book data
453 ratings, 3.35 average rating, 68 reviews
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published
February 27th 1997
(first published 1996)
by Penguin Putnam Inc USA
binding
Paperback, 192 pages
literary awards
Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel (1995)
isbn
0451189086
(isbn13: 9780451189080)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 599)
recommends it for:
Jeffrey Dahmer fans
I dunno, it seems like taking the easy option to me - you takes your Jeffrey Dahmer, rearrange a few details, ADD plenty of stuff which wouldn't have got into the papers (lots of DIY drilling, mucking about with the not quite stiff but soon to be, getting in a towering paddy with the dear departed because he departed too quick and refused to be a good zombie, yes, a bit sicky but only point 5 on the American Psycho scale) and write the whole thing like it's Jeffrey's semiliterate journal full of...more
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I HATED this book! It was excellently written and it did what it was supposed to do...it scared the crap out of me. This is a character study of a social deviant. I don't want to spoil this for anyone who reads it, so I won't give away the ending, but definitely not something you read while lying on the beach catching your tan. No escapism here. You come face to face with the evil and cunning of the sociopathic and psychotic mind. Be prepared to bathe in Dettol and then curl up in bed under the ...more
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Read in January, 2004
This is an example of the Joyce Carol Oates I'm not too crazy about. Compared to Them or The Childwold, Zombie seems to lack a sense of time and place, and even character. You feel nothing for any of them, which Easton Ellis pulls off well, but not Oates. This book is loosely based on Jeffrey Dahmer's homemade zombie quest, and there's plenty of gruesomeness involving neighborhood boys, icepicks and duct tape. She gets well inside the mind of a serial killer, but to sensational effect. I was...more
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What was the point of reading this book?! Not being faint hearted I did keep reading to find out what would happen next. Sick, sad and disapointing. I find that most books by Joyce Carol Oates just leave me feeling like I want to wash my hands but this one made me want to scrub my eyes too.
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Macabre take on the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer. The only Oates novel I've made it through (attempted We Were the Mulvaneys, may someday try Expensive People).
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Read in October, 2006
this is a very effective read. effective in a creep-you-out way. the story is cleverly told and eerily plausible.
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Read in October, 2008
I browsed over a page or two of the reviews here and it doesn't seem like anyone else thought this book was humorous. Obviously, the subject matter--a raping and murdering psychopath named Quentin P. who seeks to create a ZOMBIE sex slave by way of performing a lobotomy--is disturbing, and maybe not for the faint of heart, so to speak, but I found myself laughing during parts of it. C'mon, he gets sexually excited and messes his pants while buying his first ice pick. It probably wasn't the inten...more
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Read in June, 2008
I chose this book from the shelf at the BAPL. It was the thinnest of the Joyce Carol Oates Books......and a group of friends are planning a trip to Chautauqua to hear her speak on July 9. I had read of couple of her books years ago and remember that they contained a bit more of the macabre that I was comfortable with...........but nothing could have prepared me for reading this book. This was written as being inside the head of a serial killer.........it scared me to death and was afraid to ...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
no one.
This is a first person account of PQ, a sexual predator, in middle-class white suburbia. While at first his dementia is intriguing, albeit cruel and strange, the story spirals downward to just plain disgusting. There are no redeeming qualities in PQ only a destructive need for self-relief through victimizing young men and ultimately killing them. For a split second one wonders whether this is a result of suppressed homosexuality at it's worst (indeed, homosexuality is brought up several times bu...more
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
People interested in serial killers
So I'm kind of interested in creepy tales of murder (which is why I love Lifetime movies and terrible Oxygen shows like "Snapped")and while this book is a work of fiction, it's still incredibly disturbing and grotesque. Joyce Carol Oates does a fine job creating her main character, a closeted homosexual, who kidnaps young men and boys and attempts to make them into his "zombie" by giving them homemade lobotomies. Interesting and perverse.
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A story about a serial killer, from the uncomfortable position of sitting inside the killer's head.
This is not typical Joyce Carol Oates. The language and sentence structure has been pared down to nearly primal levels. The protagonist is so nonchalant and almost childlike about his atrocious acts.
Somehow, this is a good book without being a book you'd want to own. Or even read more than once.
This is not typical Joyce Carol Oates. The language and sentence structure has been pared down to nearly primal levels. The protagonist is so nonchalant and almost childlike about his atrocious acts.
Somehow, this is a good book without being a book you'd want to own. Or even read more than once.
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
few
Ok I finished this and OH my God, it was quite diesturbing. It did not really end or give any conclusion. IT was really disturbing and I would not reccommend this book at all if you have any qualms about very blunt, right in your face discussions of the homoerroticism of killing someone in the process of making a zombie.
I think I like Oates longer story with more detail and more heart.
I think I like Oates longer story with more detail and more heart.
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Read in January, 2008
She is one of the best Authors in this country, no doubt.
I didn't give this five stars because our psycho-lead is so disgusting and evil that I wanted to put it down each time I picked it up. And at times I wondered why Oates wrote this.
I know evil exists so why why this story?? Then I learned why and knew Oates is way beyond my skills as a writer.
READ THIS
I didn't give this five stars because our psycho-lead is so disgusting and evil that I wanted to put it down each time I picked it up. And at times I wondered why Oates wrote this.
I know evil exists so why why this story?? Then I learned why and knew Oates is way beyond my skills as a writer.
READ THIS
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Read in January, 2007
I have read very few Joyce Carol Oates' books, this one was recommended to me and I liked it. I should read more of her stuff, I will eventually. It is amazing to me how one person can write so many books, and so many good ones and have such a huge fan following ... this book might have bothered some of those fans but she probably doesn't care.
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Read in January, 2001
recommends it for:
morbid people
I must say that Oates has scored again with her ability to shock and terrify. I had to get this book out of my possession once I was through with it! I'm not sure which is more creepy, her words or the little pictures that are found throughout the book. If you found Jeffrey Dahmer interesting, this little book will more than satisfy.
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Twisted story told from the viewpoint of a serial killer. I’ll never look at an ice pick the same way. In fact, I got rid of my ice picks. I did like one Quentin P__ ‘s thoughts: “Time is like a tapeworm jammed inside you in any direction”. This book jammed inside me in any directions and it was a very uncomfortable feeling.
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Read in July, 2008
This is one disturbing little book. Read it in one sitting (it's under 200 pgs) and can't get it out of my head. I really didn't think the dark subject matter would bother me, but chapter 19 just about did me in. Almost put the book down. I did make it through though, kind of riveting in a sick way. Gave me the heebie jeebies.
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Read in October, 2008
I enjoyed that it is set in Michigan and I knew all of the locations the author referred to. It added a little personal touch for me. This book was really odd, never read anything quite like it. I did enjoy it though and I felt bad for the killer. I will be checking out other books by this author.
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Read in December, 2004
I think I read this at a time when I was feeling really misanthropic. For some reason it resonated with me, even though I didn't really like it or think it was particularly good.
Replace Patrick Bateman with Jefrey Dahmer, nix the pop-culture references, swap hookers for rent-boys and viola! Zombie.
Replace Patrick Bateman with Jefrey Dahmer, nix the pop-culture references, swap hookers for rent-boys and viola! Zombie.
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Read in June, 2008
Ok, by this point I've read some raunchy stuff, but this scared the daylights out of me. This is like taking a peep at Jeffrey Dahmer's diary, only this Dahmer doesn't get caught. It's a quick read that is really, really disturbing, but an amazing work of fiction. Oates never disappoints me.
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