The Critics’ Corner

What Are the “Moaners”?

The central theme of Anastasia Towe’s “Dead North” is loss and redemption. Readers will have mixed reactions to the premise. Some will embrace the “moaners” wholeheartedly as a dramatic element. Others will tolerate them but wonder where they come from. Still others have had it up to here with zombies and just can’t take ’em anymore.

To answer this issue’s Challenge question, the article “Space Aliens as Metaphor” — and zombies can be classified loosely as aliens — says that hostile aliens represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: war, famine, disease and death. In “Dead North,” the zombies represent disease.