I, Zombie (Book)
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Written by Hugh Howey
Published by Broad Reach Publishing
I’ve read a lot of zombie books, seen a lot of zombie movies, and watched a lot of zombie TV shows. I thought I’d seen it/read it all, but Hugh Howey broke the mold with I, Zombie. Presenting a premise that all zombie fans are familiar with, Howey takes us into a post-apocalyptic world that is overrun with the walking dead. The only catch in this story? It’s told from the perspective of the zombie.
I, Zombie is divided into six separate sections, and each section follows a different group of zombies. The thing that is noticeable right off the bat with Howey’s story is that he doesn’t hold back. He lays it all out there for you – the gore, the horror, the sadness, and even the absolutely nasty aspects of the afterlife that may have crossed our minds but we never thought to take to a higher plane of thought.
Howey’s writing is haunting. I, Zombie puts the reader directly in the mind of the dead and makes you face the fear of what it would be like to be a prisoner in your own mind. Imagine everything that you take for granted right now – the ability to walk wherever you want, to tell your body to eat what you want, to turn your face to the sun… now try to picture a world where you still have all of this knowledge but are trapped in a body that used to obey you but is now controlled by a virus you cannot fight.
Oh, and you’re munching on your friends and loved ones as a late night snack.
In addition to the horrific gore (which is surprisingly not excessive but does fill the pages of I, Zombie), there is a haunting hollowness to the characters in Howey’s novel that made me incredibly sad and empathetic for these poor lost souls.
I, Zombie is definitely not a book for the weak stomached or someone who is easily offended by topics that are normally off limits to horror writing. However, the fact that Howey breaks through these topics that others won’t even think to touch on is what makes I, Zombie one of the best books I have read in a long time.
This is a must read for any true zombie fan.
5 out of 5
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