Zombie [Paperback]

J. R. Angelella (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 5, 2012

A zombie movie-obsessed teen is forced to face a dark family secret in this shocking debut literary novel from a talented new author.  

Fourteen-year-old Jeremy Barker attends an all-boys Catholic high school where roving gangs of bullies make his days a living hell. His mother is an absentee pillhead, his older brother a self-diagnosed sex-addict, and his father disappears night after night without explanation. Jeremy navigates it all with a code cobbled together from the zombie movies he's obsessed with: Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later, Planet Terror, Zombieland, and Dawn of the Dead among others.

The code is put to the test when he discovers in his father's closet a bizarre homemade video of a man strapped to a bed, being prepped for some sort of surgical procedure. As Jeremy attempts to trace the origin of the video, this remarkable debut moves from its sharp, precocious beginnnings to a climax of almost unthinkable violence, testing him, and the reader, to the core.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Angelella's debut novel crackles with energy and attitude."-- Publishers Weekly

". . . a breathless, white-knuckle experiment in pure terror." -- Daniel Kraus, Booklist

"Zombie was one of those rare novels that was so satisfying, I actually hugged the book when I finished." -- Paul Goat Allen, BarnesandNoble.com

"Zombie will make you laugh, shake your head in recognition, and go for the aluminum bat in your basement."
—Ned Vizzini, author of It's Kind of a Funny Story

"Wow!  A crazy, wicked, knock-out of a book!"
—Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

“ It’s simultaneously a bildungsroman à la Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, an homage to zombies in pop culture, and a twisted mystery all wrapped up into one utterly original – and darkly delightful – novel.”
—BN.com

"A brass-knuckle book, reminiscent in tone to Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club.... A great choice for readers who are excited by stories with offbeat characters."
—School Library Journal

“Zombie is one of the smartest, strangest, and most beautifully crafted coming-of-age stories you will ever encounter.”
—Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time

"Angelella’s debut novel crackles with energy and attitude."
—Publishers Weekly

“An irreverent and twisted coming-of-age story with one of the most shocking endings I’ve ever read.”
—Matthew Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook

“If you want to know how teenagers feel and what they say when adults aren’t around, Zombie–a funny and very authentic, well-written first novel by J. R. Angelella–should definitely be the next book you read.”
—John Waters, author of Role Models, and director of Hairspray and Pink Flamingos.

"Your home life's an apocalypse, school's the plague, and you're growing up in a wasteland. To survive this zombie movie of a life is probably going to take more than you've got. But a world where the dead walk is also a world with miracles. Have faith. Read this book."
—Stephen Graham Jones, author of Growing Up Dead in Texas

"Zombie basically starts at 10 mph and ends at 100.... The book got better and better as I read."
—Hello Giggles (Zooey Deschanel's website)

"A coming-of-age tale--angry and violent but full of heart--with stellar prose, first-rate dialogue and a cinematic eye for detail."
—Shelf Awareness

“Zombie is fierce, brave and entertaining literature.”
—Opinionless Reviews

"A superb debut."
—Zouch Magazine

"Dark and unforgettable."
—Horror News Net

“Overall, Zombie may be a weird book but it has something to say. It deals with relevant and relatable issues, it has interesting and likable characters, it is humorous, and it subtly underscores flaws in society.”
—Book Stoner

"You won’t forget these characters, or the Zombie Survival Code quickly."
—Bookshelf Bombshells

"When it starts to slip into David Lynch territory, I was absolutely mesmerized...The final act is gruesome and cathartic, smart and gripping. I would recommend this book to anyone. This is easily one on of the most entertaining novels I've read in years."
—The Blog of the Living Dead

About the Author

J. R. Angelella is the author of the novel Zombie (Soho Press) as well as a forthcoming Southern Gothic supernatural YA series (Sourcebooks/Teen Fire) co-written with his wife, Kate Angelella. He is a contributing author to the forthcoming murder-mystery anthology Who Done It? (Soho Teen), benefiting the nonprofit organization 826NYC. His short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous publications. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College and teaches fiction at the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City. He lives in Brooklyn.


For more information, visit his website at jrangelella.com or follow him on Twitter: @jrangelella.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 339 pages
• Publisher: Soho Press (June 5, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1616950889
• ISBN-13: 978-1616950880
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,103,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

J. R. Angelella is the author of the novel ZOMBIE (Soho Press) as well as a forthcoming Southern Gothic supernatural YA series (Sourcebooks/Teen Fire) co-written with his wife, Kate Angelella. He is also a contributing author to the murder-mystery anthology Who Done It? (Soho Teen), benefiting the nonprofit organization 826NYC. His short fiction has appeared in numerous journals, including Sou'wester, JMWW, and The Collagist. His short story "Sauce" was selected as the winner of the 2012 Short Story Contest by The Coachella Review.

He holds a BA in English from Ithaca College and an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars at Bennington College. He teaches creative writing at the Gotham Writers' Workshop in New York City.

His favorite band is the Drive-By Truckers and he doesn't understand why they aren't your favorite band too.

He was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the writer Kate Angelella.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "Words make us into monsters of ourselves" June 5, 2012

By TChris TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

The best news about Zombie is that the only zombies in the story are metaphorical. Jesus is one (back from the dead). So is a pill-popping mom who is usually zoned out (the living dead). As befits its title, the story takes a horrific twist but it never quite becomes a horror novel. Zombie is too funny to be frightening, but it also makes serious points about the nature of everyday monsters.

Like all straight teenage boys, Jeremy Barker is obsessed with girls, although he gets nosebleeds when he's aroused. The highlight of his summer was seeing his neighbor Tricia naked. Jeremy is also obsessed with zombies. He thinks the high school he's about to enter should have security measures in place to counteract a potential zombie attack. Although he's attending the Byron Hall Catholic School for Boys, he seems wholly unprepared for the rituals (including confession) in which he is expected to participate. On the other hand, when a priest tells Jeremy that "zombies have more in common with Catholics than most people care to admit," Jeremy knows he has found a friend. The priest, in fact, recommends The Greatest Story Ever Told as an underappreciated zombie movie.

Jeremy is supposed to be taking Ritalin but he isn't fond of pills. Jeremy's mother, who is a bigger fan of pills than Jeremy, left his father some time ago, leaving behind stacks of women's magazines that Jeremy devours. Jeremy's brother has also moved out, leaving Jeremy alone with his dad. Jeremy's father (Ballantine) lives in his own world, a world that includes Jeremy only when his father wants to impart fatherly advice, including the kind of knot Jeremy should sport on his necktie (the bigger the knot, the bigger the ... or so Jeremy's dad believes). Ballantine disappears every night and Jeremy doesn't believe his claim that he's spending his time with a nurse. The mystery of Ballantine's secret life deepens when Jeremy finds a disturbing DVD among his father's belongings -- disturbing in part because Jeremy recognizes his English teacher in the video.

Jeremy offers opinions on varied topics -- boxers versus briefs, how to survive a zombie apocalypse or an art exhibit -- while his friends dispense dating advice, providing amusing digressions from an amusingly meandering story. The lurking mystery of Ballantine's nocturnal activities is resolved in a manner that mixes Dostoevsky, Frankenstein, Eyes Wide Shut, and existential philosophy. That doesn't sound funny, but it is, in a twisted sort of way.

Fans of zombie movies might appreciate Jeremy's running commentary on the many zombie films he's seen (including the underrated Zombie Strippers). Jeremy sees zombie movies as morality tales or parables in which zombies, having no stake in humanity, represent amorality in its purest form. Of course, it isn't necessary to be a zombie to be soulless -- witness those around the world (including Jeremy's father during the Vietnam War) who have made a profession of torturing others.

Zombie is written in an informal, chatty style. Chapters are short, sentences are snappy, dialog is sharp. It is a quick and fun read, yet the book has a surprising degree of literary merit. Characters are smart and brash and they analyze each other in insightful ways.

If you don't like books with depressing endings, you might want to give Zombie a pass. My larger complaint about the ending is its abruptness. A number of story threads are left dangling; a number of characters who seemed to be important to the story simply disappear. Still, I think Zombie accomplishes its goal. This is a novel about survival, and despite the depressing outcome, there's a degree of warmth and hopefulness in Jeremy's ability to survive a metaphorical zombie apocalypse.

(Like most boys attending a Catholic boy's school, Jeremy has a foul mouth. That adds to the humor, and I mention it only for the benefit of readers who screen books for their kids or who choose to avoid reading naughty language.)

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars I tried, I really tried to like this book... January 15, 2013

By donbsea

Format:Kindle Edition

after all, it had ZOMBIE in the title didn't it? Well it's awful. Rambling, disjointed, babbling on and on to no point or end. The GOOD THING was I "borrowed it" via the Prime Library, so I was not out any money. Had I actually spent my money, I'd be pissed big time. Borrow it if you must, but DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't know what the fuss was about December 24, 2012

By Secretariat

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This novel received rave reviews and I really don't know what the fuss was all about. I think the author should have been able to get their point across in a short story. Much of the novel feels like filler and unnecessary.