About book Anonyme Untote Eine Zombie Liebesgeschichte (2010)
A while back I went through a big Indie Zombie book phase (then I went to grad school and read really interesting, but very dry journal articles about International Development, Economics, and Politics). We'd just had a great new used bookstore open and tons of books were available. I went a bit bonanza and have stacks of things to read - like any good book lover should. However, I decided to read Breathers now because I have 3 First Read books to get through, and at that point, none had arrived. Therefore, I wanted some good fast pulp. Unfortunately, that is not quite what I got (although it was certainly fast...).According to the back of the book, Breathers is a Zom-Com-Rom. It follows the narrator as he deals with Undead life and all the issues associate with it. I guess it falls into that category which includes films like My Boyfriends Back (just got to love the cheese factor of that one), Life After Beth, or any of a host of releases that have come out recently with non-apocalyptic scenarios of flesh eating zombies living amongst humans. Now, I'm totally cool with this concept, especially since it creates interesting comments on modern society that don't revolve around the concept of the Masses (in the 'Modern' philosophical idea of that word). Cool Right?*SPOILERS*Wrong. Or rather, not so much wrong, as just not right. When the first chapter opens with our zombie narrator protagonist waking from a blackout and finding he has killed his parents, it becomes rather difficult to sympathize with his plight. Even though the character is living in a society where Zombies have no rights and are persecuted - parallels are to be drawn with the history of racial minorities throughout US History, and it's not like the the author isn't afraid to throw them in your face - I find it difficult to get behind him. However, empathy with the narrator is seemingly the author's intent, as is evident as the book progresses.Unfortunately for the story, and for the reader, it becomes increasingly impossible to sympathize with the protagonist as he himself becomes less and less the person he was. At first, hated upon by not only society, but his family and left with the crippling disabilities from his death, we want his desire and goal of Zombie equality to succeed. And then, even though he's been suckered, unbeknownst to him, into eating human (Breather) flesh and he begins to improve he still seems to have this moral side to him. Yet, once the realization of why he's becoming better dawns upon him, it is not like he chooses to find an equatable solution to the dilemma which would solve the social problems and the zombie nature, such as: zombies eating the flesh of the recently deceased and becoming part of society in a helpful, productive, sustainable, and non-threatening way. Nope. Rather, we arrive at the opening and he eats his parents.Okay....Yes, his parents kind of deserve it, and so do a few other people, however, how are we to sympathize as 'Breather' readers with a dude who chooses, without remorse, to murder in order to survive? It doesn't work with Hannibal Lector and it doesn't work here. As a result, the book goes back and forth, vacillating between trying to make us feel for the plight of the Undead and then reminding us about how much of a terrible being the protagonist, and his love interest and friends, truly are. Consequently, at the end of the novel, while I don't entirely disagree with the penultimate actions of the zombies, I felt that they totally ruined their own chances and don't really deserve to be the heroes and get what they want - and I, like Mendella, believe that violence has a place in bringing about Social Change; especially when Peace doesn't work. Therefore, there is a mixed message about equal rights, anti-racism, etc. juxtaposed with and idea of: screw it, we are different and therefore we can have our own mores that ensure society will never accept us and we will be enemies forever...and yes, I know that Zombies are technically a different species - the author reminds of that too - but does that mean that the we should fall into the Rise of the Planet of the Apes trap? No, no it does not!...So...I'm not saying it was a bad book...actually, it was a nice change of pace from the Apocalyptic Zombie Horror that I normally read. However, it's like I said with my review of Patient Zero by Jonathan Mayberry: keep your politics out of my pulp zombie novels! Alright, and I know that this isn't really possible what with zombie novels being some sort of social ethos, and especially in this book whose plot is derived from politics, race, class, etc. However, if you are going to do this to a novel, any genre of novel...Get Your Message Straight! My rating really depends on what genre this falls within. If this is YA fiction, then great. This is a great and fun novel for YA readers.If this is for adults, there were too many flaws for me to really enjoy it. The characters were flat, the civic infrastructure was naive, and the author relies way too much on repetitive jokes (which stands out when those jokes aren't funny). I understand that some humor comes through repetition, but that didn't work here. In another case, I have to level some blame at whomever edited this book, as they allowed one very specific joke, the size of a paragraph, to appear twice, which indicates the editor wasn't paying attention to what they were reading.The author tried too hard for shock value and base-level emotional appeal, and the humor wasn't strong enough to carry the story.
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This is an excellent comedic zombie story. Reminds me a lot of the movie Fido.
—irene
Short humorous book. Reminded me of a Christopher Moore book. Dark comedy.
—tdolphin21
