COME TO DUST by Bracken Macleod

There's so much dramatic potential in a story that focuses on the death of a child and their subsequent and questionable "return." How do you reckon with the horrifying implications of a child being reanimated from the dead, when all you feel is happiness at their return?

This book tackles this idea and its opening third shows so much promise, with an ex-con struggling to make ends meet as he's trying to keep his niece safe after his sister abandoned her, and having to face his greatest fear when she dies. Then, after a number of kids around the world inexplicably wake from the dead, he has to deal with her return. This first third is emotional, deliberate and well-paced, really putting you in the protagonist's shoes. 

But the final two-thirds of the novel betrays all of that as it devolves into a generic and forgettable action thriller that loses most of the thoughtfulness that it promises in the beginning. It doesn't go very far at all in the exploration of its great conceit, and that's pretty disappointing. 

GRADE: C-