Zombie, Ohio written by Scott Kenemore
reviewed by The Death Director
The Premise: Small town college professor Peter Mallor dies in a car crash. Even though Peter looses part of his head in the brutal crash, he doesn’t completely cease to exist. A zombie outbreak threatens the human species. Peter awakens among the blood and snowto find he is of the undead. This philosophy professor is no average flesh craving mindless zombie. Except for amnesia he has his full consciousness. The tale of horror begins as Peter tells it first hand.
Taking a bigger bite: I have to admit I’d almost never heard of a zombie with full awareness. Maybe the machine gun toting zombie in Land of the Dead or that teen drama, ‘Warm Bodies’ which I never saw and have no intention of ever seeing. I guess it’s kind of like a vampire story were the vampire has a conscience. Of course being an immortal seductive vampire could be charming in it’s twisted way but there is nothing sexy or mysteriously alluring about a rotting corpse that want’s to eat your brain.
Peter feels somewhat normal. At first he doesn’t figure out what he is until he discovers his massive head wound, inability to feel pain, no need for air, shelter, and he never gets tired or cold among other things. From this perceptive the book was engaging. What would it be like to be a zombie? Zombie, Ohio taught me in graphic detail what it’s like to be a zombie, to have a rotting body, to have no libido, even a very graphic brain eating exposé. I did enjoy this part of the book.
Unfortunately I found I was forcing myself to read Zombie, Ohio. It’s not a ‘page turner.’
I didn’t emotionally connect with the protagonist until I was around page 120, that’s a long time in a 230 page novel.
Peter’s amnesia was always an issue but he never really figures things out until the very end, even then it’s not much of a mind blowing revelation or anything. There is a small mystery side story. It doesn’t drive the plot, and has a rushed reveal near the end that only makes you dislike the characters more. Maybe it was intended to be something more and parts were edited out. Perhaps it all should have been edited out?
Peter, the smart zombie, has a love interest. There really isn’t much substance because Peter is, let’s face it, a conscious cadaver, rotting. I’m sure he smells awful and can’t bump uglies. We learn Peter was kind of an egotistical drunk in his warm blooded days. At times, he seems to be a hero. Then he twists 180. Peter decides to go full native and lead a band of zombies on a killing spree, this is the highlight of the book in my opinion, then later he vacillates so his rampage is short lived. I won’t go into details but the story got a little derailed for 60 pages or so. Peter’s general lack of purpose made for a tedious read. This dragged the book down like decomposing legs of a zombie.
Butter or Vinegar: The writer is clearly intelligent. He was packing a thesaurus and used it, in scads. The book had some thought provoking ideas at times which I really enjoyed. The descriptive language was rich. It made sense our protagonist was a philosophy professor and thought like one. I ate up those parts like a hungry zombie scoops brains from a skull plate.
Was the book a smooth read? Not exactly, but it’s not abominable either. The style of writing, the prose, never got in the way, but it never tasted like warm butter or soared poetically.
Gore: I think most horror should have gruesome buckets of gore, especially a zombie story. There are always exceptions, but it’s my critique, to each his own. Peter’s first kill is extremely graphic. I really slurped that one up. The rest of the kills have more of an ‘off screen’ feel. The finale is a violent fire fight. It fails, in my opinion, to get as gnarly descriptive as the first gut churning kill.
SEX: Notta, nothing, not even a flash back. The only thing of remote note is Peter was drunk at a party and kissed a lonely gay man out of pity. He also mentions several times his penis is useless, in case we forgot.
Final Rating: I give Zombie, Ohio 2 stabs out of 5. It really earned those two brains. I loved the philosophy peppered in the story. I loved the idea of a self aware zombie. To me that aspect was wildly original. It provoked my imagination. What would it be like to be a zombie?
I have several beefs with the tale, like the pace. The story took so long to move the plot along. It felt like a character study of an aware zombie. The story wandered like Peter in the snow covered field of Ohio. Which is something Peter does page after page. Just because a guy has amnesia doesn’t qualify it as a ‘mystery.’ The book also failed to endear Peter to me. Was he a good guy, a tweener (anti-hero), a villain? I didn’t have a clue until I got further into the story. Even then it wasn’t obvious, the door to Peter’s evil side was never closed. Perhaps zombie Peter and Professor Peter were less different from Peter’s imagination. Perhaps Peter was ambiguous so I could vicariously be him. That didn’t work on me, maybe it will for someone else.
I also felt I worked way to hard to get through this book for the cliche pay off at the end.
If you are a die hard zombie fan, you should read Zombie, Ohio for sure. If nothing else it will only widen your perspective of the zombie experience and endear you more to it. If zombies are not really your thing, skip it, there are far better books to read in the genre you love.
2 Stabs outta 5 (4 out of 5 for Zombie Freaks)
-D. Director
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