The Zombie-Driven Life

Written by David Wood
Pages: 120
High school nobody Kenan is doing just fine in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, thank you very much, but when his dream girl Katy comes stumbling around the corner, she turns his world upside-down. David Wood’s first foray into young adult fiction is an action-packed horror tale laced with dark humor and even darker thrills.

“The Zombie-Driven Life is a well-written and highly entertaining Young Adult novella, in which the story moves at an almost ridiculous pace, yet remains grounded by the POV narrative of the everyman protagonist. Great dollops of black humour and some wonderful characterisation round out this extremely enjoyable romp. Definitely one to add to the private library.” Necroscope

I stumbled across this author on the last day of Balticon and he amused me. What does that mean? I simply had to get his book!  Which led to me sitting down to investigate the first chapter.

Bad news: I maybe got a lot of weird looks from over-tired convention goers as I laughed. And laughed. And laughed some more.

By maybe I mean I did. Just in case you wondered.

This is a novella, but I can tell you that David Wood crammed more into the few short pages of this book than most authors do in 700 pages. (Can we say last Harry Potter book, anyone?)

The premise: It’s the zombie apocalypse. I know, you’re shocked. Lady Ozma reviews a zombie book. That has never ever happened. Shut up or I’ll employ my survival plan on you!

If you read no other zombie book, make it this one. Mostly because it’s 1. crazy funny and 2. crazy short. Seriously, we’re talking a couple of hours on the beach while working on your tan.

Obviously I liked that the book was downright funny, but it’s so much more. The author drew inspiration not only on the super popular zombie-love prevalent in today’s society but on a Christian self-improvement novel entitled “The Purpose Driven Life.” I’ve read The Purpose Driven Life and it’s a good read for most people. You really do need a purpose in your life, no matter what your life situation was. Obviously, in event of Zombie Apocalypse, your purpose is very much going to be zombie-driven.

Of course the irony of playing of a book written for people who follow a resurrected from the dead being (Um, the very definition of zombie) employing resurrected dead beings, that’s just intellectual humor. (Come on people, it is OK to laugh at yourself.  I live for laughing at myself.)

The really good news: Yes it’s about zombies and thus there’s some death and destruction. However, it’s kept to tolerable levels. This really is not The Walking Dead. If you are squeamish, this isn’t so bad. Huzzah for you!  I’m middling squeamish. I do love zombie stuff but I really hate blood and guts splattering everywhere for the sake of blood and guts splattering everywhere. Yuck.

Verdict: Laugh out loud funny with a charm that I like. Yes, it played off some Christian stuff, but it in no way felt intolerant agenda-led in any way. (I seriously dislike intolerant agenda-led stuff on either side of the spectrum.) If you aren’t a fan of gallows humor, this may or may not be the book for you. I’m of the opinion you can either laugh or cry and crying makes my eyes puffy and gives me a migraine so laughter it is!

–Lady O