Zombie (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A hero who gets into the mind of a serial killer is a fixture of television crime shows, but such stories are usually disappointing, because the viewer knows it's just a gimmick. Not so with this unusual little novel, which The New York Times called a "note-perfect, horror-comic ventriloquization of a half-bright, infantile serial killer." Joyce Carol Oates has so convincingly written through the voice of a killer, you will feel nervous while reading at how familiar, how human, he is. Part of how she achieves the effect is through sparing use of bizarre capitalization (e.g., "MOON" and "FRAGMENT") and crude drawings done with a felt-tip pen. But the language is what makes it come alive, as in such weird statements as "My whole body is a numb tongue." This book was winner of the 1996 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Periodically, Oates seems compelled to write grim novels that explore humanity's darkest corners. Coming on the heels of last year's excellent What I Lived For, this depressing narrative carries macabre imagination to the extreme. It depicts the career of Quentin P., a convicted young sex offender on probation who has turned to serial killing without being caught, despite the worried scrutiny of his family and of his psychiatrist. Convincingly presented as Quentin's diary of his pursuit of the perfect "zombie" (a handsome young man to be rendered compliant and devoted through Quentin's lobotomizing him with an ice pick), the narrative incorporates crude drawings and typographic play to evoke the hermetic imagination of a psychopath; the reader examines the killer's sketches of weapons and staring eyes, and hears him say, "I lost it & screamed at him & shook him BUT I DID NOT HURT HIM I SWEAR." For all its apparent authenticity, however, this novel ventures into territory that has been explored more powerfully by, among others, Dennis Cooper (Frisk), whose chilly minimalism underscores the brutality of such crimes in a way that Oates's more calculatedly histrionic approach does not. This slim, sadistic reverie may be chilling, but it comes off as less a fully realized work than as an exercise from a writer at morbid play.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Printing edition (October 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525940456
• ISBN-13: 978-0525940456
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #757,029 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gruesome but compelling, May 28, 2000

By	"mfshermantank" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zombie (Paperback)

Zombie repulsed me. The narrator, Quentin P., is loathsome, sick. But in Oates' hands, the brutal serial killer becomes someone we almost know. Oates plunges us into Quentin's world and forces us to acknowledge that his madness is not without its own twisted logic. You see, all Quentin wants is someone in his life he can love and control completely. Zombie's horror is not so much in what Quentin does, but in how he recounts it: He describes his crimes the way my son might talk about his day at school. Zombie is short and taut, more like the novels Oates pens under her pseudonym, Rosamond Smith, than like her longer works. Gruesome, yes, but a compelling read.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside the mind of a serial killer, April 16, 2000

By	Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Zombie (Paperback)

In this short and startling 1995 novel, Joyce Carol Oates again proves her expertise and versatility as a writer by getting inside the mind of a serial killer. The book is written as a diary, with bizarre capitalizations and crude drawings. She uses simple prose as the serial killer's dark obsession and demented scheming becomes clear and the reader is drawn into the workings of his mind. It is horrifying. The tension never lets up as one victim after another falls victim to his needs. The worst part is that we have all read the papers and know that there are really sickos like this out there in the world.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside the mind of a serial killer, July 9, 2002

By	Michael J. Mazza (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Zombie (Paperback)

"Zombie," the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, is narrated in the first person by Quentin P___, the son of a distinguished professor. On probation for an incident involving an underaged boy, Quentin becomes obsessed with a horrific plan: to kidnap and lobotomize another human being, thus turning him into a "zombie" sex slave.

"Zombie" is a gripping, suspenseful read. Oates' superbly crafted prose really brings you into a mind that is cunning and methodical, yet strangely childish. As Quentin narrates his bloody efforts to create a zombie, he also recalls formative events of his past.

"Zombie" contains many graphic scenes of horrific violence and sex. It is a story of psychological horror that reminds me of some of the work of seminal master Edgar Allen Poe. Oates' horror here is not supernatural, but based in the real phenomenon of the obsessive-compulsive serial murderer. The book is unsettling; what is Oates trying to say? How are we supposed to understand Quentin? But I think the troubling ambiguity is part of the brilliance of "Zombie."