DEVILS UNTO DUST

Guitar chords reverberate as Berquist's gritty postapocalyptic Western opens. An infectious disease ravages post-Civil War Texas, transforming people into ravenous corpses known as shakes and cutting off train access and Northern aid. Narrator Devon Sorvari captures Daisy "Willie" Wilcox's slight drawl and pragmatic tone as she sustains her close-knit siblings in a fortified town where they are surrounded by the dead and controlled by a man called The Judge. When saddled with her absentee father's debts, the resilient teen reluctantly hires shake hunters to accompany her across bleak and treacherous terrain to find him. Sorvari's keen depictions reflect characters faced with difficult decisions and experiencing intense emotions in this immersive alternate history. Spare prose and an insightful performance reveal heartbreaking strength, beauty, and hope in a world dominated by loss. J.R.T. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2018]