I Am Legend

Somehow, I was one of those people who missed the I Am Legend movie frenzy, so I was lucky enough to be able to read the book with fresh eyes. I'm not really sure how close the movie related to the book, but from what I heard I was under the impression that this was a zombie novel. Personally, I felt this was a lot more like a vampire story with a twist - germs causing the vampiric attributes rather then turning a person. Now, usually I love these kinds of twists on what's culturally known as supernatural lore. Vampires repelled by garlic, killed by the sun etc. I loved the way that the vampiric traits of people were spread by disease carrying insects, and how that disease initially came out of war. I though this was a clever explanation behind the apocalyptic setting. For me, the drawback to the book was the main character, Robert Neville.

For one, I felt that the main character wasn't believable for the majority of the book.  There's an outbreak of terrifying blood-thirsty vampires harassing him outside of his house, and each time he happens to take a gander at one of the undead ladies he can only think about taking them to bed. For me, I never really found the appeal of something that can rip your head off- I'd be more focused on survival. Second, for all the reading he did into vampires, why did it such a big revelation to him that they couldn't go out in the daylight? It seemed so bizarre that it was like some big epiphany to him, when it was pretty obvious those who were infected retreated to the darkness during the day. There was a very hopeless feeling to his character throughout the novel- that no matter what he did or tried, you just knew it wasn't going to work out for him.

The only part where I really sympathized with his character was when he first found the dog. I felt his emotions and reactions were real and desperate, and his struggle to gain the dog's trust was painful. I was more moved by his last moments with the dog then the story of his family. Perhaps this is because as a reader, we weren't given enough time to become attached to his wife and child?

I did find the ending to be interesting in the fact that the "survivors" were what caused Neville's death in the end. But altogether, I don't feel as moved or horrified by I Am Legend as I was with Frankenstein.