Raising Stony Mayhall (Daryl Gregory)

Once again, Gregory takes broken, dangerous people and turns them into complex, intriguing, and sympathetic heroes. Stony Mayhall is a zombie, but a very unusual zombie. Found as a newly-undead newborn and taken in by a solid apple-pie Iowa family, Stony manages to do the impossible over and over again, and we are rooting for him all the way. This is a story of family, of love, of trying to do the right thing in the most difficult of situations. We know from the opening chapter, which sets a frame to which the rest of the story is flashback, that key people will survive, but how remains unclear until the very end. I have nothing but admiration for Gregory's storytelling.