Best Zombie Books: 50 Great Zombie Novels from Colson Whitehead, Seanan McGuire, Isaac Marion, more
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Looking for a zombie story? You can’t swing an undead cat without hitting another one.
(Updated June 2023)
Stories about zombies are popping up everywhere! Once on the fringes of horror, the “zombie apocalypse” has become one of the most ubiquitous genres in pop culture—from games and film and TV to comics and literature.
Looking for a zombie book? If you want some help narrowing down the field, here are some zombie novels worth checking out.
FREE CHECKLIST: 50 Essential Zombie Comedy Movies
The selections below includes books from a diverse group of authors—ranging from acclaimed novelist Justina Ireland and horror legend Stephen King to up-and-comer Zoraida Córdova, from Hugo-winner Octavia Butler and Pulitzer Prize-nominated Colson Whitehead to Internet sensation Rhiannon Frater, from the global perspective of Manel Loureiro and up-to-date political angle of Mira Grant to the Regency mashup of Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith and alien invasion scenario of Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due. We’ve also got horror legend Richard Matheson, as well as winners from Isaac Marion, David Wellington, Alden Bell, J.L. Bourne, Brian Keene, Courtney Summers, Daryl Gregory, S.G. Browne, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Daniel Waters, Robert Kirkman, Ilsa J. Bick, and more!
Whatever you’re in the mood for, there are zombie tales here for all kinds of (heh) tastes. Scroll down for book info, links to author interviews, and more information to take you further in-depth.
What are your favorite zombie novels? Sound off in the comments if you think I should add something to the list!
Note: I am revising this page right now! (Well, right about now.)
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In this acclaimed mashup of history and, well, zombies, professor and author Justina Ireland presents an alternate history where the events of the Civil War are altered when the dead rise from their graves at Gettysburg.
“A good zombie story is never really about the zombies,” Ms. Ireland told Bookpage. “My brain works in concentric circles, and I always think of zombies as leading to upheaval and change, as signaling the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. And the Civil War did the same thing historically—derailed everything. The only difference is that you’re defending yourself from your neighbor rather than a ravaging horde.”
In Dread Nation, Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. From the book’s official description:
In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.
But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.
Find the Dread Nation books on Amazon (affiliate link)
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02 Cell by Stephen King
From international bestseller Stephen King, a high-concept, ingenious and terrifying story about the mayhem unleashed when a pulse from a mysterious source transforms all cell phone users into homicidal maniacs.
On October 1, God is in His heaven, the stock market stands at 10,140, most of the planes are on time, and graphic artist Clayton Riddell is visiting Boston, having just landed a deal that might finally enable him to make art instead of teaching it. But all those good feelings about the future change in a hurry thanks to a devastating phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse.
The delivery method is a cell phone—everyone’s cell phone. Now Clay and the few desperate survivors who join him suddenly find themselves in the pitch-black night of civilization’s darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a relentless human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature—and then begins to evolve. There’s really no escaping this nightmare.
But for Clay, an arrow points the way home to his family in Maine, and as he and his fellow refugees make their harrowing journey north, they begin to see the crude signs confirming their direction. A promise of a safe haven, perhaps, or quite possibly the deadliest trap of all…
“The idea came about this way: I came out of a hotel in New York and I saw this woman talking on her cell phone. And I thought to myself, What if she got a message over the cell phone that she couldn’t resist, and she had to kill people until somebody killed her? All the possible ramifications started bouncing around in my head like pinballs. If everybody got the same message, then everybody who had a cell phone would go crazy. Normal people would see this, and the first thing they would do would be to call their friends and families on their cell phones. So the epidemic would spread like poison ivy. Then, later, I was walking down the street and I see some guy who is apparently a crazy person yelling to himself. And I want to cross the street to get away from him. Except he’s not a bum; he’s dressed in a suit. Then I see he’s got one of these plugs in his ear and he’s talking into his cell phone. And I thought to myself, I really want to write this story.” (SOURCE: The Paris Review)
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03 Bruja Born (Brooklyn Brujas #2) by Zoraida Córdova
Lula must let go of the ghosts of her past to face the actual living dead of her present.
Lula Mortiz feels like an outsider. Her sister’s newfound Encantrix powers have wounded her in ways that Lula's bruja healing powers can’t fix, and she longs for the comfort her family once brought her. Thank the Deos for Maks, her sweet, steady boyfriend who sees the beauty within her and brings light to her life.
Then a bus crash turns Lula’s world upside down. Her classmates are all dead, including Maks. But Lula was born to heal, to fix. She can bring Maks back, even if it means seeking help from her sisters and defying Death herself. But magic that defies the laws of the deos is dangerous. Unpredictable. And when the dust settles, Maks isn’t the only one who’s been brought back...
“When I wrote Labyrinth Lost I knew that the Mortiz sisters weren’t done telling their stories. In book one, Lula went through an Ordeal™. What came next? I didn’t want to mess up Alex’s ending, so the point of view had to change. This was Lula’s story to tell.” (SOURCE: A Court of Coffee and Books)
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Borrowing the format of Studs Terkel’s 1984 nonfiction work The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two, this 2006 zombie apocalyptic horror novel is written as a collection of accounts the devastating global impact of a zombie plague. These accounts also detail the political, religious, economic, social, and environmental changes that came about as a result. The 2007 award-winning audiobook was performed by a cast that included Alan Alda, Mark Hamill, and John Turturro. There was also a 2013 film adaptation starring Brad Pitt.
“I decided to use the oral accounts because I am painfully dyslexic. And when I was growing up, audio books were the only way I could study. And one audio book that I listened to just for pleasure was Studs Terkel’s The Good War, and that book never left me. And I wanted that to be the template for describing a global crisis, because I thought an oral history is a great way to bring in so many voices, literally, from all around the world.” (SOURCE: NPR)
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Maybe it’s the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood. Ling Ma’s offbeat apocalyptic satire Severance got raves from the likes of NPR (“a stunning, audacious book with a fresh take on both office politics and what the apocalypse might bring”) and Elle (“satirical spin on the end times—kind of like The Office meets The Leftovers” ). Severance also won the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award, the Kirkus Prize for Fiction, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award.
The author told The Paris Review about the origins of Severance:
“Severance began in 2012 as an apocalyptic short story. I worked on it at my desk in the last months of my office job. The company was downsizing, and many employees were getting laid off. As the story progressed, its moods were both joyful and angry. I began to understand that the anger was rooted in issues of work and that in effect, I was unwittingly writing an apocalyptic office novel. I finished the first draft in 2016.”
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06 Hadriana in All My Dreams by René Depestre
Hadriana in All My Dreams, winner of the prestigious Prix Renaudot, takes place primarily during Carnival in 1938 in the Haitian village of Jacmel. Written by Haitian author René Depestre and translated by Kaiama L. Glover, Hadriana in All My Dreams finds a beautiful young French woman, Hadriana, about to marry a Haitian boy from a prominent family. The morning of the wedding, Hadriana drinks a mysterious potion and collapses at the altar. Transformed into a zombie, her wedding becomes her funeral. She is buried by the town, revived by an evil sorcerer, and then disappears into popular legend.
Set against a backdrop of magic and eroticism, and recounted with delirious humor, the novel raises universal questions about race and sexuality. The reader comes away enchanted by the marvelous reality of Haiti's Vodou culture and convinced of Depestre's lusty claim that all beings―even the undead ones―have a right to happiness and true love.
René Depestre, born in 1926, is one of the most important voices of Haitian literature. A peer of seminal figures like Aimé Césaire, Pablo Neruda, and André Breton, Depestre has engaged with the politics/aesthetics of negritude, social realism, and surrealism for more than half a century.
07 Feed (Newsflesh #1) by Mira Grant AKA Seanan McGuire
The first book in the Newsflesh series written by Seanan McGuire under the pen name Mira Grant, Feed is set during the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. Written from the perspective of blog journalist Georgia Mason, the book follows her news team as they follow a presidential campaign. Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives—the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.
“There’s never been any illusion that Mira wasn’t me. When I was first writing Feed—which was the first book I published as Mira—I talked about it very openly on my blog, on Twitter, that I was writing this book, and it wasn’t until after it was sold that I said ‘Mira Grant’ wrote this book. And the reason there was really purely marketing based. It was so that my urban fantasy fans would see okay, this is a Mira Grant book. Clearly there is a difference. And it works in reverse too. People who would never have considered a zombie political thriller by an urban fantasy writer were willing to pick up Feed and take a look at it.” (SOURCE: Lightspeed Magazine)
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08 Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Part genre fiction, part literary fiction, Zone One is a zombie story in the hands of a Pulitzer-nominated novelist. Colson Whitehead says the novel is partly an attempt to return to his adolescent fascination with horror writer Stephen King and science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.
A pandemic has devastated the planet, sorting humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. After the worst of the plague is over, armed forces stationed in Chinatown’s Fort Wonton have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street—aka Zone One. Mark Spitz is a member of one of the three-person civilian sweeper units tasked with clearing lower Manhattan of the remaining feral zombies. Zone One unfolds over three surreal days in which Spitz is occupied with the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder (PASD), and the impossible task of coming to terms with a fallen world. And then things start to go terribly wrong…
“Other people have hang-ups about what’s literary, or genre, or whatever, and that’s sort of not my problem. You’re supposed to write what you have to write, and you’re supposed to keep moving. So my last book was kind of an anti-coming-of-age novel. This one’s a horror novel. I have no idea what the next one will be, but I assume it will be different. I just try to keep things interesting for me and for people who follow me.” (SOURCE: Interview Magazine)
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09 My Life As a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
Horror meets humorous urban fantasy in Diana Rowland’s White Trash Zombie series. In 2011, the main character in the series, Angel Crawford, was nominated for an RT Reviewer’s Choice award for Best Urban Fantasy Protagonist. In 2012, the character won in that category.
Angel Crawford is a Loser. Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she’s a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who’s been fired from more crap jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.
That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers. Angel remembers being in a horrible car crash, but she doesn’t have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there’s a job waiting for her at the county morgue—and that it’s an offer she doesn’t dare refuse.
Before she knows it, she’s dealing wth a huge crush on a certain hunky deputy and a brand new addiction: an overpowering craving for brains. Plus, her morgue is filling up with the victims of a serial killer who decapitates his prey—just when she’s hungriest!
Angel’s going to have to grow up fast if she wants to keep this job and stay in one piece. Because if she doesn’t, she’s dead meat. Literally.
Diana told an interviewer about how her real-life experiences fuel the series:
“The White Trash Zombie series in particular deals with issues of class, addiction, mental health, and domestic violence—all of which I witnessed or dealt with both in law enforcement and with the coroner's office. Because I’ve seen the consequences and fallout, it resonates with me, and I try to pass that on to my characters. We all know that perfect characters are boring. But at the same time, characters who have shortcomings that feel picked out of thin air feel just as shallow and uninteresting. A character’s imperfections need to be intrinsic to who they are and how they react to the world around them. Addicts will rationalize everything. Abuse will escalate. We know these things because we’ve seen it time and time again. What I find fascinating is why and how and what gets a person to that point. Basically, I enjoy writing Angel Crawford because she’s complicated and messy and fun as hell, and I hope to keep doing so for a long, long time.”
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In her career, legendary science fiction author Octavia Butler (1947-2006) received multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, and was the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. Several of her novels fit together into the composite Patternist series—also sometimes referred to as the Patternmaster series or the Seed to Harvest series. These novels, which can be read in any order, detail a secret history dating from ancient times to the far future that involve telepathic mind control and an extraterrestrial plague.
Black Women in America proclaimed of the series:
The books in the series also read well independently of each other, describing intertwined stories of multiple characters and jumping back and forth through time, from centuries in the past to millennia in the future. Among the major themes they cover are racial and gender-based animosity, the ethical implications of biological engineering, the question of what it means to be human, ethical and unethical uses of power, and how the assumption of power changes people. SOURCE: Octavia Butler | Oxford University Press
In Clay’s Ark—chronologically third in the sequence, but the last book in the series to be published—an alien pandemic irrevocably changes humanity: In a violent near-future, Asa Elias Doyle and her companions encounter an alien life form so heinous and destructive, they exile themselves in the desert so as not to contaminate other humans.
Resisting the compulsion to infect others is mental agony, but succumbing would mean relinquishing their humanity and free will. Desperate, they kidnap a doctor and his two daughters as they cross the wasteland—and, in doing so, endanger the world.
Find Clay’s Ark on Amazon (affiliate link)
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11 The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Presenting a dystopia where most of humanity was wiped out by a fungal infection, The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey AKA Mike Carey is based on his 2013 Edgar Award nominated short story “Iphigenia In Aulis.”
The conceptual core of the story is that you have a monster who’s also an innocent. I think that lurking in the DNA of The Girl With All the Gifts is Frankenstein. Mary Shelly’s monster is only a monster because of the appalling way he’s treated by his creator, and it’s a novel that looks at the relationships in society between the young and the old, the rich and the poor and the various ways we’re responsible for each other’s moral development. (SOURCE: The Quietus)
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12 Devil’s Wake (Devil’s Wake #1) by Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due
Speculative fiction power couple Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due take on the zombie genre with Devil’s Wake.
What happens when an unprecedented infection leaves the earth on the brink of the Apocalypse? But this infection goes far beyond disease. Beyond even the nightmare images of walking dead or flesh-eating ghouls…
The infected are turning into creatures unlike anything ever dreamed of—more complex, more mysterious, and more deadly. Trapped in the northwestern United States as winter begins to fall, Terry and Kendra have only one choice: they and their friends must cross a thousand miles of no-man’s-land in a rickety school bus, battling ravenous hordes, human raiders, and their own fears. In the midst of apocalypse, they find something no one could have anticipated—love…
Steven Barnes is an award-winning author of twenty-three novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Cestus Deception. Tananarive Due is an American Book Award-winning, Essence bestselling author of Blood Colony, The Living Blood, The Good House, and Joplin’s Ghost.
In an interview with Lit Stack, Mr. Barnes compared zombies with other traditional monsters:
“The zombie is our first “new” monster in a century. Vampires and werewolves are as old as humanity, but the specific image George Romero created is a contribution of the cinema, and nothing else. Horror always speaks to our secret fears, and the fear of becoming inhuman, sub-human, deteriorating, maps over with fears of aging, being mindless consumers, of immigration, of racial demographic shifts, and other very current concerns.”
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13 Taking on the Dead (Famished #1) by Annie Walls
Life for Kansas was perfect until the day the world changed. She has been hiding out for four years in solitude. It’s the only way to survive. The only way not to draw the living dead. Helping a small group of people, she learns the new world might not be what she assumes.
Venturing out of her refuge and comfort zone, she meets Rudy, who helps her find a greater purpose. She realizes that the world has moved on without her. Only it’s not what she expects. Her knowledge of the living dead grows and only makes her more curious as humanity continues to hang on by a thread. While on her search for answers she finds comfort in new friendships and love, but her past seems as if it will haunt her forever. Kansas takes it upon herself to help other survivors, which would be easy if the famished were the only obstacles.
The author on what inspired her to write the book:
“A character story I wrote. I really liked the protagonist and reading zombie novels, so I dropped her in the middle of a zombie apocalypse to see how she’d handle it and wrote a zombie novel I’d want to read over and over entitled Taking on the Dead, The Famished Trilogy Book One. (SOURCE: Authors Interviews)
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14 Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End by Manel Loureiro
Spanish author Manel Loureiro’s Apocalypse Z #1: The Beginning of the End began life as a series of blog posts. Once it was published as a book, it became a bestseller in several countries before coming to attention of Amazon Crossing, which published the book in English. Pamela Carmell is the translator.
The dead rise… A mysterious incident in Russia, a blip buried in the news—it’s the only warning humanity receives that civilization will soon be destroyed by a single, voracious virus that creates monsters of men.
Humanity falls… A lawyer, still grieving over the death of his young wife, begins to write as a form of therapy. Bur he never expected that his anonymous blog would ultimately record humanity’s last days.
The end of the world has begun… Governments scramble to stop the zombie virus, people panic, so-called “Safe Havens” are established, the world erupts into chaos; soon it’s every man, woman, and child for themselves. Armed only with makeshift weapons and the will to live, a lone survivor will give mankind one last chance against… Apocalypse Z.
15 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
A literary mashup of Jane Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice with modern zombie fiction, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is credited to both Austen and remix author Seth Grahame-Smith. The idea of crossing a popular genre with a public domain work came from Quirk Books editor Jason Rekulak. Taking the assignment, Grahame-Smith began with the original text of Austen’s novel, adding zombie and ninja elements while developing an overall plot line that accounted for the new material. The novel was adapted into a 2016 film. Grahame-Smith followed with Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, which follows Lincoln’s “secret diaries” to about his battles against vampirism. In another related work, Grahame-Smith made his comic book debut on Marvel Zombies Return: Hulk with artist Richard Elson.
“I can’t attribute the book’s success to anything else than good timing,” Grahame-Smith observed. “We just happened to have the right book at the right time, and hit the zeitgeist in the right way. I wish I could figure out why it worked, because I’d be able to replicate it every time out, but for some reason, that one idea struck a chord in people at that time.” (SOURCE: Direct Conversations)
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16 Planet Dead (Planet Dead #1) by Sylvester Barzey
Sylvester Barzey, who describes himself as an “Anything Goes HORROR” writer, takes on the zombie menace with the first book in his Planet Dead series. When the world goes to hell in a zombie handbasket, you find out that true evil hides among the living!
It’s 2019, the wall is built. The president is missing and an unknown virus has quickly taken over the world. People are dying but, like an ’80s B-rated horror movie, they won’t stay dead for long. Can Catherine Briggs survive long enough to be reunited with her family or is hope the only thing that stays dead in the Apocalypse?
The author shared on Amazon that one of his goals for the series was to bring more diversity to horror fiction:
“Planet Dead is my attempt to solve a problem I had with the horror genre. I love horror movies, books, tv shows and comics but as a person of color, I noticed there are very few horror related titles that surround people from different backgrounds. Most horror movies have a white female lead, who at times starts off weak and comes out strong. Which there is nothing wrong with that, but I wanted a strong female that wasn't made strong by the horrors she saw, but by the life, she lived. I wanted a person of color so I could show the world people of color are just as strong as any other group. They can be heroes and villains, they can be complex in many ways. The horror genre leads you to believe that people of color can only die first or be the comic relief. Planet Dead is here to break down that old thought process and give people of color heroes they can relate to, all while giving the world and zombie fans a bad ass story.”
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17 The First Days (As the World Dies #1) by Rhiannon Frater
The As the World Dies trilogy was a self-publishing sensation for horror author Rhiannon Frater before it came to the attention of Tor Books. Once the publisher signed her, Frater revised and expanded the books. The First Days, the first book in the series, nabbed a starred review from Publishers Weekly.
Katie is driving to work one beautiful day when a dead man jumps into her car and tries to eat her. That same morning, Jenni opens a bedroom door to find her husband devouring their toddler son.
Fate puts Jenni and Katie—total strangers—together in a pickup, fleeing the suddenly zombie-filled streets of the Texas city in which they live. Before the sun has set, they have become more than just friends and allies—they are bonded as tightly as any two people who have been to war together.
During their cross-Texas odyssey to find and rescue Jenni’s oldest son, Jenni discovers the joy of watching a zombie’s head explode when she shoots its brains out. Katie learns that she’s a terrific tactician—and a pretty good shot. A chance encounter puts them on the road to an isolated, fortified town, besieged by zombies, where fewer than one hundred people cling to the shreds of civilization. It looks like the end of the world.
But Katie and Jenni and many others will do whatever they have to to stay alive. Run, fight, pick each other up when they stumble, fall in love—anything is possible at the end of the world.
“I write about what I fear. I suppose writing horror is a way of containing my fears by weaving them into a narrative. I tried other genres, but nothing felt right until I began to write about monsters. It all sort of clicked.” (SOURCE: From the Shadows)
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18 The Zombie Combat Manual by Roger Ma
The Zombie Combat Manual: A Guide to Fighting the Living Dead is a comprehensive guide that demonstrates how anyone, from seasoned fighter to average citizen, can become an effective warrior in the inevitable battle against the undead. With detailed illustrations and firsthand accounts from zombie combat veterans, this manual provides readers with the information they need to emerge victoriously from a close combat encounter with a walking corpse. Now is the time to learn how to survive a hand-to-hand battle against the advancing army of the undead-before humans fall prey to their growing ranks.
The book’s author, Roger Ma, specializes in hand-to-hand combat against the undead. He is the author of The Zombie Combat Manual: A Guide to Fighting the Living Dead, The Vampire Combat Manual: A Guide to Fighting the Bloodthirsty Undead, The Zombie Combat Field Guide, and The Vampire Combat Field Guide. He is the founder of the Zombie Combat Club and the Vampire Combat Club, organizations that focus on battling the undead without the aid of a firearm. He was featured as a zombie expert on the History Channel documentary “Zombies: A Living History.” He currently trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
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19 Patient Zero (Joe Ledger #1) by Jonathan Maberry
Patient Zero, the first book in Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger series, introduces a detective that must save the world from a bioweapon that turns humans into zombies.
When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there’s either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills—and there’s nothing wrong with Joe Ledger's skills. And that’s both a good, and a bad thing. It’s good because he’s a Baltimore detective that has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new taskforce called the Department of Military Sciences. It’s bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bio-weapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies…
“For my Joe Ledger series, I explore the effects of the character’s life on his development. Joe evolves in each story. He’s not the same person he was, and he’s aware—often painfully aware—of the changes he’s gone through and the cost to his soul of what he’s had to do in order to do what’s necessary to save the day.” (Source: Writer’s Digest)
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20 Panther in the Hive (The Tasha Trilogy #1) by Olivia A. Cole
Olivia A. Cole’s Panther in the Hive is at once an unforgettable coming-of-age story and a captivating vision of an unsettling future. Tasha Lockett, orphan, oddball, and former fashion addict, is alone in a Chicago overrun with citizens-turned-weapons, the result of the cybertronic disaster that brought the country to its knees four days ago.
When Tasha receives a letter from her estranged sister warning her of the catastrophe and urging her to travel to the South Side where there is rumored to be a safe zone, Tasha must face what the world has become. With only her precious Prada backpack and a sturdy kitchen knife, she embarks on an epic journey through the wasteland Chicago has become, forming alliances and discovering that although the world may be in pieces, she might still become whole.
Readers who enjoy the likes of Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler will enjoy this coming of age adventure in a not-quite unrealistic setting.
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21 Zombiestan by Mainak Dhar
Zombiestan finds undead Taliban rampaging through Afghan villages—and soon the darkness spreads through the world. Author Mainak Dhar has written more than a dozen books, some of which have been bestsellers in India and abroad including the bestselling Alice in Deadland series, 03:02, and Sniper’s Eye. His books have been translated into Turkish, Vietnamese, Japanese, French, German and Portuguese, reaching millions of readers worldwide.
“Inherent goodness can unite us all when faced with evil,” the author said in an interview. The author also shared what inspired him to write about zombies, the metaphor behind Zombiestan, and what he won’t do for his readers.
Zombiestan takes place in a world laid waste by a new terror, following four unlikely companions who have been thrown together—a 17-year-old boy dealing with the loss of his family; a U.S. Navy SEAL trying to get back home; an aging, lonely writer with nobody to live for; and a young girl trying to keep her three year old brother safe.
When they discover that the smallest among them holds the key to removing the scourge that threatens to destroy their world, they begin an epic journey to a rumored safe zone high in the Himalayas. A journey that will pit them against their own worst fears and the most terrible dangers—both human and undead...
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22 The Forest of Hands and Teeth (#1 of 4) by Carrie Ryan
In Mary’s world there are simple truths: The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.
But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. Now, she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?
“When we say zombie novels people expect the zombie apocalypse. But my books are about how you survive intense challenges in life and there are zombies around while you are trying to survive them.” (SOURCE: Publishers Weekly)
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23 Plague Town (Ashley Parker #1) by Dana Fredsti
Dana Fredsti is a novelist and screenwriter, actress, and swordfighter. When I interviewed her for the Monster Complex Online Convention, we talked about her Spawn of Lilith serires, which draws on Dana’s Hollywood insider experiences to relate the adventures of a movie stuntwoman who hunts demons.
Dana’s Ashley Parker series—which kicks of with Plague Town—is best described as Buffy the Vampir Slayer meets Walking Dead:
Ashley was just trying to get through a tough day when the world turned upside down. A terrifying virus appears, quickly becoming a pandemic that leaves its victims, not dead, but far worse. Attacked by zombies, Ashley discovers that she is a ‘Wild-Card’—immune to the virus—and she is recruited to fight back and try to control the outbreak.
Dana talked to Starburst Magazine about writing a strong female lead character:
“When one is told to ‘write Buffy with zombies, but different,’ it’s not really hard to envision a strong, kickass and sassy female heroine. And yes, I did want to emphasize that element because I find the whole conceit that the only strong characters in horror are men to be ridiculous. Let's just look at Ripley in the Alien movies and Sarah Connor in the Terminator series and realize that there are good female role models out there that are just conveniently forgotten at times. And honestly, most of the male horror writers I know are so incredibly behind and enthusiastic about Ashley as a hero.”
Buy the book from Amazon (affiliate link)
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Isaac Marion’s 2010 debut novel WARM BODIES became a New York Times bestseller, inspired a major film, and was translated into 25 languages. He spent the next eight years writing the rest of the story over the course of four books, now concluded with THE LIVING.
Marion told Monster Complex:
My protagonist is a zombie, so this is obviously not a story about rugged survivors mowing down hordes of undead monsters. I’m not interested in that. It’s about what it feels like to be dead inside and the struggle to find life again.
The novel Warm Bodies started out as a short story, “I Am a Zombie Filled with Love.” Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, acquired the publishing rights to the full novel in early 2010. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer described the book as a “zombie romance,” as it makes allusions to William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The Seattle-based author actor Nicholas Hoult starred as the zombie R in a feature film adaptation written and directed by Jonathan Levine and released in February 2013. The film also starred Teresa Palmer as Julie Grigio, Rob Corddry as M, and John Malkovich as General Grigio. Other principal cast members included Dave Franco, Analeigh Tipton, and Cory Hardrict. The official movie poster in which R was giving Julie a bunch of flowers is not included in the movie but happened in the novel. A Warm Bodies TV series was announced to be in development by Lionsgate.
Find the Warm Bodies book series on Amazon
Find the Warm Bodies movie on Amazon
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One month after a global disaster, the most “developed” nations of the world have fallen to the shambling zombie masses. Only a few pockets of humanity survive—in places rife with high-powered weaponry, such as Somalia.
In New York City, the dead walk the streets, driven by an insatiable hunger for all things living. One amongst them is different; though he shares their appetites he has retained his human intelligence. Alone among the mindless zombies, Gary Fleck is an eyewitness to the end of the world -- and perhaps the evil genius behind it all.
From the other side of the planet, a small but heavily-armed group of schoolgirls-turned-soldiers has come in search of desperately needed medicine. Dekalb, a former United Nations weapons inspector, leads them as their local guide. Ayaan, a crack shot at the age of sixteen, will stop at nothing to complete her mission. They think they are prepared for anything. On Monster Island they will find that there is something worse even than being undead, as Gary learns the true price of survival.
Monster Island is the first in a trilogy of online serial novels. Monster Island was published in serial online in August, 2004 and in print in April, 2006. The second novel, the prequel Monster Nation recounts the origins of the epidemic and its rapid spread across the United States. The third novel, Monster Planet, describes the results of the global outbreak.
26 The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell
Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.
For 25 years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart.
She can’t remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption.
Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.
“If the literary crowd is keeping itself from the pleasures of zombie fiction,” Bell told On Books and Writing, “then it’s doing itself a disservice. What makes books great or not great isn’t the subject matter but how beautifully the writer delivers that subject matter. So, other than superficially, I’ve never categorized my writing as genre or non-genre. If a book seems to call for zombies, I’ll put zombies in it.”
Sporadic news reports indicate chaos and violence spreading through U.S. cities. An unknown evil is sweeping the planet. The dead are rising to claim the Earth as the new dominant species in the food chain. This is the handwritten journal depicting one man’s struggle for survival.
Trapped in the midst of global disaster, he must make decisions; choices that ultimately mean life, or the eternal curse to walk as one of them. Enter if you will into his world. The world of the undead.
The first in a four-book series, Day by Day Armageddon is an intelligent, gripping zombie thriller that is perfect for fans of The Walking Dead.
Bourne talked to the Reading and Writing podcast about how he launched the series:
“We have to go back in time to 2003, before I guess the zombies were cool. I was reading some of the fiction out there in the genre—and I had a story inside of me that I wanted to tell. I thought that maybe I could tell it just as good as those that were that were published out there.
“So, I went ahead and put my fingers to keyboard and began writing Day By Day Armageddon chapter by chapter, day by day. And I started off uploading it to the internet as a serial for free, and it gained a little traction from there.
“It was on a personal site that no longer exists. I would just upload it chapter by chapter. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was gaining readership. I didn’t have any type of web counter or any way to know how much interest it was gaining.
“But it gained some interest as the months went on. And as the story unfolded, I started getting some emails from folks out there on the World Wide Web telling me how much they enjoyed it.”
Since its 2003 debut, Brian Keene’s THE RISING is one of the best-selling zombie novels of all-time. It has been translated into over a dozen languages, inspired the works of other authors and filmmakers, and has become a cultural touchstone for an entire generation of horror fans.
THE RISING is the story of Jim Thurmond, a determined father battling his way across a post-apocalyptic zombie landscape, to find his young son. Accompanied by Martin, a preacher still holding to his faith, and Frankie, a recovering heroin addict with an indomitable will to survive, Jim travels from state to state and town to town, facing an endless onslaught of undead hordes, and the evils perpetrated by his fellow man.
In an interview with Cemetery Dance, Keene talked about the importance of authors bringing their own unique spin on horror stories:
“The horror genre is one of the oldest forms of storytelling in the world, and I’m not convinced there’s anything left resembling a totally original idea. Everything, at this point, no matter how ground-breaking it may seem, probably has its roots in a monster or situation that has been done before. People might not remember that it’s been done, but it has been. I think the key, for writers and filmmakers, is to use your own unique voice, and give it your own unique spin...Something that only YOU can give the world.”
This brand-new, author’s preferred edition of THE RISING restores nearly 30,000 words of material that was cut from the original edition. These new chapters expand the original story, adding new depths to characters and more horrific situations. This uncut edition also includes a lengthy essay by the author about the novel’s genesis and history.
It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self.
To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live.
But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?
Summers explains to Disability in Kidlit that most of her novels have explored depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—so she has been researching them for a fairly long time now:
“When I write any book about a sensitive topic—depression, suicide, bullying, physical and emotional trauma—I do so aware that I’m contributing to a larger conversation, that started without me, so I want to make sure I’m treating that conversation with respect and not undermining it. I extensively research on the Internet, read, read, read (books, articles, personal accounts, interviews etc), watch (documentaries, lectures, interviews, etc), as well as talking to people who have personally experienced the things I’ve written about. I also research harmful tropes/cliches/stereotypes so I can make sure I’m avoiding them. From there, it’s a matter of taking everything I’ve learned and figuring out how that will manifest in and be filtered through a particular character’s actions, reactions and general perspective.”
30 Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory
From award-winning author Daryl Gregory, whom Library Journal called “[a] bright new voice of the twenty-first century,” comes a new breed of zombie novel—a surprisingly funny, vividly frightening, and ultimately deeply moving story of self-discovery and family love.
In 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda—and he begins to move.
The family hides the child—whom they name Stony—rather than turn him over to authorities that would destroy him. Against all scientific reason, the undead boy begins to grow.
For years his adoptive mother and sisters manage to keep his existence a secret—until one terrifying night when Stony is forced to run and he learns that he is not the only living dead boy left in the world.
In an interview with Gizmodo, Gregory talked about what inspired his central concept of a sentient zombie:
“I really wanted to write an anti-zombie novel. There was just so much zombie stuff coming out that I thought, ‘Maybe there needs to be somebody going the other way.’
“In the first idea, it wasn’t really a zombie novel. There was just something terribly wrong with him. When I realized that he could be dead and I could use all those tropes from zombie fiction, then it just spiralled out from there and I got really excited about it.”
31 Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament by S.G. Browne
For fans of Max Brooks’s The Zombie Survival Guide and zombie aficionados everywhere, a hilarious debut novel about life (and love) after death.
Meet Andy Warner, a recently deceased everyman and newly minted zombie. Resented by his parents, abandoned by his friends, and reviled by a society that no longer considers him human, Andy is having a bit of trouble adjusting to his new existence.
But all that changes when he goes to an Undead Anonymous meeting and finds kindred souls in Rita, an impossibly sexy recent suicide with a taste for the formaldehyde in cosmetic products, and Jerry, a twenty-one-year-old car-crash victim with an exposed brain and a penchant for Renaissance pornography.
When the group meets a rogue zombie who teaches them the joys of human flesh, things start to get messy, and Andy embarks on a journey of self-discovery that will take him from his casket to the SPCA to a media-driven class-action lawsuit on behalf of the rights of zombies everywhere.
Darkly funny, surprisingly touching, and gory enough to satisfy even the most discerning reader, Breathers is a romantic zombie comedy (rom-zom-com, for short) that will leave you laughing, squirming, and clamoring for more.
Breathers began as a short story—which the author eventually developed into a full-length novel. He told Zombies & Toys that what drew him back to expand the story was the dark comedy:
“I’d written three novels that were straight supernatural horror a la Stephen King, but I’d never attempted a full-length novel in this style. And at the time, I’d never seen or read anything from the zombie’s POV. I thought that would be fun to explore.”
32 Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Zombies and human clash in this horror novel by author John Ajvide Lindqvist, who reinvented the vampire genre with Let the Right One In. Now he’s taken on zombies, and readers everywhere will find themselves utterly consumed by Handling the Undead.
Something peculiar is happening. While the city is enduring a heat wave, people are finding that their electric appliances won’t stay switched off. And everyone has a blinding headache. Then the terrible news breaks—in the city morgue, the newly dead are waking.
David always knew his wife was far too good for him. But he never know how lost he’d be without her until the night she died. Now she’s gone and he’s alone. But when he goes to identify her body, she opens her eye…
Across the city, grieving families find themselves able to see their loved ones one last time. But are these creatures really them? How long can this last? And what deadly price will they have to pay for the chance to see their spouses and children just one more time?
In an interview with the author, GamesRadar+ points out that with his first two novels, John Ajvide Lindqvist reinvented vampires and zombies. Was he making a deliberate choice to create new spins for classic monsters?
“Well it wasn’t, because when I started thinking about the story [for Let The Right One In] I wasn’t even sure that the ‘monster’, so to speak, was going to be a vampire, I just knew that something terrible from the other side would come to Blackeberg [the Stockholm suburb where Lindqvist grew up]. It was only when I realized, when I started writing the story, that the main character Oskar would befriend or even fall in love with this monster that I realized that this couldn’t be a werewolf or a blob from outer space or anything-a vampire was the best choice! And then I started to think very hard on how I was going to portray this vampire and what this was going to be, because I’m not a vampire kinda guy!”
Phoebe Kendall is just your typical Goth girl with a crush. He’s strong and silent—and dead. All over the country, a strange phenomenon is occurring. Some teenagers who die aren’t staying dead.
When they come back to life, they are no longer the same. Feared and misunderstood, they are doing their best to blend into a society that doesn’t want them. The administration at Oakvale High attempts to be more welcoming of the “differently biotic.”
But the students don’t want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn’t breathing. And there are no laws that exist to protect the “living impaired” from the people who want them to disappear—for good.
The author told Helen’s Book Blog that he thinks a good zombie book includes plot, character, theme, setting—and at least one zombie:
“I like zombie books of all types. My favorite zombie books—my favorite books, in general—tend to be those that have an element of social commentary (like The Stepford Wives) at their core. Books that provide food for thought, in other words. You know. Braaaaaaaiinnnsss.
“The initial idea for Generation Dead came from some news magazine show I’d seen on violence in schools. According to the program, it was becoming all the rage in schools across America to video tape planned fights or random acts of violence and put them up on YouTube for the entire world to enjoy. The story came out of me being very, very disturbed by the segment.”
When rural Ohio college professor Peter Mellor dies in an automobile accident during a zombie outbreak, he is reborn as a highly intelligent (yet somewhat amnesiac) member of the living dead. With society crumbling around him and violence escalating into daily life, Peter quickly learns that being a zombie isn’t all fun and brains.
Humans—unsympathetic, generally, to his new proclivities—try to kill him at nearly every opportunity. His old friends are loath to associate with him. And he finds himself inconveniently addicted to the gooey stuff inside of people’s heads.
As if all this weren’t bad enough, Peter soon learns that his automobile accident was no accident at all. Faced with the harrowing mystery of his death, Peter resolves to use his strange zombie “afterlife” to solve his own murder.
Skillfully combining the genres of horror, humor, and film noir, Zombie, Ohio weaves an enthralling and innovative tale that any fan of the current zombie craze is sure to relish. Followers of detective and horror fiction alike will find something to love about Zombie, Ohio—a tale of murder, mystery, and the walking dead.
In an interview with The Girl Who Loves Horror, Kenemore explained his obsession with zombies:
“Zombies have always been my favorite monster because they seem the most pragmatic. The least pretentious. Blue-collar. Dead bones and ligaments come back to life, ravenous. And—that’s it. Full stop.
In a zombie story, there aren’t going to be long, handwritten invitations on delicate uterine vellum to exotic, crumbling castles deep in the Carpathian Mountains. Zombies are impersonal and universal. Teeth-gnashing death is suddenly going to be everywhere, and it’s going to impact everyone. That’s a different sort of feel entirely.
“In a way, I think, one could make the case that zombies can bring us the closest to cosmic horror of any traditional monster, because, in a zombie story, it’s not just about creating a fear that a monster might hurt one, particularly likable protagonist. Rather, the presence of zombies (usually) posits an entirely new reality that can be scary in all kinds of ways. (And that scariness arises apart from whether or not the protagonist is particularly endearing or charming.)”
35 Aftertime by Sophie Littlefield
THE WORLD’S GONE. WORSE, SO IS HER DAUGHTER.
First in the dystopian Aftertime series: Awakening in a bleak landscape, Cass Dollar vaguely recalls enduring something terrible. Having no idea how many days—or weeks—have passed, she slowly realizes the horrifying truth: her daughter, Ruthie, has vanished. And with her, nearly all of civilization. Instead of winding through the once-lush hills, the roads today see only cannibalistic Beaters—people turned hungry for human flesh by a government experiment gone wrong.
In a broken, barren California, Cass will undergo a harrowing quest to get Ruthie back. Few people trust an outsider—much less one who bears the telltale scars of a Beater attack—but she finds safety with an enigmatic outlaw, Smoke. And she'll need him more than ever when his ragged band of survivors learn that she and Ruthie have become the most feared, and desired, weapons in a brave new world….
Publishers Weekly remarked that Littlefield turned what could be “just another zombie apocalypse” into a “thoughtful and entertaining exploration of many themes, including genetic engineering, social collapse, and motherhood.”
Aftertime Series
36 Alice in Zombieland (The White Rabbit Chronicles #1) by Gena Showalter
A modern-day Alice in Wonderland meets the undead: The White Rabbit Chronicles introduces readers to a world newly overrun by zombies—and the one girl who may be able to save mankind.
The series author, Gena Showalter, told The Reading Cafe that her series The White Rabbit Chronicles features a teen girl who loses her entire family in a car crash only to wake up to a world of zombies and zombie slaying—and a bad boy who will either save her or ruin her. “There are shades of Lewis Carroll’s beloved Alice in Wonderland, and I have a new take on zombie mythology,” Showalter said. “Put it this way: they aren’t what you think (lol).”
The book that kicks off the series is Alice in Zombieland:
She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. But that''s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.
Her father was right. The monsters are real.
To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn''t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies.
The review of Alice in Zombieland in Publishers Weekly said that the book balances “graphic zombie fighting and complicated romantic relationships.” They said that the result is “a zippy story with crossover appeal that highlights the power of guilt, faith, and self-confidence.”
37 The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor by Jay Bonansinga and Robert Kirkman
The first book in the series of novels set in the world of the comic book series co-created by Robert Kirkman, Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor won the 2011 Diamond Gem Award for Trade Book of the Year.
In the Walking Dead universe, there is no greater villain than The Governor. The despot who runs the walled-off town of Woodbury, he has his own sick sense of justice: whether it’s forcing prisoners to battle zombies in an arena for the townspeople’s amusement, or chopping off the appendages of those who cross him.
The Governor was voted “Villain of the Year” by Wizard magazine the year he debuted, and his story arc was the most controversial in the history of the Walking Dead comic book series. Now, for the first time, fans of The Walking Dead will discover how The Governor became the man he is, and what drove him to such extremes.
Novelist Jay Bonansinga told That Videogame Blog that part of what led to him writing the Walking Dead novels is that he has been writing about monsters and plagues and disasters all his life:
“I even worked with the Grand Master of all zombie stories, George Romero, in 1993. With my background in horror, it was a natural step to throw my hat in the ring as Kirkman’s house novelist. Thank God he hired me. Bless his huge, Kentucky-bred, blood engorged heart!!!”
Find the Walking Dead novels on Amazon
38 Ashes (The Ashes Trilogy Book 1) by Ilsa J. Bick
Ilsa J. Bick is an award-winning, bestselling author of short stories, ebooks, and novels. She has written for several long-running science fiction series, including Star Trek, Battletech, and Mechwarrior: Dark Age. Her YA works include the critically acclaimed Draw the Dark, Drowning Instinct, and The Sin-Eater’s Confession. Her first Star Trek novel, Well of Souls, was a 2003 Barnes and Noble bestseller. Her original stories have been featured in anthologies, magazines, and online venues.
In Ashes, the beginning of the Ashes Trilogy:
An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions. When it happens, Alex was hiking in the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP. For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it's now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.
Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.
Find the Ashes trilogy on Amazon
Bick talked to Random Acts of Reading about what inspired her to write about the apocalypse:
“I’ve lived through some scary times, including the nuclear arms race, but the apocalypse seems much more real to me now. In part, I’m sure that’s my reaction to 9/11, but I am and always have been very nervous when it comes to environmental issues—and I gotta say, climate change is terrifying. Mass extinctions are happening. Environmental degradation is real. Resources will just become more scarce, and water is the next huge issue. People don’t realize how much time we don’t have to fool around while the ecosystem goes to hell.
“But if I were only about doom and gloom, then I wouldn’t have bothered with this book or subgenre. Honestly, adults can get so mopey and, yes, things are bad, but one of the things I love about YA is how redemptive it is. These kids are in crummy situations, ones their society or parents created, and what these books are about is changing the world and making it better. We desperately need that kind of energy and optimism. We need teens and young adults to realize that they’re the game-changers here. The adults had their shot. Time for a change, if you ask me.”
Related link: 70+ Zombie Book Series
39 Zombie Fallout by Mark Tufo
The Zombie Fallout series features everyman hero Mike Talbot. Tufo’s books are generally written in a first person narrative style and cross into several genres including horror, science fiction, and comedy. All his books make some reference to the recurring semi-autobiographical character Michael Talbot and usually include some interesting insights into the real history of this unique author.
In an interview, Tufo shared what made zombies so interesting to write about:
“I think that zombies strike a chord deep in the human psyche. Of all the fictional monsters one could encounter this ranks as one of the worst, mostly because of the wide scale apocalyptic destruction they wreak. Vampires, werewolves and insert monster here are scary in their own right but they are usually only relegated to towns cut off from the rest of society for whatever reason. Zombies are everywhere, there is no safe haven, fighting zombies is a continual test for survival, and I enjoy that frenetic pace that this entails while writing.”
In Zombie Fallout, the first book in this series:
It was a flu season like no other. With the H1N1 virus running rampant throughout the country, people lined up in droves to try and attain one of the coveted vaccines. What was not known was the effect this largely untested, rushed to market, inoculation was to have on the unsuspecting throngs.
Within days, feverish folk throughout the country convulsed, collapsed, and died, only to be reborn. With a taste for brains, blood, and bodies, these modern-day zombies scoured the lands for their next meal. Overnight the country became a killing ground for the hordes of zombies that ravaged the land.
This is the story of Michael Talbot, his family, and his friends: a band of ordinary people trying to get by in extraordinary times. When disaster strikes, Mike, a self-proclaimed survivalist, does his best to ensure the safety and security of those he cares for.
Book one of the Zombie Fallout series follows our lead character at his self-deprecating, sarcastic best. What he encounters along the way leads him down a long dark road, always skirting the edge of insanity. Can he keep his family safe? Can he discover the secret behind Tommy’s powers? Can he save anyone from the zombie queen?
Encircled in a seemingly safe haven called Little Turtle, Mike and his family, together with the remnants of a tattered community, must fight against a relentless, ruthless, unstoppable force. This last bastion of civilization has made its final stand. God help them all.
40 Seeds of the Dead by Andy Kumpon and Gary Malick
A zombie comedy set against an apocalypse in small-town America, Seeds of the Dead is a thrilling mix of survival horror, dark humor, along with loads of action and suspense.
When his evil superiors create a new strain of genetically modified food (GMO) that transforms ordinary people into ravenous, bloodthirsty zombies, a disillusioned scientist turns whistle-blower and becomes their next target....
Seeds Of The Dead is a story about a man at the crossroads, one which will, in turn, jeopardize the very fate of humankind. On one hand, this man supports the creation of GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) to help feed the vast population of the world. But to do so, he must align himself with a nefarious corporation and the corrupt elitists who control it.
Meet Peter Malik, a promising young scientist employed by the dubious Moonstar Foods INC. When Peter learns the treachery his corporation is set to unleash upon the unsuspecting masses, he threatens to expose their dark secret by turning whistleblower. The corporation retaliates, contaminating Peter’s hometown with infected food, and turns the people Peter loves most into flesh-eating zombies.
Can Peter save his hometown, his parents, and the woman he adores, plus warn the entire planet of the impending doom?
In an interview, author Kumpon told Monster Complex that his unique spin to the zombie game is his Genetically Modified Zombies or GMZ:
“I’ve applied the GMO/Monsanto angle as the antagonistic villains and the origin of the zombie virus through food, and I’m using the scientist as the whistleblower protagonist. As far I know, though I could be mistaken, that particular twist has never been used.
“And the zombies, well, they are not your typical undead creepozoids. They have certain biological constructs after mutation and reanimation that make them distinct from other popular zombie fiction on the market today. At least divergent enough to maybe make some zombie fans appreciate that at least we tried to do something different.”
41 Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall
Journey to the final frontier of sci-fi zombie horror in Night of the Living Trekkies, which merges Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek fan culture with George A. Romero’s zombie fan culture.
Jim Pike was the world’s biggest Star Trek fan—until two tours of duty in Afghanistan destroyed his faith in the human race. Now he sleepwalks through life as the assistant manager of a small hotel in downtown Houston.
But when hundreds of Trekkies arrive in his lobby for a science-fiction convention, Jim finds himself surrounded by costumed Klingons, Vulcans, and Ferengi—plus a strange virus that transforms its carriers into savage, flesh-eating zombies!
As bloody corpses stumble to life and the planet teeters on the brink of total apocalypse, Jim must deliver a ragtag crew of fanboys and fangirls to safety. Dressed in homemade uniforms and armed with prop phasers, their prime directive is to survive. But how long can they last in the ultimate no-win scenario?
Night of the Living Trekkies co-author Kevin David Anderson told Los Angeles Times how watching the documentary Trekkies inspired him:
“I was really just trying to come up with some original idea for a zombie novel, and I saw these people—and I’m a Star Trek fan, too—and I saw how passionate they are and how organized they were. I could see people looking at them and cracking jokes and really not seeing that. But in the right situation, that being a zombie apocalypse, these people could be the heroes, and that’s where the idea came from—melding the Roddenberry world and the Romero world.”
Find Night of the Living Trekkies on Amazon
Related link: Night of the Living Trekkies—merging Roddenberry’s culture with Romero’s
42 Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson
Veronica Mars meets The Craft when a teen girl investigates the suspicious deaths of three classmates and accidentally ends up bringing them back to life to form a hilariously unlikely—and unwilling—vigilante girl gang.
Meet teenage Wiccan Mila Flores, who truly could not care less what you think about her Doc Martens, her attitude, or her weight because she knows that, no matter what, her BFF Riley is right by her side.
So when Riley and Fairmont Academy mean girls June Phelan-Park and Dayton Nesseth die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone’s explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.
Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders. But they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer...before the killer strikes again.
Reviews:
“A fun, fast read...it will resonate with readers who dabble in any sort of arts, dark or otherwise.” (NPR)
“With a singular and hilariously cutting teen voice, UNDEAD GIRL GANG is sure to be one of the most talked-about YA novels of the year.” (BookPage)
SLJ’s Teen Librarian Toolbox asked Anderson whether her mythology of the undead was based on any particular mythology:
“More than anything else, the rules for the undead in UGG were inspired by my lifelong obsession with the movie Death Becomes Her. In it, Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn take a magical potion that makes them young and beautiful and immortal—as long as they can take care of themselves. The movie is full of comical body horror that even I—a straight up fraidy cat—could handle and I’ve always wondered how to translate that into fiction.
“So, like Meryl and Goldie, our girl gang has to be careful because they don’t heal. They are walking corpses being held up by Mila’s spell, so they’re in better shape nearer to their lifeforce than away from it. And since they’re only back in the land of the living for seven days, they start to show some physical wear as their time counts down.”
43 Autumn (Autumn series #1) by David Moody
Not your traditional gore-filled zombie tale, horror author David Moody’s dark and riveting Autumn series follows the survivors of a world torn apart by a deadly disease that has eliminated 99 percent of the population. Due to an unknown contagion termed “phase two,” the dead are beginning to rise with an aggressive instinct for violence and destruction.
In the series’ first book: A bastard hybrid of War of the Worlds and Night of the Living Dead, Autumn chronicles the struggle of a small group of survivors forced to contend with a world torn apart by a deadly disease. After 99% of the population of the planet is killed in less than 24 hours, for the very few who have managed to stay alive, things are about to get much worse.
Animated by "phase two" of some unknown contagion, the dead begin to rise. At first slow, blind, dumb and lumbering, quickly the bodies regain their most basic senses and abilities... sight, hearing, locomotion... As well as the instinct toward aggression and violence.
Held back only by the restraints of their rapidly decomposing flesh, the dead seem to have only one single goal - to lumber forth and destroy the sole remaining attraction in the silent, lifeless world: those who have survived the plague, who now find themselves outnumbered 1,000,000 to 1...
Without ever using the “Z” word, Autumn offers a new perspective on the traditional zombie story. There’s no flesh eating, no fast-moving corpses, no gore for gore’s sake. Combining the atmosphere and tone of George Romero’s classic living dead films with the attitude and awareness of 28 Days (and Weeks) later, this horrifying and suspenseful novel is filled with relentless cold, dark fear.
According to Bram Stoker Award-winning author Jonathan Maberry, “With Autumn, David Moody paints a picture of a marvelously bleak dystopian future where the world belongs to the hungry dead. It’s the creepy start to a compelling series.”
In an interview, Moody shared some of the influences behind his own stories:
“I’m a big horror fan, though I think the label ‘horror’ is often misleading and conjures up a lot of pre-conceptions. Horror can arise in absolutely any situation, and I think that’s part of the appeal. You’re not restricted by locations or situations. My biggest literary influences are John Wyndham, Richard Matheson, HG Wells and James Herbert, and whilst I can’t claim to be the world’s biggest Stephen King fan (that’s not to say I don’t enjoy his books—I just haven’t read enough), his approach to the business of writing is inspirational. Film-wise, I’m quite old school. George A. Romero, John Carpenter and David Cronenberg.”
44 Hollow Kingdom (Book #1 of Hollow Kingdom series) by Kira Jane Buxton
A foul-mouthed crow is humanity’s only chance to survive Seattle’s zombie problem.
S.T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle’s wild crows (i.e. “those idiots”), and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos.
But when Big Jim’s eyeball falls out of his head, S.T. starts to think something’s not quite right. His tried-and-true remedies—from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of Big Jim's loyal but dim-witted dog, Dennis—fail to cure Big Jim’s debilitating malady.
S.T. is left with no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a wild and frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis, where he suddenly discovers that the neighbors are devouring one other. Local wildlife is abuzz with rumors of Seattle’s dangerous new predators.
Humanity’s extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a cowardly crow whose only knowledge of the world comes from TV.
What could possibly go wrong?
Buxton talked to Chicago Review of Books about how her research behind Hollow Kingdom affected how she approached the story:
“When I first had the idea for the series, I remember thinking, oh my, the research for this is going to be very depressing and dark. That was part of the impetus for writing from the perspective of a funny, sarcastic crow — it allowed me to delve into this fairly bleak territory without losing hope.
“But, turns out, as I did the research, I wasn’t depressed at all. I was fascinated researching how fast the weeds would grow back, how long it would take for this type of forest to gain traction or how many months or years it would take for buildings to decay. It actually doesn’t take long—we do a lot of work to maintain our infrastructure.
“It’s like we are at war with nature, fighting it back and taming the wild. The research really made me double down on extolling the virtues of nature as a magnificent force and our imperative need to figure out how to live harmoniously with it. We can’t fight it because we are part of it.”
45 Everything I Know About Zombies, I Learned In Kindergarten by Kevin Wayne Williams
2014 IndieFab Award winner for Multicultural Adult Fiction. Reminiscent of “The Walking Dead” and “Lord of the Flies,” this is a horror novel for adults.
When the apocalypse strikes, nine-year-old Letitia Johnson gathers her five-year-old sister and her sister’s classmates and hides them all in a school bathroom. Five days later, after hunger finally drives the small group out of hiding, Letitia finds herself in an evacuated Bronx, desperately improvising a strategy for survival.
Distrustful of the small groups of heavily-armed adults that remained behind, Letitia is forced into a sudden, awkward, and clumsy adulthood as she tries to keep twelve kindergarteners together and alive, learning and teaching the new skills they need as she goes.
Letitia’s toolkit for this adulthood is sparse: vague and contradictory statements from a series of foster parents, poorly understood religious lessons from televangelists, and survival skills gleaned from television shows. When Letitia finally turns to one group of adults for help, she finds that they aren't even doing as well as she is.
Williams told Phoenix New Times about why The Walking Dead was not the inspiration you would have expected:
Despite the first season of the show being set in Georgia, a large majority of the cast was white -- something Williams knew was wrong based on his experience in the state.
“You couldn’t build that white of a group of people as they have on The Walking Dead if you tried,” Williams says.
So Williams knew he wanted to write a book about zombies, and he knew he wanted his main character to be black. But he also knew there was another group of people misrepresented in AMC’s hit: children.
46 Wanted: Dead Or Undead (The Zombie West Series #1) by Angela Scott
WINNER of The Kindle Book Review Best Indie Book of 2012 - Young Adult and League of Utah Writers Golden Quill Award 2012
Trace Monroe doesn’t believe in luck. He never has. But when a fiery-headed cowgirl saunters through the saloon doors, wielding shotguns and a know-how for killing the living dead, he believes he just may be the luckiest man alive.
Trace wants to join Red’s posse, but she prefers to work alone—less messy that way. In order to become her travelling companion, Trace has to agree to her terms: no names, no questions, and if he gets bit, he can’t beg for mercy when she severs his brain stem.
He agrees, knowing only that Red is the sharpest shooter he’s ever encountered. The fact she’s stunning hasn’t escaped his attention either.
What he doesn’t know, is that Red has a very good reason to be on top of her game. She not only has the answer for how they can all outlive the plague taking over the wild, wild west, she IS the answer…
47 Zombie Seed by P.M. Barnes
Poet-turned-fiction writer P.M. Barnes owns a “ridiculously large” library of horror films—and believes that the more obscure the film is, the better. In her post-apocalyptic Zombie Seed, the world has changed—but there are just some things Claire can’t let go of. Haunted by the past and visions of carnage, she tries to make sense of the current landscape. This proves to be harder than expected with the addition of new challenges and new love.
Ms. Barnes talked to Horror Books about her love for the zombie genre:
“I am a huge z-poc and post-apoc fan. I feel like as a writer, the love of a genre generally means that you are always thinking about ways to improve it or bring in some new elements. It’s part of not being able to turn it off.
“I would often be reading these really great books and thinking about twists I wished they would take. When I set out to start my own series, Zombie Seed, I actually made a list of all the things I really wanted to read about in the genre and also, all the clichés and things I felt were really played out.
“In addition to that, I am a student of human psychology and I feel that we see a more clearly represented human experience in times of adversity.
“What drives people to still find z poc and post apoc stories interesting, is because they maintain their relevancy and may have even increased over the last few decades.
“As we consistently are reminded of how tenuous our hold is on the current arrangement of society, our fear of what will happen when it all falls down grows.
“The end of the world is our favorite concept to play with. We recognize the inevitability and our powerlessness against it.”
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Interview with PM Barnes the author of Zombie Seed - Horror Books
48 The Un-United States of Z by V.H. Galloway
Science Fiction & Fantasy novelist Veronica Henry wrote The Un-United States of Z Trilogy—including the novellas The Un-United States of Z, The Rotting Road, and The Refugee Prophet—under the pan name of V.H. Galloway. In the first installment, Dr. Zen Marley is torn between two conflicting realities: his buried southern roots and his preppy west coast professor persona. He must travel home to face the reality of his mother's failing mental health. But he finds an aberration—a monstrous imposter wearing the rotted shell of his mother’s skin. In a twisted case of self-defense, he kills her, but not before he is also infected. His humanity eroding, Zen sets off on cross-country quest through a racially divided America to rescue his sister, find a cure, and stop the advance of the sentient flesh-eating army led by his highly intelligent, but psychotic former student.
The author shared on Goodreads how she took on the zombie problem as a dare:
“I received a challenge. After watching a zombie movie where I was wholly unimpressed with the zombies, the challenge was ‘Well, how would you do it differently?’ I’ve never written horror, but that challenge was one that I felt I could embrace.”
Veronica’s debut novel, Bacchanal, will be published Spring of 2021.
Survive the infection! Survive the Infected!
A new flu strain has been spreading across Africa, Europe, and Asia. Disturbing news footage is flooding the cable news channels. People are worried and frightened.
But Zed Zane is oblivious. He needs to borrow rent money from his parents. He gets up Sunday morning, drinks enough tequila to stifle his pride and heads to his mom’s house for a lunch of begging, again.
But something is wrong. There’s blood in the foyer. His mother’s corpse is on the living room floor. Zed’s stepdad, Dan is wild with crazy-eyed violence and attacks Zed when he comes into the house. They struggle into the kitchen. Dan’s yellow teeth tear at Zed’s arm but he grabs a knife and stabs Dan, 37 times, or so the police later say.
With infection burning in his blood, Zed is arrested for murder but the world is falling apart and he soon finds himself back on the street, fighting for his life among the infected who would kill him and the normal people, who fear him.
“A great thriller,” remarked NerdMuch. “The series is well-written, and this first book gets the action started right away and keeps the pace throughout—it’s tough to put down.”
50 I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
This 1954 post-apocalyptic horror novel influenced a whole generation of zombie and vampire authors—as well as injecting into pop culture the concept of a disease that brings a global apocalypse. The novel was an inspiration for George A. Romero’s watershed film Night of the Living Dead (1968).
It’s been adapted for the screen three times: in 1964 as The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price; in 1971 as The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston; and in 2007 as I Am Legend, starring Will Smith.
Robert Neville may well be the last living man on Earth—but he is not alone. An incurable plague has mutated every other man, woman, and child into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures who are determined to destroy him. By day, he is a hunter, stalking the infected monstrosities through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn…
“I think that ascribing metaphors to a book after it is written is silly. I don’t think the book means anything more than it is: the story of a man trying to survive in a world of vampires. If people want to assume it later, that's up to them. It has been said that a writer is entitled to an interpretation of his work that people choose to give it.” (SOURCE: I Am Legend Archive)
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