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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
Originally published at http://www.fantasyliterature.com with 4 1/2 stars.
Imagine a zombie. An image springs instantly to mind. A rotting corpse, shuffling along, arms held out clumsily, grunting and groaning as it makes its way inexorably forward. Now imagine you, yourself, your ego, inside that zombie. You are that zombie, your consciousness trapped inside a brain that no longer has control over your body, your life, your insatiable hunger. You watch yourself feast on the flesh of those who are no longer survivors of the plague that has infested New York City, revolted by the feel and taste of human waste in your mouth as you gorge yourself on intestines and flesh. You pray for release from this un-life, but you are trapped, a passenger along for the ride on a body you no longer control.
In I, Zombie, Hugh Howey has created a top-notch horror novel and a metaphorically resonant examination of the human condition. I don’t normally read horror novels because I have an overactive imagination and tend to have nightmares from simple ghost stories told around a campfire. But I trusted in the skilled hands of Howey to make this zombie story more than a simple horror tale and I was not disappointed. I devoured I, Zombie in a single day, staying up late to finish the last chapters. As I laid in bed, trying to fall asleep (with the lights left on so the zombies wouldn’t get me) my mind turned from the horror of zombies mindlessly seeking the living to satiate uncontrollable desires to the people trapped in those flesh coffins.
Howey aptly titled the book I, Zombie, because this vividly told tale will force the reader to see the zombie in themselves. Told as a series of first person narratives, the people confined in the shambling hulks examine how they have lived as zombies in their own lives. Addiction, coercion, fear, mindless routines, failing to make a choice as an illusion of choosing, hunger for someone else to fill them with meaning, the slow decay of relationships as distance — emotional and physical — separates the human from the animal.
There is a lot of symbolism in I, Zombie, but it is easily done, placed into a background that informs and illustrates without being heavy-handed. Some books are easily spotted as being “serious fiction” but this book is a quality piece of storytelling that just so happens to be capable of being read at multiple levels. I can easily see this being assigned in classrooms at the college level (or older high school students because of the gross factor) as a study of what it means to be human and alive, rather than just another animal that is living.
There were a few hitches for me. There are some grammatical errors that should have been caught in editing (I read the Kindle edition.) And while Howey is writing over a dozen first person narratives, and manages to give each person their own distinctive voice, some of the vocabulary and idioms used for each character repeated enough that I wasn’t sure if it was intentional, a linguistic circling that illustrates the confines of each person’s lexicon and therefore experience and understanding of the world, or just careless writing that should have been refined in the revision process.
I, Zombie is revolting. And yet, I highly recommend it. I know there’s a joke waiting to be made about this being the thinking woman’s zombie story and BRAAAAIIIINNNNSSSS!!! but I can’t quite figure out how to make it work. There were times reading I, Zombie that I had an actual physical reaction, typically a dry heave, to what was going on in the book. And yet, even in a series of disconnected narratives, the plot advances so deftly that I was never bored (and was frequently holding my breath wondering how it was going to play out), and while the grossness factor remains in the background, the confrontation between the physical and the mental, the soul and the flesh, the instinct and the will, is what remains at the forefront after finishing the story.
And I dreamed about zombies all night.
Imagine a zombie. An image springs instantly to mind. A rotting corpse, shuffling along, arms held out clumsily, grunting and groaning as it makes its way inexorably forward. Now imagine you, yourself, your ego, inside that zombie. You are that zombie, your consciousness trapped inside a brain that no longer has control over your body, your life, your insatiable hunger. You watch yourself feast on the flesh of those who are no longer survivors of the plague that has infested New York City, revolted by the feel and taste of human waste in your mouth as you gorge yourself on intestines and flesh. You pray for release from this un-life, but you are trapped, a passenger along for the ride on a body you no longer control.
In I, Zombie, Hugh Howey has created a top-notch horror novel and a metaphorically resonant examination of the human condition. I don’t normally read horror novels because I have an overactive imagination and tend to have nightmares from simple ghost stories told around a campfire. But I trusted in the skilled hands of Howey to make this zombie story more than a simple horror tale and I was not disappointed. I devoured I, Zombie in a single day, staying up late to finish the last chapters. As I laid in bed, trying to fall asleep (with the lights left on so the zombies wouldn’t get me) my mind turned from the horror of zombies mindlessly seeking the living to satiate uncontrollable desires to the people trapped in those flesh coffins.
Howey aptly titled the book I, Zombie, because this vividly told tale will force the reader to see the zombie in themselves. Told as a series of first person narratives, the people confined in the shambling hulks examine how they have lived as zombies in their own lives. Addiction, coercion, fear, mindless routines, failing to make a choice as an illusion of choosing, hunger for someone else to fill them with meaning, the slow decay of relationships as distance — emotional and physical — separates the human from the animal.
There is a lot of symbolism in I, Zombie, but it is easily done, placed into a background that informs and illustrates without being heavy-handed. Some books are easily spotted as being “serious fiction” but this book is a quality piece of storytelling that just so happens to be capable of being read at multiple levels. I can easily see this being assigned in classrooms at the college level (or older high school students because of the gross factor) as a study of what it means to be human and alive, rather than just another animal that is living.
There were a few hitches for me. There are some grammatical errors that should have been caught in editing (I read the Kindle edition.) And while Howey is writing over a dozen first person narratives, and manages to give each person their own distinctive voice, some of the vocabulary and idioms used for each character repeated enough that I wasn’t sure if it was intentional, a linguistic circling that illustrates the confines of each person’s lexicon and therefore experience and understanding of the world, or just careless writing that should have been refined in the revision process.
I, Zombie is revolting. And yet, I highly recommend it. I know there’s a joke waiting to be made about this being the thinking woman’s zombie story and BRAAAAIIIINNNNSSSS!!! but I can’t quite figure out how to make it work. There were times reading I, Zombie that I had an actual physical reaction, typically a dry heave, to what was going on in the book. And yet, even in a series of disconnected narratives, the plot advances so deftly that I was never bored (and was frequently holding my breath wondering how it was going to play out), and while the grossness factor remains in the background, the confrontation between the physical and the mental, the soul and the flesh, the instinct and the will, is what remains at the forefront after finishing the story.
And I dreamed about zombies all night.
You may have seen warnings about this book that it's gory and it's not for the weak of... stomach. This is extremely true. Do not ignore these warnings. Granted, I read this book while eating dinner (consisting of noodles, no less) but I have a pretty strong stomach.
This is quite a different type of zombie book, one that I have not come across before (and I've read a decent amount of zombie books!). It takes your typical flesh-eating, shuffling zombie and wonders what if the original human mind did not disappear? Basically the mind becomes a slave to the virus (or whatever, this point was not relevant in the book) that turns a normal human being into a zombie. As a human trapped inside a zombie body, you feel incredible revulsion over what your body is doing, to the point where you feel like throwing up, but the body doesn't stop and you can do nothing to control your actions.
The book was pretty unsettling and certainly is not for everyone. I'm glad that I read it but would never read it again, that's for sure.
This is quite a different type of zombie book, one that I have not come across before (and I've read a decent amount of zombie books!). It takes your typical flesh-eating, shuffling zombie and wonders what if the original human mind did not disappear? Basically the mind becomes a slave to the virus (or whatever, this point was not relevant in the book) that turns a normal human being into a zombie. As a human trapped inside a zombie body, you feel incredible revulsion over what your body is doing, to the point where you feel like throwing up, but the body doesn't stop and you can do nothing to control your actions.
The book was pretty unsettling and certainly is not for everyone. I'm glad that I read it but would never read it again, that's for sure.
There really wasn't much of a plot to this book, but I didn't mind! It was fun and gorey and I had a good time.
The book is an excellent read rigth from the moment you start.
First of all the idea is pretty damn good, instead of your typical story based on the survival of some and how they see the world around them go into decay; we get to eperience apocalyps from the source of it. Nos this is not to say the book is filled with desires to eat and destroy just because they are overtaken by a virus; the book bases itself on how people go thorugh the transformation and even though driven by their instinct to consume the living they remain live as prisoners behind their own eyes, inside their own bodies.
The variety with which the author goes and fills this short stories is good enough that despite you knowing they are all doing the exact same; you feel like each time the story is completely new, the ways in which of the victims deals with their own demise are intriguing; the parallels some draw with their un-life and their previous life are also good point worth mentioning.
The book feels paced just right and the characters have enough depth to be entertaining even if you only get to know them a few pages.
First of all the idea is pretty damn good, instead of your typical story based on the survival of some and how they see the world around them go into decay; we get to eperience apocalyps from the source of it. Nos this is not to say the book is filled with desires to eat and destroy just because they are overtaken by a virus; the book bases itself on how people go thorugh the transformation and even though driven by their instinct to consume the living they remain live as prisoners behind their own eyes, inside their own bodies.
The variety with which the author goes and fills this short stories is good enough that despite you knowing they are all doing the exact same; you feel like each time the story is completely new, the ways in which of the victims deals with their own demise are intriguing; the parallels some draw with their un-life and their previous life are also good point worth mentioning.
The book feels paced just right and the characters have enough depth to be entertaining even if you only get to know them a few pages.
Not at all what you're imagining, I'm sure. More like 4 1/2 stars; not quite amazing but certainly an enthusiastic liked-it-a-lot.
I am a big Hugh Howey fan and have enjoyed everything of his that I've read, most especially Wool and the rest of the Silo Saga. He does dystopia very well, mostly because it's not simplistic or knee-jerk or even political. His dystopian visions are about individuals and how they come together to create a society, even if that means a group with nothing much in common. That's the case with I, Zombie. Yes it's about zombies, but it is only about zombies in that it imagines what might go on in the intact psyche of the individual driven by something out of his control. I can think of many allegories along the same lines.
I, Zombie is thoroughly disgusting and nasty and stinky and wet and sticky and foul. It is also poignant and sad and frustrating. It has moments of humor, but it is not a funny book. It has lots of bad language, but it is not a crude book. More than anything, I'd say it's a philosophical book. If you don't think you can tolerate the answers to questions you may have never wondered about (such as: how do zombies go potty, or what happens when a zombie gets tendon shreds stuck uncomfortably in their teeth, or what do mothers do when trapped with a child and no possible escape) then maybe take a pass. But you'll be missing some things that are truly worth thinking about, especially in terms of the value of the individual human soul.
I am a big Hugh Howey fan and have enjoyed everything of his that I've read, most especially Wool and the rest of the Silo Saga. He does dystopia very well, mostly because it's not simplistic or knee-jerk or even political. His dystopian visions are about individuals and how they come together to create a society, even if that means a group with nothing much in common. That's the case with I, Zombie. Yes it's about zombies, but it is only about zombies in that it imagines what might go on in the intact psyche of the individual driven by something out of his control. I can think of many allegories along the same lines.
I, Zombie is thoroughly disgusting and nasty and stinky and wet and sticky and foul. It is also poignant and sad and frustrating. It has moments of humor, but it is not a funny book. It has lots of bad language, but it is not a crude book. More than anything, I'd say it's a philosophical book. If you don't think you can tolerate the answers to questions you may have never wondered about (such as: how do zombies go potty, or what happens when a zombie gets tendon shreds stuck uncomfortably in their teeth, or what do mothers do when trapped with a child and no possible escape) then maybe take a pass. But you'll be missing some things that are truly worth thinking about, especially in terms of the value of the individual human soul.
If this had been a short story or even a novella, it would have gotten a five star review from me. The premise is so interesting and excellent; one that I can't remember hearing about before. Zombies who retain their memories, thoughts and humanity while being completely unable to affect their own bodies' actions. Horrific!
However, after the first set of characters we experience and follow through this ordeal, it gets repetitive and frankly a little dull. I kept waiting for a resolution of some sort, but it never really came, not even with Darnell's story which showed a glimmer of a promise that something might be about to happen. It didn't.
I would have loved this story if it was shorter. Sadly, it just became a slog through the same themes over and over with no real resolution. But perhaps that was the intent?
However, after the first set of characters we experience and follow through this ordeal, it gets repetitive and frankly a little dull. I kept waiting for a resolution of some sort, but it never really came, not even with Darnell's story which showed a glimmer of a promise that something might be about to happen. It didn't.
I would have loved this story if it was shorter. Sadly, it just became a slog through the same themes over and over with no real resolution. But perhaps that was the intent?
This book is probably one of the most gore filled I have ever read. But it is so clever and interesting and honest and real I didn't want to put it down!
Interesting and enjoyable read. First zombook I have read from a Z's point of view.