Review: The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology

The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology

Release Date: February 16, 2010
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Age Group: Adult
Pages: 400
Overall:
Source: borrowed from library
Interest: Zombies
Challenge: Zombie Challenge, Library Challenge
Buy the Book: Amazon | The Book Depository

Resurrection!
The hungry dead have risen. They shamble down the street. They hide in back yards, car lots, shopping malls. They devour neighbors, dogs and police officers. And they are here to stay. The real question is, what are you going to do about it? How will you survive?
How will the world change when the dead begin to rise?
Stoker-award-winning author Christopher Golden has assembled an original anthology of never-before-published zombie stories from an eclectic array of today's hottest writers. Inside there are stories about military might in the wake of an outbreak, survival in a wasted wasteland, the ardor of falling in love with a zombie, and a family outing at the circus. Here is a collection of new views on death and resurrection.
With stories from Joe Hill, John Connolly, Max Brooks, Kelley Armstrong, Tad Williams, David Wellington, David Liss, Aimee Bender, Jonathan Maberry, and many others, this is a wildly diverse and entertaining collection... the last word on The New Dead.

Out of all of the short stories, I would say that I enjoyed a third of them. Some were just not my cup of tea, while others completely drew me in. Due to the fact that there are so many different authors in this one book, you really get to taste a bite of their unique writing styles and I have come to find a handful of new authors that I had never heard of. I'll list a few of the short stories I really liked and review them a little.

In The Dust by Tim Lebbon

This short story brings you into a secured city where officials have quarantined the entire city - there are three remaining people alive inside the barricades - Jamie, Bindi and Toby. They have been hauling zombie bodies to the scientists for them to examine and burn. Little did they know that another outbreak would occur trapping them inside the walls longer than they anticipated. This story is intriguing to me because it actually seems like a possibility of what could happen if this ever rang true - being trapped inside the hub of action and not being able to get out - then once you think things are going to be okay, you find out that you might be safer inside your secluded little area.

Life Sentence by Kelley Armstrong

In life sentence we see a rich man who wants to take advantage of being able to live after he dies. It's an interesting theory that someone could mess around with the DNA of a person so that when they come back as a zombie they would have free will and not rot to pieces. I don't know if I'd ever want to live that way, but I am sure there are many out there who would love to live forever (I just think I'd rather be a vampire than a rotting corpse any day).

Delice by Holly Newstein

This story captured me because it used voodoo to create a beautiful little girl zombie and then lay her to rest once they were done using the body to take their revenge. I liked that it was set in New Orleans and that black magic was involved. You don't really read many zombie books lately that deal with necromancy and voodoo - so it was nice to read about for a change.

Family Business by Jonathan Maberry

This was probably my favourite of the stories - I think that has to do with the fact that there are lots of emotions involved in this story. Benny is trying to find a job in his new world - after First Night happened everyone has new jobs that somehow deal with Zombies, like Fence Tester and Erosion Artist. Benny doesn't find a specific job that he is good at or feels comfortable with. He then asks his older brother Tom to teach him how to kill the Zoms. Tom takes Benny on a life changing journey to learn what Tom does for a living - he doesn't just kill zombies, he searches out specific living dead to release from their horrible undead lives. This one is quite emotional at on part, where Benny finally realizes that what his brother does is help others find solace and peace.

Twittering From the Circus of the Dead by Joe Hill

This was an interesting short story as it is all told by Twitter posts from one person - you do not get to see responses or interactions. And everything is posted in 140 character postings. It's an interesting concept for storytelling, but what is even better is the idea of the Circus of the Dead - where live people are believing they are watching a great circus act of people being chased and attacked by zombie clowns etc. Little do they know they are in for a big treat.

I would also add that this book is definitely for adults - there is coarse language, scenes of major violence and also some sexual content that I would rate R.