Zombie, Ohio

Written by: Scott Kenemore

Find it: Official page, Amazon

College Professor Peter Mellor crashes his car and wakes up a zombie. But not a regular stupid zombie, no. Even after death, Mellor seems to retain his mental faculties. Sure, he wants to eat himself some brains, but he's capable of thinking, talking and regular-person activities too.

I shall admit, I was a little hesitant in picking up Zombie, Ohio. Zombie books are a dime-a-dozen these days, from survival guides to comic books all the way through to classical literature mash-ups. But Zombie, Ohio is none of those things. Zombie, Ohio is a proper novel that was written by one person with no help from Jane Austen or JK Rowling or Stieg Larsson (I made those last two up. I might actually finish The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo if it were to throw a few zombies in).

And it's not crap either, which is always a nice surprise. A crap book is worse than a crap film because by the time you fully decide that it's crap, you're generally too invested to stop reading. Also, you can't burn a crap book without someone accusing you of being Hitler or an idiot. Crap DVDs make good frisbees for throwing at your Mom's head or funky coasters or even little things you can hang above your baby's cot if you're a cheap fucker. Crap books are good for nothing except taking up space.

Anyway, Zombie, Ohio follows Mellor as he adjusts to life as a zombie. He's something of an oddity in that his fellow zombies are your more traditional slow, stupid shufflers. As Mellor turns his back on his own humanity, he begins to embrace his zombie side. Yummy, brains. Zombie, Ohio takes a shocking turn that I really didn't see coming. A less talented writer than Kenemore might lose his audience at this point, but the witty, touching first-person narrative keeps the readership on board even at the story's grislier touches. A zombie novel from the zombie's perspective, Zombie, Ohio reminded me a little of the Dexter books crossed with Max Brooks' World War Z. Kenemore's descriptions of apocalyptic America are a joy to read, vividly describing a society in decay; fully living up to the standards as set by Brooks and his peers.

I thoroughly enjoyed Zombie, Ohio. It's packed with humour, gore and mystery aplenty. It's the best zombie movie George Romero never made.