Book Review: A Concept That Could Have been Ingenius…But Wasn’t

The Z Word by Lyndsay King-Miller Synopsis

Packed with action, humor, sex, and big gay feelings, The Z Word is the queer Zombieland you didn’t know you needed.

Chaotic bisexual Wendy is trying to find her place in the queer community of San Lazaro, Arizona, after a bad breakup—which is particularly difficult because her ex is hooking up with some of her friends. And when the people around them start turning into violent, terrifying mindless husks, well, that makes things harder. Especially since the infection seems to be spreading.

Now, Wendy and her friends and frenemies—drag queen Logan, silver fox Beau, sword lesbian Aurelia and her wife Sam, mysterious pizza delivery stoner Sunshine, and, oh yeah, Wendy’s ex-girlfriend Leah—have to team up to stay alive, save Pride, and track the zombie outbreak to its shocking source. Hopefully without killing each other first.

The Z Word is a propulsive, funny, emotional horror debut about a found family coming together to fight corporate greed, political corruption, gay drama, and zombies.

Overall Rating

2/5

Spooky Rating

1/5

Quick Take

The Z Word by Lyndsay King-Miller is a book that has such a great concept but is overshadowed with unlikeable characters, lack of ingenuity, and forgettable events. I honestly wish that I would have not finished it. If not for the presence of one well-crafted character, it would have been a one star read.

Tell Me More

Friends… this one was just not it.

Going in, I knew that The Z Word was going to be comedic horror. Even though it’s not usually my jam, I was okay with it due to the LGBTQIA+ focus, which we all know I love. However, what I got instead was a book filled with unlikeable characters, many of whom were caricatures of LGBTQIA+ folx, a generic zombie concept that brought nothing new to this horror niche and unnecessary and misplaced graphic sex scenes.

Wendy is one of the most unlikable characters I’ve read in recent years. She doesn’t seem to own up to a mistake she made that caused her to lose her girlfriend and all of her friends, but complains the entire time about how they left her. The book is heavily focused on sex and filled with more graphic sex scenes than horror scenes, which was deeply disappointing. Sex scenes have their place, such as in erotic horror or a separate genre like dark romance, but the scenes in this book were just filler and detracted from the horror elements, which were few and far between. I honestly barely remember any of the horror elements because they were so overshadowed by the side romances, flings, and hookups that were happening. When it came time to describe the zombies and the “twist” that made the entire apocalypse happen, I just didn’t care anymore.

However, there was one bright light in this novel (the reason I gave this book two stars instead of one), and that was the nonbinary pizza delivery driver: Sunshine. Sunshine shows up a few times, but not nearly enough! They become a wielding zombie fighter/pizza delivery driver and if the author had ditched the entire cast of characters and focused solely on Sunshine and their adventures, it would have been a much more exciting and horrific experience.

Unfortunately, I don’t recommend this one. If not for the LGBTQIA+ focus, it would be completely unremarkable. If you need some go-to recommendations for queer horror, please see Night’s Edge by Liz Kerin, Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle, and Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White.

*Thank you to Quirk Books for the review copy.

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