FORMAT: HARDCOVER | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
First, came the night. Then, the dawn, day, land, and survival of the dead. Master of horror George A. Romero made many other movies within his career, but none had the longevity and tenacity of his Living Dead films. And the story’s not over yet.
Enter Romero and Daniel Kraus’s The Living Dead, based on resurrected notes, chapter fragments and plot outlines from Romero’s planned epic novel. Set in present-day America, it updates the movies’ continuity while filling in gaps in the timeline – before, during and after the initial outbreak. This it does with an enormous cast of characters from all walks of life – a phone-obsessed medical examiner, a vain news anchor, sympathetic Navy pilots, a plucky teenage girl and many more. It’s The Stand crossed with World War Z.
Romero’s work always came politically and satirically charged, and The Living Dead is no different. Here, consumerist ghouls become iPhone and social media-obsessed zombies, constantly flipping through apps and staring at computer screens. Too often, however, Kraus confuses simply Naming Things with relevance; social media platforms, romcoms, celebrities, gender and sexual orientation; there are so many References that the book reads like Ready Player One. While its Trump-esque villain is timelier than ever (complete with wall), he feels obvious and too reminiscent of Dennis Hopper’s Land of the Dead antagonist. He’s even introduced from within Trump Tower, to drive home the analogy.
This book is well written, gory, and exciting enough in the moment, but it sometimes feels more Fanfiction of the Dead than George A. Romero.
