Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 09/01/2025 *Starred Review* Ollie Veltman and his mom, Gracie, agree they’ll have “the best summer ever” when they return to Anchor’s Mercy—their hometown island off the coast of Maine that’s a queer summer haven. Never mind that Ollie has ignored his friends for months while his mom received cancer treatment (like many other townies have suffered since the fated Sixties Spill) and Gracie is so grossly positive that Ollie can hardly recognize her. Add in a mysterious, cute new guy to the mix and a public shouting match between Ollie and Gracie and what could go wrong? Just potentially apocalyptic coral, infecting townies and tourists following a tropical storm, is all. Ollie and his now reunited friends need to act quickly to survive the lumbering coral-afied corpses with haunting smiles and infectious body fluids. Told in alternating perspectives of before, during, and after the infection began with a mix of prose, transcripted interviews, and scientific documentation, the stories eventually converge on the surprisingly musical secret of the seafaring infection inhabiting the Mercy community. Ollie and the robustly developed cast around him entertain with quippy dialogue and a complicated depth that adds impressive nuance to the horrors. La Sala once again demonstrates extreme prowess for integrating themes of belonging, grief, and yes, even queer joy into this horrifying and fresh approach to a zombie apocalypse. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.