Customer Reviews

Return of the Living Dead

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RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD is a reissue of a book published in the mid-1970s, and when I read it as a kid, it gave me nightmares until puberty (I am serious!). Now, however....This book has big problems. Typos and grammatical mistakes abound--in fact, they are the same ones as in the poorly-edited original. Obviously, the new publisher didn't bother to edit the text. Also, RETURN takes entire word-for-word pages from Russo's previous novelization of the classic Night of the Living Dead--all of RETURN's "news" reports were used in the first novel, verbatim. Regarding the story itself, RETURN is really depressing. There are few likable human characters, and terrible things (murder, torture, rape, etc.) befall them mostly because of their own stupidity. In fact, the real scares come from the human villains and not the cannibal zombies. I realize that this theme was expressed in the Living Dead movies, but the book doesn't execute the concepts well. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD is a great time-killer, but if you want truly terrifying tales of carnivorous corpses, track down the two zombie collections, The Books of the Dead, edited by Skipp and Spector.

The fact that there are entire chapters that are completely lifted word for word from Night Of The Living Dead doesn't bother me...much... but the fact that this book is poorly written as a Whole does. The characters we are given are not even developed enough to be called cardboard and the story jumps around aimlessly. The bus wreck in the begining is the only really well thought out part and even that is put on the very back burner. Skip this one if you can!

This book was born from a screenplay written over 20 years ago and it shows. It reads like a screenplay. This was the originally intended sequel to the cult classic "Night Of The Living Dead". 10 years after the so-called "plague" was vanquished, a bus topples over in middle america. A Baptist congregation rushes to the scene of the accident(they drive metal spikes through the dead to prevent the plague from reoccuring). Needless to say the plague returns and all hell breaks loose. The last few chapters are a rehash of "Night", with our heroes running from house to house. Although the book is never boring it suffers from sequelitis. A far cry from the brillance of Romero's cinematic sequel.

This book is a worthy follow up to the classic horror movie "Night of the Living Dead." It occurs ten years after the movie, and the cinematic sequels, "Dawn of the Dead" and "Day of the Dead," are not part of the story. In this version of the "Dead" universe, the first "outbreak" has been squelched and life has returned to normal, or as close to normal as it can be in a world where the dead walk and feed on the living, as is exemplified by the first chapter, which by the way will chill you to the bone. It concerns a simple family funeral but with a ghoulish twist.

Plot twists are many as characters come and go (often consumed) and the book comes to a satisfying conclusion. One finds oneself wishing that Mr. Russo might return to this well someday.

One caveat: The book could have greatly benefitted from a good proof reader. Typos, missing words, and other errors are frequent.

This book was great to read. At times when I was reading it, I actually got scared. It kinda pulls you into the horrfing world that the characters are in. It was a great zombie story, that in my opinon should be adaped to film the way this story is written!! I highly recommend this book to read.

After seeing Night of the Living Dead in the fourth grade, I had zombies on the brain; they occupied my thoughts constantly. Shortly thereafter, I came across a paperback novel in a local K-Mart called 'Return of the Living Dead,' written by John Russo...this would have been somewhere in the 1978-1980 range. I bought it with my allowance and was blown away by the viciousness of the story. It starts off rather quiet and sleepy in rural America, then there's a school bus accident --IIRC, the bus rear-ends (or is rear-ended by) a flatbed carrying construction pipes, which launch through the bus on impact, "tearing off heads and arms and legs." Before the local authorities can put a bullet into the corpses' heads --this takes place some years after events in Night of the Living Dead; shooting dead people in the head to prevent resurrection had become standard procedure-- zombie mayhem ensues.

Surprisingly, much of the violence is committed by local townspeople: rape, beatings, etc. More disturbing social commentary. I agree with the other reviewer's comments that no character is particularly likeable. The descriptions, so far as I can recall, are extremely flat, along with the dialogue. On a par with b-class action/adventure fiction written today, but far more graphic. Looking back, it really did have a depressingly nihilistic undertone.

Sadly, I lost the book decades ago. I say sadly because it appears to be a collector's item, worth between $20-50. A fast read.

Also, the cover on the copy I owned was much different: a crappy painting of a woman in tattered clothing fleeing a backdrop of blue-gray zombie showing only the face and reaching hands. See link.
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