I know there are a lot of zombie books out there these days, and maybe you think the authors have run out of different ways to write about them. I really like zombie stories, but I will admit a lot of them have similar plots.
Then I read Brian Pinkerton’s How I Started the Apocalypse, and was pleasantly surprised. This is a zombie tale told from the zombie’s point-of-view. But this isn’t a regular shambling zombie with only the thought of eating flesh. Chaz is cognizant of his situation and he is pissed. He didn’t ask to be a zombie, and when he finds out how it happened, his appetite for revenge almost overrides his appetite for flesh.
While he hunts those who wronged him, someone else hunts him, hoping to destroy Chaz before he infects anybody else and starts a pandemic. And although Chaz doesn’t want to lose the human part of him by eating flesh, can he really fight the need in order to keep himself “alive?”
This was a lot of fun to read, and I liked it so much I finished it in just a couple hours. Although zombies are usually repulsive and vicious, Chaz still has much of his humanity, making him a sympathetic character, a rarity in the living dead world.
The story is very well-written, but I do have a bit of a nit-pick. I thought Chaz should have been decomposing more than he was. And he was able to fit into society without much trouble, although he was horrified when he saw himself in the mirror for the first time in the experimental lab. His state of decay should have been mentioned more, and should have caused more problems than it did. But that’s minor in the whole of the story.
If you’re looking for a new look at the zombie genre, look no further than How I Started the Apocalypse.
Book Review: How I Started the Apocalypse – Author Brian Pinkerton