Customer Reviews

The Dead Walk Diaries: Night

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Upon first glance at author, Joe Young's book, "Dead Walk Diaries" a reader may be tempted to groan and pass it off as just another zombie story. If one were to make such a mistake, they would find themselves missing out on one of the freshest, most sincere stories in this genre to date.

Foregoing the speedy zombies of the twenty-first century, Joe Young returns to the mass of single-minded, lumbering corpses made famous by Romero. The formula used is a successful one: throw a bunch of innocent people amongst a mob of flesh-eating deadites and see how they do. What follows is an intense ride which grips you from the first scene and doesn't let go even days after you set it aside.

The book is set up as various journals, memos, and video feeds of individuals who are experiencing the first night of a zombie infestation. What Joe Young accomplishes with this novel approach to story telling is taking a played-out concept and giving it a fresh face. He manages to take a zombie story and make it about the people fighting for their lives. The fear, confusion, and sheer revulsion felt by those unfortunate souls who find themselves dropped into a living nightmare is brought forth in a very real way to the reader.

Joe Young becomes a ventriloquist of sorts, creating completely believable characters in an unimaginable scenario. Each journalist speaks with a clear and distinct voice, humanizing their plight. Each author experiences and reacts to their nightmare differently, causing the reader to momentarily forget that they are all written by the same hand. From the first character (a sweet, doomed, young lady by the name of Sara), to the last, you are given a glimpse into the dark secrets and naked emotions of some very real people, fleshed out with skill and aplomb.

Filled with poignancy, humor, and -- of course -- horror, Dead Walk Diaries gives the reader the guilty pleasure of delving into the personal thoughts of various realistic people who are struggling to survive a night of terror. Bolt your doors and lock your windows.

They're coming.

I debated on four or five stars for this surprisingly fun and brief compilation of individual's tales of the first night of the undead invasion.

This book is somewhat mysterious in that there is no publisher listed and no details about the author. Heading to the website all you get is the option of ordering the book and a few tidbits on it plus it gives the impression that the author has collected these stories from other people--the website asks you for your diary entry, making me wonder if this book is actually the collected works of several different authors writing under the pen name of Joe Young (not that I would presume as such, but one could easily draw that conclusion based on looking at the website).

I liked the sparseness of this work. Each of the entries allow you to form a skeleton of the overall attack by the living dead-how it may have started, the city these people dwell in, etc. We are also given a small amount of thread that ties each of the stories together--an example is a garage band blasting their instruments while the dead surround their house, which is one story and that is mentioned by a fleeing National Guardsmen in his story...and most of the tales have those sort of fleeting links that give this book a sense of cohesion.

I was worried when I got this that it was self published. Too often zombie books are self published and do not even come close to being edited properly. As I mentioned there was no publisher listed on the book itself. As I read it I was pleasantly surprised to discover very few misspellings and typos which usually run rampant in the self published world.

Again, I debated on four stars or five for this, and settled on five because this book explored a pretty wide variety of experiences. That was its biggest plus. We get a terrific cross section of short stories, each with a different take on things. We get the radio broadcast, a child's perspective, a National Guardsman, a Police Officer, and numerous regular citizens telling us how they survived (or did not survive).

Good stuff and it deserves a spot in your library if you enjoy zombie stories at all.

The dead walk diaries was a fun quick little read. I enjoyed the different perspectives in each chapter. I have read a number of books about the walking dead and this was a pretty good read.

Young's first book in a series, is a collection of diaries that depict the ravenous onslaught of a zombie outbreak on the first night. Each diary offers a unique perspective on various predicaments of the uprising. Even though each diary is from a different individual with a unique struggle for survival, such as a young girl, a National Guardsman, a magazine writer, a college professor, a newcaster, and others -The stories overlap and interconnect creating a cohesive narrative and a rich reading experience. It delivers plenty of fun, action, blood, and gore to satisfy all fans of the genre -and even create new ones.

I really enjoyed Dead Walk Diaries. It's a compilation of accounts/stories dealing with our favorite subject: a zombie apocalyse. One story in particular, "The Office Memos" is one of the most clever shorts I've read. Won't say much about it because I'd spoil it for the reader. This short alone is well worth the price of admission. I still get a chuckle just thinking about it. :-)

Diaries is a book you'd want to include in your collection.

I liked it mind you, not loved it. Each chapter was the story of one person or group and what they faced. (The chapter with the cop and the reporter was little cartoonish, but still interesting.) I liked how the author connected each chapter by having characters from one chapter make an anonymous appearance in the next. If the author writes another book of this type I will read it!

Who is Joe Young and why isn't he writing more?? Just about every short story in this book would make an awesome novel. You really can't go wrong with this book if your a zombie fan. I definitely enjoyed myself.

This book was pretty fun to read if you could overlook the typographical errors and didn't read to much into the actual events such as people writing until the very last moment before they're eaten. Also, the book was a bit short and I would have preferred more stories from people although I did like how some of the stories tied into eachother. If your looking for a masterpiece in zombie short story anthology than I would recommend "World War Z" by Max Brooks otherwise this was just fine.

I really enjoyed this book, it's such a fresh and original approach to the zombie genre. Each diary builds on the other and although by themselves the stories are extremely entertaining, collectively they are a masterpiece. It was just so intriguing to know what people were experiencing and how they were reacting during their different ordeals... And the zombies weren't always the enemy. All of the stories take place on the first night the dead rise, some survive, some don't. I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

I was really excited for book but can't help feeling a bit let down after reading it. Worth the read if you come across it, not one to move to the top of your 'must read' list. This book is sort of a collection of short stories featuring different people the night of a zombie outbreak. Despite each little 'chapter' being written by the same author, each has an individual feel to it, with wildly varying characters and situations- the author did a good job there. I also like how some of the stories overlap with characters and happenings. There are a bunch of typos which points to sloppy editing, I found it annoying. My main issues with this book- one 'story' is written by a zombie, post infection and death- which makes NO sense as these zombies in the book aren't 'smart' zombies- they don't speak, their problem solving skills are very limited, so how did one of them write something? The other issue- one story involves someone being bitten by an infected dog- yet there are no other dogs, infected or otherwise, anywhere in the book- if dogs could be infected too, the streets would not only have hungry undead human hordes, but infected canines to deal with as well. If not for these two discrepancies nagging at me, I might have given this 4 stars. These two things that don't add up or make sense in the setting of this book really left me with a bad taste in my mouth, makes me feel like the author did not pay enough attention to the details he himself created. It is written in such a way a sequel is a possibility-I would buy it used, cheaply, or get it from the library, but not pay full price for it. Worth the read, but don't expect too much.