Here's a short summary of the book followed by the review:
Walter Knight
SciFi Humor
Teenage loser
Lenny Dreckle of Johnson City, Missouri, is finally a winner – in the zombie
lotto. About to be shot by robbers at the Taco Bell after hours, Lenny’s saved
by a bright light that scares the robbers away. Unfortunately, the world as
Lenny knows it is fast coming to an end. An unknown disaster kills ninety
percent of the human population, turning them into flesh-eating zombies.
Teaming up
with other survivors and armed with cans of cat food to distract the zombies,
Lenny embarks on a bizarre odyssey to find the cause of the zombie apocalypse
and to take back the world one town at a time, starting with Johnson City. The
question is, can Lenny keep his hands off the lovely zombie Andrea and avoid
being devoured or infected by her? Loser that Lenny is, his fate hangs in the
balance.
=================================
I’m not quite sure where to start with Zombie, Missouri. To be honest, I read the first few chapters of this book and put it down, relatively sure I wasn’t going to finish it. I’d make my apologies to the author who requested the review and be done with it. However, the guy spent his time asking for the review and, as your ever faithful Head Zombie, I always strive to do what I say I’m going to do… so I soldiered on.
I love hilarious zombie tales. Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland are in my top five favorite ZA movies of all time. I also love books that go against the grain and blow up zombie lore as we know it – writers get points from me for not following the rules which is exactly why I’m not going to trash Zombie, Missouri. It takes balls to pull off something like this. Make no mistake, however – those of you who are zombie purists will not enjoy this book AT ALL.
The main character is a stoner teenager named Lenny Dreckle whose primary objective, even in the ZA, is to lose his virginity. He teams up with a woman named Kansas (who has no intention of giving him any play at all) and together they must somehow fend off the zombies (and the aliens and maybe even the Chinese – those bastards) with or without the help of a weird, pill popping mad scientist sort named Oz. Dreckle may have a chance of getting some from his girlfriend Andrea, if he can keep the zombie hoochie from eating his brains.
The problem, in my opinion, with Zombie, Missouri is that it’s like getting on the tilt-a-whirl at the carnival right after you’ve finished with your cherry milkshake, your cherry corndog and your chicken cherry-yaki but before you’ve taken a good, stiff swig of your cherry Pepto Bismol. It’s everywhere at once and you just don’t know where to look as you’re getting tossed around and praying you don’t have to revisit your carnie cherry goodness.
Not to completely mislead you – this book is totally, freaking gut-bustingly funny in parts. At times I think I may have laughed so hard I peed a little. The characters do make you want to care for them and you do hope they make it so at least you’ll get to see what wacky and unpredictable thing they’ll do next. This book is like the ZA hopped up on meth or at least five or six shots of Five Hour Energy.
Walter Knight gets an A for originality and cojones, but Zombie, Missouri gets THREE out of FIVE ZOMBIE HEADS.
I’m not quite sure where to start with Zombie, Missouri. To be honest, I read the first few chapters of this book and put it down, relatively sure I wasn’t going to finish it. I’d make my apologies to the author who requested the review and be done with it. However, the guy spent his time asking for the review and, as your ever faithful Head Zombie, I always strive to do what I say I’m going to do… so I soldiered on.
I love hilarious zombie tales. Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland are in my top five favorite ZA movies of all time. I also love books that go against the grain and blow up zombie lore as we know it – writers get points from me for not following the rules which is exactly why I’m not going to trash Zombie, Missouri. It takes balls to pull off something like this. Make no mistake, however – those of you who are zombie purists will not enjoy this book AT ALL.
The main character is a stoner teenager named Lenny Dreckle whose primary objective, even in the ZA, is to lose his virginity. He teams up with a woman named Kansas (who has no intention of giving him any play at all) and together they must somehow fend off the zombies (and the aliens and maybe even the Chinese – those bastards) with or without the help of a weird, pill popping mad scientist sort named Oz. Dreckle may have a chance of getting some from his girlfriend Andrea, if he can keep the zombie hoochie from eating his brains.
The problem, in my opinion, with Zombie, Missouri is that it’s like getting on the tilt-a-whirl at the carnival right after you’ve finished with your cherry milkshake, your cherry corndog and your chicken cherry-yaki but before you’ve taken a good, stiff swig of your cherry Pepto Bismol. It’s everywhere at once and you just don’t know where to look as you’re getting tossed around and praying you don’t have to revisit your carnie cherry goodness.
Not to completely mislead you – this book is totally, freaking gut-bustingly funny in parts. At times I think I may have laughed so hard I peed a little. The characters do make you want to care for them and you do hope they make it so at least you’ll get to see what wacky and unpredictable thing they’ll do next. This book is like the ZA hopped up on meth or at least five or six shots of Five Hour Energy.
Walter Knight gets an A for originality and cojones, but Zombie, Missouri gets THREE out of FIVE ZOMBIE HEADS.
Thank you Head Zombie. Your review nailed it. My goal was to write something genre irreverent, humorous, and different.
ReplyDeleteAs a bonus, “Zombie Missouri” was a spin-off of my “America’s Galactic Foreign Legion” series, but I did not let on to that in the story.
ZOMBIE MISSOURI Sounds good, Wally!
ReplyDeleteI'm just wondering, do you sleep?
He Wendy! Sleep is for wimps. Got any zombies in New Zealand? Here's how to spot them before it's too late:
ReplyDeleteZombie Identification
Some indications that you have a zombie in view:
*It has a gray-green dull skin tone.
*It is wearing inappropriate clothing for the season or terrain (no coat or shoes, for instance).
*It has open wounds, other injuries and/or missing or damaged limbs but no sign of bleeding.
*It does not respond to verbal stimulus or exhibit any interest in its immediate surroundings.
*It is trying to eat you.
Hmm ... I have been known to have a dull sheen to my skin after a night out. I've also worn inappropriate clothing due to not being able to find the light switch in the wardrobe.
DeleteDelighted to say, however, that I have no open wounds nor do I exhibit any strange interest in my immediate surrounding.
Oh, and nothing, thus far, has tried to eat me.
Careful, it could happen.
ReplyDeleteZombie Missouri is now available through Amazon Prime promotions.
ReplyDelete