Customer Reviews

One Buck Horror: One Buck Zombies

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One Buck Horror has done it again. Five squirmy, creative, scary, bloody horror tales, these featuring the monster du jour, zombies!

One of these, "Little Red Zombie Hood," didn't appeal to me as much as the others, to be honest. But the other four, particularly "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "The Levees of the Styx," followed closely by "The Best Mother," certainly deliver enough chills and lip-chewing fear to make this collection more than worth the cost.

It's not easy to write horror in short form. To develop the plot, ramp up the fear, and involve the reader in the characters all in the space of a few pages is a difficult task. The writers of these stories have fulfilled those obligations quite well indeed.

I recommend this little five-story collection to anyone who loves zombies or anyone who thinks he/she might like to try reading about zombies. At this price, you really cannot lose.

Simple math puts the fives stories at 20 cents each - well worth the price of admission. One might think zombies have eaten the shark, but these stories prove there's still life left in those old bones. The last story was a bit on the metaphysical side and bears a close reading. The others have their own unique spin on the recently reanimated. They are in precisely the right format: self-contained easily digestible bite-size nuggets of zombie goodness.

I'm easy here, I've always been a fan of short stories, and a huge horror fan, so horror short stories, such as OBH, is right up my alley; I've loved every issue to date, and I highly recommend it to everyone...99 cents each, you can still get the entire collection for less than a fin, and you don't need a kindle, just download it to your PC. This new one, volume 4, One Buck Zombies presented a new challenge and the publishers succeeded. How do you write short stories about something like Zombies, that go on for ever? But it worked! The authors chose to focus on various angles of a zombie Apocalypse, and the result was very creative, interesting, and thought provoking. As with all anthologies, some stories are better than others. Three of the five made me say, "WOW, I didn't see that coming," and a fourth had me on the edge of my seat. The last wasn't bad, but had me wondering what I was missing, and may require a re-read on my part to get it. Now the challenge, can the publishers of OBH do other exclusive volumes: ghosts, werewolves, vampires, etc., or is this it? [ASIN:B005TVK6B8 One Buck Zombies]

I greatly enjoyed Volumes 1,2 and 3, so I looked forward to this one, and I wasn't disappointed. Five stories, four of which are great and one that I really couldn't get into (or understand, for that matter). Two of the stories are "traditional person trapped by the horde" styles, while the other two are a little different: one is from the zombies point of view, while the other centers around a boy and his zombified mother.
This volume continues the high quality of its predecessors and is well worth a read.

One Buck Zombie starts off with a zombie story that asks the question, "What would happen if a boy loved his mom so much that it blinded him to the horror of her becoming a zombie?" The Best Mother, by James Owens also plays with the unnerving question of how much zombies retain in their undead state. Imagining yourself in this little boy's shoes really makes you wonder how different you might handle your mom becoming this kind of zombie. The story is set in a world where zombies are not killed outright, but are still feared as abominations, and therefore James plays with the suspense of the boy taking his mother in public places. The arc of the story ends in a different place then I thought, and therefore left me even more disturbed than I was already - a good kind of disturbed from a great story. 5 Stars

The Levees of the Styx by David Dunwoody has a unique backstory for how the zombies were created, and setting for how the characters will try and survive hiding in a barricade. This story is packed with some powerful pictures of horror themes, such as guilt, misery, survival, and chivalry. The dialogue and actions efficiently evoke sympathy for both characters, and the description creates a rich sense of living this nightmare with them. My only criticism about this story is that it ended. 5 Stars

Little Red Zombie Hood by Alana I. Capria is gruesome, but confusing. The prose is precise, but lacks enough explanation for me to understand what is going on and why for most of the story. The twist on Red Riding Hood is interesting, especially how she hunts wolves, but also uses zombie wolves to...farm, protect her, I don't know - I got lost in the relationships between all the characters. At one point I thought they were working together, then the next they are eating each other, then the next they are trying to procreate. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't follow the intent of the story, even though it was very creepy. 2 Stars

He Stopped Loving Her Today by James R. Tuck shows unique ideas about how zombies could decay differently - if they decay at all...which is a strong hook into the story. Great writing on this one, and had a satisfying ending, though I question the style of saying what someone didn't sense, (i.e. see, hear, feel), instead of what they did. Aside from that, the story is still 5 stars.

Mother Sisyphus by Robert Davies is a zombie version of the Myth of Sisyphus, a man whom the gods punished for his deeds in life by making him roll a stone up to the top of a hill, only to have it roll back down every time. This story is about a werezombie that deals with the hope of life only to be met with the suffering of living death. Chilling story that will affect you long after reading. 5 stars.

Overall Rating: 4.4 Stars. I'm still posting a 5 star because of how close it was, and because after reading these stories twice, and enjoying them more, I see this as an anthology I will reread many more times.

One Buck Horror deilvers a five star collection with One Buck Zombies! It has a couple of weak stories in the middle, but the story telling in He Stopped Loving Her Today more than counterbalances that! Lurk forward to this one kids. Required reading for the ghost wonderful time of the year!

This is a pretty good collection of zombie tales. If you've seen a few zombie movies, you probably know what you're in for. While they all have a nugget of interest in how they take a variant on the standard zombie plot, one really stands above the rest: James Owens'. His tells of a young boy and father who labor to keep their family life as normal seeming as possible, but it's clear the neighbors and his teachers don't approve. The boy is our POV, and his care for his mother is moving--if a bit absurd with her being a zombie. Damn good. If it isn't in the Best-of collections, something's wrong. I must now seek more works by James Owens. Mr. Tuck's also works on the heart as it tells of a man wishing to return to his now zombie wife. If you like your bizarre so bizarre it borders on insanity, you might want to check out the zombified Red Riding Hood. How can you go wrong at 99 cents?

A few weeks back it was reported by MSNBC that zombies were a 5 billion dollar industry. I want you to think about that for a minute. Almost 45 years after George Romero's Night of the Living Dead gave us the modern zombie, and 10 years after 28 Days Later brought the genre back to life (unlife?), zombies are still raking in the big ones.

The good news is, you don't have to spend 5 billion dollars to own a piece. In fact, with One Buck Zombies, the latest anthology from the good people at One Buck Horror, you only have to spend one dollar. And it's a dollar well-spent.

While the anthology does offer some of the familiar apocalyptic elements found in much zombie literature today, the contributors and editors clearly wanted something fresh. "The Best Mother" by James Owens opens the anthology with a bang. This story of the power of a mother's love is disturbing on several levels, and its definitely one of the standout stories.

The other really strong entry is the truly bizarre "Little Red Zombie Hood." While the title implies silliness, Alana Capria's delivery of the story is done exceptionally well, providing a unique spin on the popular fairy tale.

Those two stood out the most for me, but I felt each story (written by David Dunwoody, James R. Tuck, and Robert Davies, respectively) had something to unique offer. Though small, the folks over at One Buck Horror are clearly selective when it comes to choosing the stories that they collect. It's refreshing, as a horror fan, to see that someone is doing what they do as frequently as they're doing it. Highly recommended for those of you with an insatiable hunger for moaning, rotting, walking hunks of flesh.

I really like this edition. The stories are unique and fun. Each gives a different take on the human/zombie experience.

These stories mostly mine the emotional territory of loved ones turning into zombies. All the stories are well written, and I especially enjoyed "The Levees of the Styx" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today", mainly because they stay closer to traditional zombie tales.

The other stories have a fable quality that requires more suspension of disbelief and acceptance of the bizarre happenings. "The Best Mother" has a "Fido" vibe. Overall it's good, but has a few ludicrous moments that I thought detracted from the overall punch, and "Little Red Zombie Hood" has the power of its vicious descriptions diluted by a confusing narrative.

"Mother Sysiphus" is the most original of the bunch, with an intriguing and tragic premise that will probably stay with you more than the others. It's a very strange premise though, even for a zombie story.

Overall, I guess I like my zombies more straightforward, ala "Dawn of the Dead" and "The Walking Dead." They can run of they can walk, but I don't like them going to parent teacher conferences. Still, a good collection of unique and skillfully told tales.