The New Dead tries to play around a bit with the very idea of the zombie story, experimenting with both the concept of a zombie (such as in “Copper” by Stephen R. Bissette) and the story form itself (“Twittering from the Circus of the Dead” by Joe Hill, which is told in Twitter form). Sadly, outside of the contributions by the powerhouses of the zombie genre many of the stories fall flat.

Brian Keene, Max Brooks and Jonathan Maberry all deliver strong stories, as does Kelley Armstrong (who successfully brings a magical twist to the typical zombie tale). The good stories are quite good, but the rest are mediocre, though not necessarily the typical expected tales of a zombie apocalypse, making this an inconsistent collection. Avid zombie readers will find tales to enjoy here, but collections aimed at more general audiences will find other anthologies suit their needs better.

Contains: violence, language, gore
Reviewed by: Michele Lee