Reviews with content warning for Child death - 좀비

This is such an incredibly unique book and it brilliantly achieves what it sets out to do. The flow of the writing is very odd and takes a bit to get used to. But it also allows you to reall get the sense of living in the mind of someone as deranged as Q.P. Oates did a remarkable job getting into the mind of someone like this and creating their inner world so vividly for us. This book feels uncomfortable to read and it does an excellent job at making you truly hate Q.P.
The only reason it isn't 5☆ is that the flow and pacing does feel really confusing when you start and that makes it hard to get into the real flow things and understand the plot. I also take issue with the author choosing to make her sadistic and extremel sexually driven (and perverted) serial killer a gay man (when the stereotype has always been that they are predators). Especially given that this novel was written/published on close to the end of the aids epidemic when gay men were being treated even more vilified than normal. Even if Oates did not intentionally mean to create such a dangerous stereotype I cannot believe that she wasn't at least subconsciously biased by homophobia when writing.
Definitely worth checking trigger warnings.

Content Warnings

gringolet's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A meandering, disturbing book that goes nowhere on purpose. A threatening air of mundanity.

Content Warnings

annihilatrix's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Sometimes I think that delving into the mind of a shitty person (in this case, fictionalized Jeffrey Dahmer if he lived in Michigan) is a white author excuse for being able to print racist slurs. I felt the same way about We Need to Talk About Kevin, though that was better for me in the exploration of maternal alienation. Zombie was gratuitous and just not good; I was extremely glad it was a short read.

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