My interest in zombies is fairly recent. I’ve never seen any of George A. Romero’s movies although I am aware of them. Still, what I know of zombies is that they are shambling, undead horrors.
How in heaven’s name could you create an entire anthology around that premise?
As it turns out, that isn’t what Carol Hightshoe did with Zombified. Instead, she twists the zombie mythos to bring a new flavor to the whole thing. Granted, some of the stories do feature traditional zombies, but others have zombie incarnations I’ve never considered.
For example, one story features a zombie super-hero.
I found myself really enjoying the anthology. The stories are varied, some with the perspective of the victims and others the zombies themselves. As I’ve already mentioned, the walking dead also take many different forms. The super-hero is only one example. Others are just regular guys and girls trying to get along.
There are twenty-four stories in the collection and I would be hard-pressed to tell you which ones were my favorites. I liked most of the stories for a variety of reasons; in some cases the zombies were victims and I could actually empathize with them. In others, they were the antagonists and I cursed at them for what they were. In every case I eagerly looked forward to the next story (well, every case but the final story. Then the period of mourning set in that is customary at the end of a good book).
I like anthologies because they give the reader a nice bite-sized morsel of story that is perfect for those commutes. This one is no different. I would say for this one that the bites, while often involving grey-matter, are wholly engrossing and made me hope my stop on the train would wait just a few minutes longer.
