Review - Undead (omnibus) by John Russo

Undead by John Russo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time take to read - 2 days

Publisher - Titan Books

Pages - 306

Source - The Works bookshop

Blurb from Amazon

Zombie Double Bill!

George A. Romero's classic 1968 film Night of the Living Dead launched a new era of gut-munching mayhem, terrorizing moviegoers and launching the zombie movie phenomenon. John A. Russo co-wrote the screenplay for the movie and turned the flesh-eating frenzy into two horrific, blood-drenching novels, collected here in one terrifying volume. Undead is a gruesome, suspenseful horror at its best.


My Review

This book is a double whammy of zombie, two stories in one book. The first one is Night of the Living Dead, this is the same story as the movie. We open with a journey to their fathers grave and proceed to the graveyard with a brother and sister, Barbara and Johnny. Johnny is angry with Barbara and starts teasing her about the dead coming to get her, he sees a man approaching and says heres one now. Little realizing it is indeed coming and launches an attack leaving Barbara with no choice but to flee. She comes upon an abandoned house and meets Ben soon after, Barbara is in a state of shock and soon the undead are surrounding the house and wanting their warm flesh.

The book follows the movie fairly closely, from what I remember. It is a tale of survival, humans reacting how you would expect them to whilst trying to survive a flesh eating zombie outbreak. It is really good, I liked the movie when I saw it years ago however I actually preferred the book.

The second book is Return of the Living Dead, this is a bit more widespread, the first story is almost completely around one house and a handful of people. This one we see quite a few characters, spread over locations and it is actually set with the previous outbreak mentioned and linked in. Some people are still cautious with the previous outbreak and act on any newly deceased person, just in case. The outbreak this time starts again, fairly quickly with some throwback to the last outbreak which I actually thought was well done as too often it is just a new tale. There is a range of issues dealt with and again different human reactions to the outbreak however this one shows the more deprived aspect and darker nature of some of our fellow humans. In some of the scenes the acts of the humans is worse than the cannibalism of the undead is actually worse.

As both books are set over a day or two it isn't purely about survival but also human behavior, how some people will look out for only themselves, behave appallingly and how others will step up to the mark when it is called upon. Certainly different from most of the zombie books I have read, I liked these stories although felt there was quite a few similarities in how they transpired and ended. 3/5 for me and I would of course read any more zombie tales I find by this author, I will actually need to look and see what, if any, they have available.

View all my reviews

Review - Dawn Of the Dead by George A. Romero (and Susanna Sparrow)

Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time Taken To Read - less than 1 day

Blurb From Amazon

When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.

George A. Romero's iconic film and novel terrified generations. Now Dawn of the Dead is back to terrify once more. The world is being devastated by zombies. No one knows how far they have spread, or how to stop them. And as the living fight to save themselves, society collapses. Four people escape the chaos of downtown Philadelphia and find shelter in a shopping mall. As the survivors exhaust their greed and the undead scrape at the doors, the refuge becomes a prison. And soon there will be nowhere left to hide ...

The classic horror that inspired a genre: if you haven't read this yet, you need to. If you have, you'll want to again. Includes a brilliant and exclusive introduction from Simon Pegg.

My Review

How did I not know this book existed!! I found it by chance in The Works, on sale and had quite a moment to myself. If you have seen the movie you know the jist of the story but for those who haven't (where have you been!), the story is focused on 4 survivors of the zombie outbreak, trying to survive. As we go in, we start in the news broadcasting room as they try to cover the beginning of the outbreak and make sense of it. Soon people realize this isn't under control and make a break for it. What follows is the story of how they face the terrors and try to stay alive, and out there it isn't just the zombies you need to worry about.

I loved the film and to be honest it has been so many years since I seen it (the original) I am not sure how closely the book follows (but a lot of what I do remember seemed to be present. The story isn't just a gore fest, although there is enough to keep the horror fans happy. It also shows the bonds and strains between the relationships, Roger and Peter, both professional killers trying to keep their head during the chaos. Fran and Stephen, in a relationship and now doing what they can to stay alive and help with the two trained killers.

My only complaints would be the chapters seemed to morph from one scene to another without any indication it had changed, ie no page break or symbol to indicate where one scene ends it just goes straight to the other. With only 4 main characters (for the most part) it is still easy to follow but that can be a tad annoying. The other is how it ends, I am pretty sure the movie is fairly the same but I like to know every detail and not be left guessing or hanging so therefore it is a 4/5 for me. would love to get my hands on the other books so will have to search and see if they exist.

View all my reviews