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A review by dryadgurrl
Paul Is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion by Alan Goldsher
4.0
Imagine, if you will, a world where zombies and humans live together in if not perfect harmony, at least a sort of balance. A world where, in fact, zombies are considered a racial minority. Now imagine what would happen if certain celebrities and media icons were zombies? Football players, sprinters, Olympic athletes. What about movie stars? Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Jeff Bridges. How about musicians? Green Day, Pink, Madonna.
What about the Beatles?
This is exactly the question that Paul Is Undead raises; what if arguably the biggest band in history weren’t four boys from Liverpool, but were, in fact, four zombies from Liverpool? Well, three zombies and one seventh-level Ninja Lord. The book is written as an oral history of “The British Zombie Invasion” which is to say that the author has set the whole book up as interviews with people close to the band, and even the band themselves.
I’m not generally a fan of alternate history fiction, mostly because, well, a lot of it is pretty far-fetched, but Paul is Undead is just SO far-fetched that it’s into the realm of satire and parody and it’s absolutely hilarious. Not only is it hilarious, it’s also well-written enough that I know I’ll be peppering the ‘facts’ from it into any of my future discussions of the Beatles.
It’s a great ride from John Lennon’s Quarrymen days, right up through the years, each chapter has multiple points of view, from the Beatles themselves, to people close to them, to reporters and historians who wrote about them at the time or have written about them since.
Of course, there’s also input from their arch-nemesis Mick Jagger, who also happens to be England’s greatest zombie hunter. This fact, more than any of the others, I think is the one that’s going to stay with me, mostly because I know it’s going to make me laugh whenever I see him, thinking that his hip-swivel is his greatest weapon against the undead.
All in all, Paul is Undead is a fun, oft-times raunchy romp through history as it should have been, and is well worth the read, and even though it weighs in at just over 300 pages, it’s still a quick, easy read.
What about the Beatles?
This is exactly the question that Paul Is Undead raises; what if arguably the biggest band in history weren’t four boys from Liverpool, but were, in fact, four zombies from Liverpool? Well, three zombies and one seventh-level Ninja Lord. The book is written as an oral history of “The British Zombie Invasion” which is to say that the author has set the whole book up as interviews with people close to the band, and even the band themselves.
I’m not generally a fan of alternate history fiction, mostly because, well, a lot of it is pretty far-fetched, but Paul is Undead is just SO far-fetched that it’s into the realm of satire and parody and it’s absolutely hilarious. Not only is it hilarious, it’s also well-written enough that I know I’ll be peppering the ‘facts’ from it into any of my future discussions of the Beatles.
It’s a great ride from John Lennon’s Quarrymen days, right up through the years, each chapter has multiple points of view, from the Beatles themselves, to people close to them, to reporters and historians who wrote about them at the time or have written about them since.
Of course, there’s also input from their arch-nemesis Mick Jagger, who also happens to be England’s greatest zombie hunter. This fact, more than any of the others, I think is the one that’s going to stay with me, mostly because I know it’s going to make me laugh whenever I see him, thinking that his hip-swivel is his greatest weapon against the undead.
All in all, Paul is Undead is a fun, oft-times raunchy romp through history as it should have been, and is well worth the read, and even though it weighs in at just over 300 pages, it’s still a quick, easy read.