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clockless's review
2.0
This has a very wide variety of living dead stories (I think the term 'zombie' is a little too specific for some), which is fine by me, but there were far too many stories I just didn't enjoy.
I'm going to give them some ratings for the sake of completeness, but since I'm only doing this after the fact, they are only rough estimates of my actual enjoyment (I'm not even sure if I'm grading them on a scale of 4 stars or 5, to be honest).
[Spoilered for size only, no plot details within]
This Year’s Class Picture***
Some Zombie Contingency Plans***
Death and Suffrage*
Ghost Dance*
Blossom*
The Third Dead Body**
The Dead**
The Dead Kid***
Malthusian’s Zombie***
Beautiful Stuff*
Sex, Death and Starshine**
Stockholm Syndrome***
Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead*
Those Who Seek Forgiveness***
In Beauty, Like the Night**
Prairie by Brian Evenson***
Everything is Better with Zombies*
Home Delivery**
Less than Zombie**
Sparks Fly Upward*
Meathouse Man*
Deadman’s Road**
The Skull-Faced Boy***
The Age of Sorrow*
Bitter Grounds by Neil Gaiman**
She’s Taking Her Tits to the Grave*
Dead Like Me**
Zora and the Zombie*
Calcutta*
Followed****
The Song the Zombie Sang***
Passion Play*
Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man****
How the Day Runs Down***
I'm going to give them some ratings for the sake of completeness, but since I'm only doing this after the fact, they are only rough estimates of my actual enjoyment (I'm not even sure if I'm grading them on a scale of 4 stars or 5, to be honest).
[Spoilered for size only, no plot details within]
Spoiler
This Year’s Class Picture***
Some Zombie Contingency Plans***
Death and Suffrage*
Ghost Dance*
Blossom*
The Third Dead Body**
The Dead**
The Dead Kid***
Malthusian’s Zombie***
Beautiful Stuff*
Sex, Death and Starshine**
Stockholm Syndrome***
Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead*
Those Who Seek Forgiveness***
In Beauty, Like the Night**
Prairie by Brian Evenson***
Everything is Better with Zombies*
Home Delivery**
Less than Zombie**
Sparks Fly Upward*
Meathouse Man*
Deadman’s Road**
The Skull-Faced Boy***
The Age of Sorrow*
Bitter Grounds by Neil Gaiman**
She’s Taking Her Tits to the Grave*
Dead Like Me**
Zora and the Zombie*
Calcutta*
Followed****
The Song the Zombie Sang***
Passion Play*
Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man****
How the Day Runs Down***
nefeli's review
The Living Dead is a collection of mostly boring stories. A lot of them are really bad. A couple of them are good. Some don't even feature any zombies at all. I'll share with you the notes I made after each chapter:
-Some Zombie Contingency Plans, by Kelly Link:
I feel cheated, there are no zombies in this story, only a guy thinking about them.
-Death and Suffrage, by Dale Baily:
Not a zombie story, although zombies are present. Interesting premise.
-Blossom, by David J. Schow:
Umm... Ok?
-The Third Dead Body, by Nina Kiriki Hoffman:
Cool?
-The Dead, by Michael Swanwick:
Again, not about zombies. The symbolism wasn't exactly subtle here.
-The Dead Kid, by Darrell Schweitzer:
Did Stephen fucking King write this? I wish I could give it a negative amount of stars.
-Malthusian's Zombie, by Jeffrey Ford:
Boring and kind of ridiculous.
-Beautiful Stuff, by Susan Palwick:
Pretty ok.
-Sex, Death And Starshine, by Clive Barker:
Booooooring.
-Stockholm Syndrome, by David Tallerman:
Ok.
-Bobby Conroy Comes Back From the Dead:
Dude, again, there weren't any zombies here. Only a bunch of extras in a Romero movie.
-Those Who Seek Forgiveness, by Laurell K. Hamilton:
Meh.
-In Beauty, Like the Night, by Norman Partridge:
I am getting really tired.
-Prairie, by Brian Evenson:
I spaced out and didn't pay any attention to this story. I just kept turning the pages all braindead like. Haaa, get it? I need another hobby...
-Everything is Better With Zombies, by Hannah Wolf Bowen:
That's cool and everything, but, again, no zombies whatsoever.
-Home Delivery, by Stephen King:
When Stephen doesn't infuriate me, he bores me. I don't know which is worse.
-Sparks Fly Upward, by Lisa Morton:
This was really interesting.
-Meathouse Man, by George R. R. Martin:
Oh come on, fuck you, Martin, that's disgusting.
-Deadman's Road, by Joe R. Lansdale:
Boring. Just... Boring.
-The Skull-Faced Boy, by David Barr Kirtley:
Was this supposed to be some kind of metaphor? About, like, how all people are fundamentally the same and we should love each other?
-The Age of Sorrow, by Nancy Kilpatrick:
I spaced out again.
-Bitter Ground, by Neil Gaiman:
I wish I liked you, Neil, but you really do bore me to death.
-She's Taking Her Tits to the Grave, by Catherine Cheek:
Is the title not enough?
-Dead Like Me, by Adam-Troy Castro:
I liked this one.
That's it. I skipped the rest of them because I love me too much.
-Some Zombie Contingency Plans, by Kelly Link:
I feel cheated, there are no zombies in this story, only a guy thinking about them.
-Death and Suffrage, by Dale Baily:
Not a zombie story, although zombies are present. Interesting premise.
-Blossom, by David J. Schow:
Umm... Ok?
-The Third Dead Body, by Nina Kiriki Hoffman:
Cool?
-The Dead, by Michael Swanwick:
Again, not about zombies. The symbolism wasn't exactly subtle here.
-The Dead Kid, by Darrell Schweitzer:
Did Stephen fucking King write this? I wish I could give it a negative amount of stars.
-Malthusian's Zombie, by Jeffrey Ford:
Boring and kind of ridiculous.
-Beautiful Stuff, by Susan Palwick:
Pretty ok.
-Sex, Death And Starshine, by Clive Barker:
Booooooring.
-Stockholm Syndrome, by David Tallerman:
Ok.
-Bobby Conroy Comes Back From the Dead:
Dude, again, there weren't any zombies here. Only a bunch of extras in a Romero movie.
-Those Who Seek Forgiveness, by Laurell K. Hamilton:
Meh.
-In Beauty, Like the Night, by Norman Partridge:
I am getting really tired.
-Prairie, by Brian Evenson:
I spaced out and didn't pay any attention to this story. I just kept turning the pages all braindead like. Haaa, get it? I need another hobby...
-Everything is Better With Zombies, by Hannah Wolf Bowen:
That's cool and everything, but, again, no zombies whatsoever.
-Home Delivery, by Stephen King:
When Stephen doesn't infuriate me, he bores me. I don't know which is worse.
-Sparks Fly Upward, by Lisa Morton:
This was really interesting.
-Meathouse Man, by George R. R. Martin:
Oh come on, fuck you, Martin, that's disgusting.
-Deadman's Road, by Joe R. Lansdale:
Boring. Just... Boring.
-The Skull-Faced Boy, by David Barr Kirtley:
Was this supposed to be some kind of metaphor? About, like, how all people are fundamentally the same and we should love each other?
-The Age of Sorrow, by Nancy Kilpatrick:
I spaced out again.
-Bitter Ground, by Neil Gaiman:
I wish I liked you, Neil, but you really do bore me to death.
-She's Taking Her Tits to the Grave, by Catherine Cheek:
Is the title not enough?
-Dead Like Me, by Adam-Troy Castro:
I liked this one.
That's it. I skipped the rest of them because I love me too much.
ntrlycrly's review
4.0
Nice variety of stories, including some that had timely political commentary like "Death and Suffrage" in which the undead save a Democratic candidate; and some interesting twists on the "western" style like "Deadman's Road" by Joe R. Lansdale of "Bubba Hotep" fame.
abookishtype's review
I usually end up reading something scary in October. This year, it was an anthology of zombie stories collected and edited by John Joseph Adams titled The Living Dead. I’d read a review about it on the Publisher’s Weekly web site about a month ago, and it sounded really good. When I got my hands on a copy, and saw that some of my favorite authors had contributed, I got even more excited to read it...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
buildhergender's review
5.0
Zombies my favorite monster. A wide selection of stories most of them good. My biggest complaint would be that quite a few of the "zombies" in this stories are zombies. Sure they all share the died and came back to non-life but this could be said of others from vampires to ghosts. Some of these actually fit other categories of monsters better.
One note I want to add is I read the electronic version which is missing 3 stories the printed one has. I understand republishing rights causes this but typically it's good form to note the differences. I just happened to note that reviews of this book mentioned the first story having a different name than this version. Doing some research I found that there were three listed in the print version that are not here. Not a deal breaker but I think should have been acknowledged.
Now the stories.
Some Zombie Contingency Plans by Kelly Link
No zombies appeared in this zombie story. But there was a unexpected and totally out of place kidnapping.
Death and Suffrage by Dale Bailey
There were zombies in this story. Unusual zombies they did not eat people. A good story about gun control.
Blossom by David Schow
WTF, seriously. Okay full zombie in this story. And a date rapist getting his just desserts.
The Third Dead Body by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
More voodoo zombie than Romero. Dealing with a serial killer who finds his work catching up with him, literally.
The Dead by Michael Swanwick
Unusual zombies. More like semi intelligent willing servants of humanity. They meet businessmen. The zombies are not the monsters of this story.
The Dead Kid by Darrell Schweitzer
Think of Stephen Kings "Stand by me" where the body was a zombie kid. A very passive and un-intimidating zombie kid.
Malthusian's Zombie by Jeffrey Ford
A psychological zombie. A man turned into a zombie, through science and psychology, who becomes an assassin for the government. Nice twist at the end.
Beautiful Stuff by Susan Palwick
Science zombies. Science lets humans come back alive for 24 hours. Only to find that the dead think quite differently than the living. Great anti-war story.
Sex, Death And Starshine by Clive Barker
Actor Zombies. The dead return to take up their old acting careers. And what acting job is harder than life.
Stockholm Syndrome by David Tallerman
Real zombies. A very accurate title. If you spend enough time with someone you are eventually affected by them.
Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead by Joe Hill
Technically these are the real Romero zombies. Romance story. I liked this one.
Those Who Seek Forgiveness by Laurell K Hamilton
voodoo zombie. I've never read her before but I must say I enjoyed this story.
In Beauty, Like The Night by Norman Partridge
Playboy zombies. Semi Romero with more than average intelligence. Had an interesting premise.
Prairie by Brian Evenson
Native American zombies. The zombies are fictional but the atrocities committed by the "good Christian" journal writer are unfortunately historically accurate.
Everything Is Better With Zombies by Hannah Wolf Bowen
Figments of the imagination zombies. More about two friends who are moving away from each other using an imaginary zombie hunt as an excuse to spend one more day together
Home Delivery by Stephen King
Romero Lobstermen zombies. A surprisingly traditional take on zombies, considering his other work in the subject included cellphones turning people into zombies who then hummed and flew. I liked it and wouldn't mind living on that island if a zombie uprising happened.
Sparks Fly Upward by Lisa Morton
AntiChoice Zombies. I liked this one as well. The zombies are Romero and this is a great story about abortion and how even after the world ends some people still do not give up with oppression.
Meathouse Man by George R. R. Martin
Sex puppet zombies. A bit of a sad story. Feel like the zombies were more Frankensteinian than zombie.
Deadman's Road by Joe R. Lansdale
It was a ghoul not a zombie. Still a good story. Starring a recurring character of Lansdale's Reverend Jebidiah
Skull Faced Boy by David Barr Kirtley
Army of zombies. Romero zombies with a few with full intelligence mixed in. And a love triangle.
The Age Of Sorrow by Nancy Kilpatrick
Australian zombies, New Zealand actually. Close to Romero. The life of a woman survivor as she feels her biological clock run down.
Bitter Grounds by Neil Gaiman
Coffee zombies. I liked the setup of this story better than the follow through.
She's Taking Her Tits To The Grave by Catherine Cheek
Hollywood socialite zombie. Voodoo zombie. Quite a funny story
Dead Like Me by Adam Troy Castro
Romero zombies I think. Quislings is what Wwz would call the character in this story.
Zora And The Zombie by Andy Duncan
Haitian voodoo zombie. This story was more about the culture than zombies.
Calcutta Land Of Nerves by Poppy Z Brite
Indian zombies, from the continent. I guess somewhat Romero. And Kali is their goddess
Followed by Will Mcintosh
Environmental zombies. It's a world where if you make bad environmental choices that result in the death of others you get a personal zombie. I really like the idea behind this one.
The Song The Zombie Sang by Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverburg
Good story. Really would argue this is another example of a Frankensteinian creation than a zombie.
Passion Play by Nancy Holder
Jesus zombie. Neat story and a unique idea of how to use zombies
Almost The Last Story By Almost The Last Man by Scott Edelman
Library zombies. What better place for a reader writer to spend the apocalypse than a library. Sad and morbid story.
How The Day Runs Down by John Langan
Romero zombies. I think the longest of the stories and a great ending. Basically the play our town with zombies
One note I want to add is I read the electronic version which is missing 3 stories the printed one has. I understand republishing rights causes this but typically it's good form to note the differences. I just happened to note that reviews of this book mentioned the first story having a different name than this version. Doing some research I found that there were three listed in the print version that are not here. Not a deal breaker but I think should have been acknowledged.
Now the stories.
Some Zombie Contingency Plans by Kelly Link
No zombies appeared in this zombie story. But there was a unexpected and totally out of place kidnapping.
Death and Suffrage by Dale Bailey
There were zombies in this story. Unusual zombies they did not eat people. A good story about gun control.
Blossom by David Schow
WTF, seriously. Okay full zombie in this story. And a date rapist getting his just desserts.
The Third Dead Body by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
More voodoo zombie than Romero. Dealing with a serial killer who finds his work catching up with him, literally.
The Dead by Michael Swanwick
Unusual zombies. More like semi intelligent willing servants of humanity. They meet businessmen. The zombies are not the monsters of this story.
The Dead Kid by Darrell Schweitzer
Think of Stephen Kings "Stand by me" where the body was a zombie kid. A very passive and un-intimidating zombie kid.
Malthusian's Zombie by Jeffrey Ford
A psychological zombie. A man turned into a zombie, through science and psychology, who becomes an assassin for the government. Nice twist at the end.
Beautiful Stuff by Susan Palwick
Science zombies. Science lets humans come back alive for 24 hours. Only to find that the dead think quite differently than the living. Great anti-war story.
Sex, Death And Starshine by Clive Barker
Actor Zombies. The dead return to take up their old acting careers. And what acting job is harder than life.
Stockholm Syndrome by David Tallerman
Real zombies. A very accurate title. If you spend enough time with someone you are eventually affected by them.
Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead by Joe Hill
Technically these are the real Romero zombies. Romance story. I liked this one.
Those Who Seek Forgiveness by Laurell K Hamilton
voodoo zombie. I've never read her before but I must say I enjoyed this story.
In Beauty, Like The Night by Norman Partridge
Playboy zombies. Semi Romero with more than average intelligence. Had an interesting premise.
Prairie by Brian Evenson
Native American zombies. The zombies are fictional but the atrocities committed by the "good Christian" journal writer are unfortunately historically accurate.
Everything Is Better With Zombies by Hannah Wolf Bowen
Figments of the imagination zombies. More about two friends who are moving away from each other using an imaginary zombie hunt as an excuse to spend one more day together
Home Delivery by Stephen King
Romero Lobstermen zombies. A surprisingly traditional take on zombies, considering his other work in the subject included cellphones turning people into zombies who then hummed and flew. I liked it and wouldn't mind living on that island if a zombie uprising happened.
Sparks Fly Upward by Lisa Morton
AntiChoice Zombies. I liked this one as well. The zombies are Romero and this is a great story about abortion and how even after the world ends some people still do not give up with oppression.
Meathouse Man by George R. R. Martin
Sex puppet zombies. A bit of a sad story. Feel like the zombies were more Frankensteinian than zombie.
Deadman's Road by Joe R. Lansdale
It was a ghoul not a zombie. Still a good story. Starring a recurring character of Lansdale's Reverend Jebidiah
Skull Faced Boy by David Barr Kirtley
Army of zombies. Romero zombies with a few with full intelligence mixed in. And a love triangle.
The Age Of Sorrow by Nancy Kilpatrick
Australian zombies, New Zealand actually. Close to Romero. The life of a woman survivor as she feels her biological clock run down.
Bitter Grounds by Neil Gaiman
Coffee zombies. I liked the setup of this story better than the follow through.
She's Taking Her Tits To The Grave by Catherine Cheek
Hollywood socialite zombie. Voodoo zombie. Quite a funny story
Dead Like Me by Adam Troy Castro
Romero zombies I think. Quislings is what Wwz would call the character in this story.
Zora And The Zombie by Andy Duncan
Haitian voodoo zombie. This story was more about the culture than zombies.
Calcutta Land Of Nerves by Poppy Z Brite
Indian zombies, from the continent. I guess somewhat Romero. And Kali is their goddess
Followed by Will Mcintosh
Environmental zombies. It's a world where if you make bad environmental choices that result in the death of others you get a personal zombie. I really like the idea behind this one.
The Song The Zombie Sang by Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverburg
Good story. Really would argue this is another example of a Frankensteinian creation than a zombie.
Passion Play by Nancy Holder
Jesus zombie. Neat story and a unique idea of how to use zombies
Almost The Last Story By Almost The Last Man by Scott Edelman
Library zombies. What better place for a reader writer to spend the apocalypse than a library. Sad and morbid story.
How The Day Runs Down by John Langan
Romero zombies. I think the longest of the stories and a great ending. Basically the play our town with zombies
sapphirestars's review
4.0
What a journey it has been with this novel! Taking approximately a month to read this ensured that I read and formed a distinct opinion about each story in the collection. Starting off with a bang with "This Year's Class Picture", a fantastic story perhaps the best in the book, each story presents different views and genres of zombie stories...some of which I would hesitate to call zombies even in the loosest sense of the word. Stories such as "Some Zombie Contingency Plans" and "Everything is Better with Zombies" do not actually involve the undead at all.
However I was glad for each story and really fell in love with some of them. I would say the best short stories featured in this book include (but are not limited to):
This Year's Class Picture
Blossom
The Third Dead Body
Beautiful Stuff
Sex, Death, and Starshine
Home Delivery (which being a [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1261866457p2/3389.jpg] short story, I had of course already read)
Sparks Fly Upwards
Meathouse Man
Dead Man's Road
The Skull-Faced Boy
Followed
This anthology has a very diverse collection of stories and the above mentioned are the ones I will remember most and recommend. I am glad to have read each one, although some stories were lackluster many were poignant and interesting to me.
However I was glad for each story and really fell in love with some of them. I would say the best short stories featured in this book include (but are not limited to):
This Year's Class Picture
Blossom
The Third Dead Body
Beautiful Stuff
Sex, Death, and Starshine
Home Delivery (which being a [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1261866457p2/3389.jpg] short story, I had of course already read)
Sparks Fly Upwards
Meathouse Man
Dead Man's Road
The Skull-Faced Boy
Followed
This anthology has a very diverse collection of stories and the above mentioned are the ones I will remember most and recommend. I am glad to have read each one, although some stories were lackluster many were poignant and interesting to me.
lep42's review
3.0
Like most anthologies, the story quality in this one was uneven, however there were enough strong stories to give this a solid 3 to 3.5 stars.
I particularly enjoyed
"This Year's Class Picture" by Dan Simmons (whose Hyperion I coincidentally just finished).
"Death and Suffrage" by Dale Baily
"Mathusian's Zombie by Jeffery Ford (nice twist at the end)
"Home Delivery" by Stephen King
"Meathouse Man" by George R.R. Martin
"The Age of Sorrow" by Nancy Kilpatrick"
"Bitter Grounds" by Neil Gaiman (appreciated it more this time than the last time I read it)
"Followed" by Will McIntosh
My favorite piece was "Sparks Fly Upward" by Lisa Morton
I particularly enjoyed
"This Year's Class Picture" by Dan Simmons (whose Hyperion I coincidentally just finished).
"Death and Suffrage" by Dale Baily
"Mathusian's Zombie by Jeffery Ford (nice twist at the end)
"Home Delivery" by Stephen King
"Meathouse Man" by George R.R. Martin
"The Age of Sorrow" by Nancy Kilpatrick"
"Bitter Grounds" by Neil Gaiman (appreciated it more this time than the last time I read it)
"Followed" by Will McIntosh
My favorite piece was "Sparks Fly Upward" by Lisa Morton
alhara's review
3.0
I think I read most of this. It's short stories. A few were pretty good, most tolerable, a few I really didn't like.
suggoiai's review
5.0
The purist who feels that the beginning and end of zombies is Night of the Living Dead will probably not like this book. There are a few metaphorical stories, there are a few tying zombies to a normal person barely living life stories, and there are a great number of post-zombie apocalypse stories. But this is a great collection of stories. Strangely, I found Stephen King's to be the weakest in the collection, possibly because it reminded me too much of his other work. Nonetheless, even the weakest stories in this collection are pretty good.