, simply observing the fallen civilization as depicted by the author is fascinating itself, even if somewhat exaggerated at times.

​The Final Verdict

With all being said and done, The Wild Ones: Book 2 is very much a worthy successor to the first novel, adroitly building on what was already established to deliver a fast-paced and action-packed story with some interesting character development and social commentary. If you enjoyed the first book, I believe it's safe to say you'll definitely like this one.

David ben Efraim (https://bookwormex.com)