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A review by macbean221b
New Dead: A Zombie Anthology by Christopher Golden
4.0
My opinion of zombie stories stays perfectly in line with my opinion of horror in general: When it's done well, it's the best thing ever but it's so rarely done well. In this short story anthology, though, there were only two stories out of nineteen that I didn't like. One of them (Copper by Stephen R. Bissette) was due to a purely stylistic personal preference on my part. I liked the actual story, just not the way it was told. The other piece I didn't like (Shooting Pool by Joe R. Lansdale) was ... without zombies. The other seventeen stories, though, I enjoyed, to varying degrees. My favorites were:
- Family Business by Jonathan Maberry. I think this might be the longest story in the collection, but it's my absolute favorite. I've even recommended it to a couple of people who aren't zombie fans. It's a really incredible story about some pretty big topics like truth, duty, honor, and family.
- Kids and Their Toys by James A. Moore. This very nearly beats Family Business as my favorite story. It's the most deeply disturbing one in the whole collection, to me. It has a definite Lord of the Flies quality to it, and I wonder if the main character is called Jack as a reference, even though this Jack would be the counterpart of Ralph in Lord of the Flies...
- The Wind Cries Mary by Brian Keene. A very short story that packs a disproportionately large punch. It's about three pages long and at the end my heart completely shatters for a character whose name we never even learned.
- Twittering from the Circus of the Dead by Joe Hill. This one was fun to read because of the format and it made me think. If something like this popped up on Twitter, would anyone believe it, or would everyone think it was a marketing ploy? And which was it, really, in the story's universe...?
- Ghost Trap by Rick Hautala. The sense of dread in this story builds beautifully until it culminates in a sinking despair with the last line. Definitely not a story for everyone, but I loved it.
- And even though I didn't like it enough to call it a personal favorite, I would feel wrong publishing this review without mentioning The Zombie Who Fell from the Sky by M. B. Homler. This one made me actually laugh out loud in several spots but, despite the comedy factor, all the various strings came together into a nicely wrapped little package, where everything fit together perfectly. Very well done.
- Family Business by Jonathan Maberry. I think this might be the longest story in the collection, but it's my absolute favorite. I've even recommended it to a couple of people who aren't zombie fans. It's a really incredible story about some pretty big topics like truth, duty, honor, and family.
- Kids and Their Toys by James A. Moore. This very nearly beats Family Business as my favorite story. It's the most deeply disturbing one in the whole collection, to me. It has a definite Lord of the Flies quality to it, and I wonder if the main character is called Jack as a reference, even though this Jack would be the counterpart of Ralph in Lord of the Flies...
- The Wind Cries Mary by Brian Keene. A very short story that packs a disproportionately large punch. It's about three pages long and at the end my heart completely shatters for a character whose name we never even learned.
- Twittering from the Circus of the Dead by Joe Hill. This one was fun to read because of the format and it made me think. If something like this popped up on Twitter, would anyone believe it, or would everyone think it was a marketing ploy? And which was it, really, in the story's universe...?
- Ghost Trap by Rick Hautala. The sense of dread in this story builds beautifully until it culminates in a sinking despair with the last line. Definitely not a story for everyone, but I loved it.
- And even though I didn't like it enough to call it a personal favorite, I would feel wrong publishing this review without mentioning The Zombie Who Fell from the Sky by M. B. Homler. This one made me actually laugh out loud in several spots but, despite the comedy factor, all the various strings came together into a nicely wrapped little package, where everything fit together perfectly. Very well done.