Dead Bitch Army [Paperback]

Andre Duza (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2004

Step into a world filled with racist teenagers, masked assassins, cannibals, a telekinetic hitman, 100 warped Uncle Sams, automobiles with razor-sharp teeth, living graffiti, cartoons that walk and talk, a steroid-addicted pro-athlete, an angry black chic, a washed-up Barbara Walters clone, the threat of a war to end all wars, and a pissed-off zombie bitch out for revenge. When the police finally capture the number one suspect in the Bloody Mary Murders, a single-mother named Natasha Armstrong, nobody believes her story about her twelve-year search for the real killer, a murderous walking corpse who has no eyes but can still see, who moves like a bad stop-motion incarnation, but does so with ethereal grace. Nobody believes her when she tells them about all the bodies, or the people they used as game for the military-style obstacle courses that Bloody Mary and her soldiers, a ragtag group made up mostly of runaways, would build wherever they'd settle in any given town to recruit more soldiers and prepare for the end of civilization as we know it.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Step into a world filled with racist teenagers, masked assassins, cannibals, a telekinetic hitman, 100 warped Uncle Sams, automobiles with razor-sharp teeth, living graffiti, cartoons that walk and talk, a steroid-addicted pro-athlete, an angry black chic, a washed-up Barbara Walters clone, the threat of a war to end all wars, and a pissed-off zombie bitch out for revenge.

When the police finally capture the number one suspect in the Bloody Mary Murders, a single-mother named Natasha Armstrong, nobody believes her story about her twelve-year search for the real killer, a murderous walking corpse who has no eyes but can still see, who moves like a bad stop-motion incarnation, but does so with ethereal grace. Nobody believes her when she tells them about all the bodies, or the people they used as game for the military-style obstacle courses that Bloody Mary and her soldiers, a ragtag group made up mostly of runaways, would build wherever they'd settle in any given town to recruit more soldiers and prepare for the end of civilization as we know it.

"One cannot read Andre Duza without wondering if boundaries or taboos are a part of his vocabulary. In Dead Bitch Army, Duza sends readers into a dimension without walls, a world where we cease to worry about crossing lines. Shocking... disturbing... but oh so entertaining and well worth our attention." -- John Paul Allen (author, Gifted Trust)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Eraserhead Press (October 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976249812
• ISBN-13: 978-0976249818
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,250,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Dead Woman Walking, February 5, 2005

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Bitch Army (Paperback)

The name Mary Jane usually conjures up thoughts of something good and wholesome. But in DEAD BITCH ARMY by Andre Duza, Mary Jane Mezerak is anything but good and wholesome. In fact, she isn't even alive. That's right, she is a gun toting, axe-wielding corpse with a bad attitude. She is adored and held in the highest esteem by her merry band of renegades. They believe in her and her cause, which has become twisted from years of hatred mixed with a fanatical desire to extract revenge on her ex-husband. She has spent years building and training her army, a small troop made up of runaways or individuals she's kidnapped. One members of her team has special telekinetic powers while the others have a proclivity for cruelty. They have been responsible for years of gruesome death and destruction among unsuspecting targets. Yet, in the bigger scheme of things, Mary Jane desires to build an even bigger army of all her true believers in order to change the world.

Natasha Armstrong appears to be the only person who knows the truth about Mary Jane, or, more exactly, the only one willing to believe all she's seen about Mary Jane. Believing that Mary Jane killed her son, Natasha has been seeking revenge for the last twelve years. During this time, she has entered a world filled with many unexplained oddities that would make any person question his or her sanity. In fact, the authorities want to question her because they believe she is responsible for the now famous Bloody Mary Murders. Because of her close proximity to nearly all of the murder scenes and numerous eyewitness accounts, there are many who feel Natasha is responsible for all the horrible deaths. Captured by the cops and condemned by the media, Natasha can only sit back and plan her next attack. Will she stop Mary Jane?

Andre Duza's freshman effort is one totally horrific and bizarre tale about retribution, hatred, justice and all-consuming wrath. It was hard for me to mentally grasp the concept of a dead person with normal human abilities and seeking revenge, which is why I was not feeling this book at first. After getting past that and into to the story, I found it to be fast-paced, gory as all get out and a nail biter. Many of the scenes seemed so real that at one point during the ensuing days after this reading experience, I found myself checking my rearview mirror for a black van pursuing me. That's just how creepy this book was. As much as this book got under my skin, I did note a few editorial inconsistencies that caused some distractions. Aside from that, I will mention that the artwork provided in this book was on point and really matched the author's description. I'm sure this author's unique perspective in providing an entertaining storyline will amass him a nice following as he continues to publish more books in the future.
[...]

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary, fun and thought provoking, December 1, 2004

By 

Lacylace - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Bitch Army (Paperback)

If you've read the description from the back of the book...

"Step into a world filled with racist teenagers, masked assassins, cannibals, a telekinetic hitman, 100 warped Uncle Sams, automobiles with razor-sharp teeth, living graffiti, cartoons that walk and talk, a steroid-addicted pro-athlete, an angry black chic, a washed-up Barbara Walters clone, the threat of a war to end all wars, and [...] out for revenge."

...then you already know that you're in for a weird, wild ride with this one, and boy does it deliver. I had a few problems; the excessive use of profanity (what did I expect with a title like that?), the fact that I wanted more (even at 344 pages I whipped right through it in two days), which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and at times I felt like there was too much going on. Compared to how much I liked the book otherwise, that's a minor gripe though.

Essentially Dead Bitch Army is about a woman, Natasha Armstrong, who is caught while hunting down a [...] who supposedly kidnapped her son. She is then blamed for the killings that the zombie[...] and her small army are responsible for. They kill for food, and use some of their victims as game. That's all I'll say about that. The police, and media don't believe Armstrong until the killings and kidnappings continue. One of the group...er army is a telekinetic named, Griffen, or Griff for short who constantly screws with people's minds, making them see all kinds of weird stuff. He calls this ability coaxing.

This is where Duza really shines. His style is very visual which is probably why Dead [...] Army reads like a beefed up screenplay, with sections (an interview between an anchorwoman and Natasha Armstrong, an animated propaganda film that reminded me of something Manga would put out, for example) written in screenplay format even. It may sound a bit awkward, but trust me it works. I won't get too much into the plot, but the zombie-bitch has a good reason for trying to build an army. By the end of the book, the entire planet is screwed.

In short, this book really kicked my ass, a smart, gory, funny even, fast- paced trip through a world that I'd definitely like to revisit. What more could a girl ask for? BUY IT AT ONCE! Tell em' Lacy sent cha.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great Imagination -- Terrible Writing, June 12, 2006

By 

B. Stanley "human" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Bitch Army (Paperback)

Although I was impressed by the author's imagination, I found the book to be almost unreadable due to problems with the writing -- things that any decent editor should have caught and corrected before the book went to press. Examples are careless changes in point of view in mid paragraph, characters knowing things that they can't possible see/hear/sense, and excessively ornate descriptive language. Another set of distractions include, for example, two characters on the tracks in front of an onrushing train having thirty seconds or so of conversation and action without being hit by the train just described as being 40 feet away. At 60 miles per hour, it takes a train about 1/2 second to close a 40 foot gap.

This is an author in search of an editor or a writing course. I hope he finds one or both and I look forward to reading his writing afterward.