Post of the Living Dead

I love and hate zombies in equal measure and for the same reason, they are the most frightening of all the things that go bump in the night! They were the first monsters to give me nightmares as a child – I blame Peter Haining who edited a book called Zombie back in the 1980’s. This was an anthology of classic and modern (for the’80’s) zombie short stories. Zombie lead me on to the novelisation of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead – In a world where life is a commodity, where survival is bought with guns, and where satisfaction is having free run of a department store, the dead will finally rule us all . . . this was the book that gave me nightmares, in my defence I was 12. That is me on the left, if you would like to become zombielicious go here: Diary of the Dead Facechanger Files

Zombies are back in fashion and have been for a few years now.

In YA novels you can read the Beautiful Dead series by Eden Maguire – Not alive. Not dead. Somewhere inbetween lie the Beautiful Dead.

The first two books in the series have been reviewed on Teen Librarian and can be viewed here

The Enemy & The Dead by Charlie Higson, two spine chilling books set in a London that we recognize but peopled by the survivors of a sickness that infected every parent, policeman, politician – every adult fell ill.

The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry.

Only children under fourteen remain, and they’re fighting to survive.

Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city – down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground – the grown-ups lie in wait.

But can they make it there – alive?

Generation Dead by Walter Daniels

Forest of Hands and Teeth and the Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan The Forest of Hands and Teeth was also reviewed on Teen Librarian here

Monster Island by David Wellington

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Graham Smith is the story of Pride & Prejudice with added zombies (a post about classic & monster mash-ups will follow soon)

So Now You’re a Zombie: A Handbook for the Newly Undead by John Austin

Not even the Star Wars Universe is free from the undead, Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber tells the tale of an Imperial Prison Barge that finds a derelict Star Destroyer floating in space. A baording party goes aboard to investigate but only half come back…

Not YA books but will still get a readership Max Brooks has written two books dealing with Zombies:

The Zombie Survival Guide a must-have guide to surviving the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse

World War Z – an oral history of the start, duration and aftermath of the Zombie Apocalypse

Zombies: a record of the year of infection by Don Roff is a detailed account on one man’s attempt to survive the Zombie Apocalypse.

Zombies have also lurched onto the pages of comic books, currently the best-known zombie comic series is The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman – possibly the most successful black & white comic book in the world today. The Walking Dead has also been turned into a televisions series and is currently being shown in the UK.

Other zombie comic books worth a look include:

Raise the Dead by Leah Moore and John Reppion.
Black Gas by Warren Ellis
Marvel Zombies