Oops!: Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse

by Andy Zach

Accidents happen. Especially around zombie turkeys. Then you add zombie humans, and problems proliferate. Mix in some ill-planned genetic engineering, and things get crazy.The insanity continues, from the story where zombies are merged with cucumbers to the one where two basement-dwelling nerds gain access to all video content from the past two hundred years—from aliens.Andy Zach pulls out all the stops on his imagination as he serves up this smorgasbord of silliness. Try it. Laughter is good for your soul.

209 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 2, 2020

About the author

Andy Zach was born Anastasius Zacharias, in Greece. His parents were both zombies. Growing up, he loved animals of all kinds. After moving to the United States as a child, in high school, he won a science fair by bringing toads back from suspended animation. Before turning to fiction, Andy published his Ph.D. thesis "Methods of Revivification for Various Species of the Kingdom Animalia" in the prestigious JAPM, Journal of Paranormal Medicine. Andy, in addition to being the foremost expert on paranormal animals, enjoys breeding phoenixes. He lives in Illinois with his five phoenixes.

Having conquered paranormal animal humor in his first series, Andy Zach launches into middle school superhero genre with Secret Supers. Four disabled seventh graders all get superpowers. Who knew a disability could be so useful for hiding a superpower? But the four friends, Jeremy, Dan, Kayla, and Aubrey confront problems that can't be solved by superpowers.

Andy follows up the first book with an exciting sequel, Villain's Vacation, set in a coaster park where the Secret Supers fight their archnemesis who's out for revenge.

With his first book, "Zombie Turkeys" Andy blazed new ground in paranormal humor. The second book in his Life After Life Chronicles,

In the sequel, 'Zombie Detective', zombie reporter, Sam Melvin gets fired by his wife Lisa because their paper is barely making money. He tries working as a private detective--specializing in zombies, animal and human.

His third book, "My Undead Mother-in-law" expands the zombie plague from turkeys to humans, with hilarious results. You can find both volumes on Amazon Kindle, Createspace print, and Audible audiobook editions.

Not content to keep in zombies earthbound, Andy puts them afloat in his fourth book, "Paranormal Privateers". Just when you thought every funny zombie trope had been explored, new humorous horizons open up. You can get "Paranormal Privateers" in Kindle and print formats. The audiobook is available now on Audible.

Finally, last but not least is Andy Zach's short story collection, where he collaborates with other writers filling in details about his unique zombie alternate history.

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Reviews

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

can I have some more sir? This book is so good!

A Phoenix that cannot be tranquilized pickles injected with turkey DNA, a hamster that can read… This is just three of the great stories you get in this book. It makes me wonder what does Andy Zak think while sitting around at his house he must have a vivid, vivid imagination! I’m just glad he shares his madness with the world. I do want to say I didn’t read the last three stories because it said they were spoilers for his superhero books that I plan on reading next but I absolutely love the author six or seven stories in this anthology and highly recommend them. Once again the narration was great the stories were entertaining and they had lots of LOL moments! I thoroughly enjoyed this authors books and cannot get enough. I do want to say the talking mouse story is a spoiler for the superhero books so when I say the last three stories or spoilers I mean the absolute last three in the anthology. The rest or safe to read unless you’ve already read the superhero books. Please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read! As always, really well written, so well that you are completely absorbed in this mad world! I love this writers stories & I do strongly recommend if you are looking for a chuckle!

[Wesley Britton · Rating 4 out of 5]

You'd think after three oddball novels, Zombie Turkeys (How an Unknown Blogger Fought Unkillable Turkeys), My Undead Mother-In-Law (The Family Zombie with Anger Management Issues), and Paranormal Privateers, that Andy Zach would have exhausted all the comic possibilities in his world of killer zombie turkeys and superhero zombie humans.

You'd be wrong. How about flying zombie pickles? Zombie zucchini? Zombie caterpillars? (How can you tell a zombie caterpillar from a normal one? Andy Zach can tell you.)

How about being injected with zombie blood which can cure any ill, regrow any lost limb, and be quickly cured with a widely available antidote? Who needs insurance with that sort of help? How about organizing a zombie worker union at Amazon when zombies can outperform robots? And suggest the story is based on two real people, Anthony and Ravan Jones who contribute the foreword to the book? Or zombie residents of a nursing home taking over the place?

But all this silliness is just part of what Andy Zach has collected in Oops. He has included other short stories by other authors like "The Story of Sound" by Olivia Smith and his own "A Phoenix Tale" before diving into his zombie world. Then he offers a batch of stories based on his other book series featuring disabled middle-schoolers who become superheroes, the Secret Supers. Oh yea, there are the aliens who first appeared in Paranormal Privateers who are defeated by zombies working for the U.S. Government. The aliens can provide you legal assistance in the form of a sexy avatar who looks exactly like Marilyn Monroe.

If you're getting the impression that one Mr. Andy Zach has a wide and wild imagination, you are on the right track. One obvious audience for his quirky tales is the YA readership, especially for all the contemporary references like video gaming and computer lingo. But even grumpy old sixty-somethings like me can have a lot of fun with Andy's characters, scenarios, and plots. I'm still laughing at the image of migrating flying zombie pickles. Hard to get more original, unique, or surprising than Zach's "Life After Life" series. Have some fun with Andy Zach in 2020!


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Sept. 15, 2020:

https://waa.ai/uCUJ

[eiei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse is a wacky addition to The Life After Life Chronicles. Picking up after the events of Paranormal Privateers, it throws us into a bizarre Thanksgiving-themed apocalypse where undead turkeys are wreaking havoc. The concept is undeniably funny, and Zach's signature humor is on display with some laugh-out-loud moments.

However, the episodic nature of the short stories felt a bit disjointed, and I missed the longer narrative arc of the previous books. The characters, while quirky as ever, didn't have much room to develop within the short format. Additionally, the constant barrage of turkey-related puns, while initially amusing, started to feel a bit repetitive after a while.

Overall, Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse is a silly and light read that might appeal to fans of the series looking for a quick laugh. However, the lack of character development and a cohesive plot might leave some readers wanting more.

[Tori Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book! It is such a great example of Andy Zach's trademark humor as well as being a great page turner. I love it that I can put it down and pick it up again and still be enjoyed.

[Merit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished Andy Zach’s joy ride of a tall tale in his Life After Life chronicles. A delightful romp (with not a little wishful thinking throughout) through our world if…. Thanks again, Mr. Zach. Can’t wait to see what you spin us next. Just curious… what do you feed your phoenixes (phoenixi?) - not sure of the plural.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to start with if you haven’t tried any Andy Zach book before. It contains stories from both his Life After Life zombie comedy series and his superhero story Super Secrets. It also shows you Zach’s sense of humor (plus there’s one little horror story that isn’t overly gruesome). This book is great for both kids and adults and works just fine on it’s own.

I loved the silly story of the flying zombie cucumbers. Ha! Very fanciful. And they have migratory routes, like butterflies! Very silly and had me chuckling. I also loved the story with the hamster (who does play a role in Secret Supers). Perhaps rodents will truly save the world some day.

The stories also help fill in some of the blanks of the zombie comedy series, including one about Diane (the beloved zombie mother-in-law). But what I really liked was the stuff about genetic engineering and the aliens. Book 3 of the Life After Life Chronicles had a lot of stuff tossed into the story and some of these short stories really help fill those parts out.

All around, it’s a fun collection of tales. 5/5 stars.

The Narration: Michael Stafford was a good pick for narrating this anthology. While the Life After Life series and the Secret Supers use different narrators, Stafford was a good inbetween voice. He had unique voices for all the characters and his female voices sounded feminine. I also liked his kid voices for the Secret Supers kids. The pacing was good and there were no tech issues with the recording. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Andy Zach. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I expected, story time at Andy's house must include a recorder to grasp the many directions and characters he delevolopes in each book. This set of several stories are exciting in a novel manner of disbelief overlaid with a tinge of possibility. How many people have tasted a hummingbird zombie zuccini, a superpowered set of disabled kids with a intelligent hamster as co-partner, a phoenix genetic research specialist, all these under one cover? Well, step right up and open page one! Each story includes an ideas from his zombie turkey series and as always a hint of something new to come!This was a free book and I am not connected to anyone involved. I laughed and soaked up the words wanting more.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do like Andy Zach stories, i got to listen to the audiobook that was kindly shared by him, and i did love this book of short stories about the zombie turkey universe, the stories that i enjoyed the most are the ones directly to do with the turkey zombie apocalypse and the ones written by Zack, there are some in the book that weren't… i don't know maybe the author had me spoiled with his humour, i also missed to have a female narrator voice in this book, i swear man, you got me spoiled over the last 2 books that I've heard from you haha.

I did love the first two books a little bit more, because of the female voice, but its a sure way to have fun, some gore and lots of quickness hahah I swear its a great way to spend some time listening to zombie stories way out of the box, I mean, who else will tell you a story of zombie cucumbers?!

Thank you Zach, loved to listen to your book it was lots of fun, thank you for the opportunity.

[S. Policar · Rating 1 out of 5]

The entire first third of this book has absolutely nothing to do with the anthology subject matter. It isn't that the stories are bad; they aren't. They're rough, but have a ton of potential. But I'm the kind of person that if I pick up a book claiming to be an anthology about zombie turkeys, then everything in it should be related to that subject matter. The fact an entire third of this book, and the first third of it to boot, isn't almost feels like false advertising and that's just poor marketing imo.
The stories that did have to do with the zombie Turkey universe were... Lacking. They were incomplete and read more like story ideas than actual stories. Mr. Zach should have definitely just stuck with the humor his zombie turkeys brought.
This book is okay for idle reading, a place holder until you can find something better, but I honestly wouldn't bother with it.

[Khaid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is pure, unapologetic fun. Andy Zach’s imagination runs delightfully wild, delivering one outrageous idea after another—from zombie turkeys and genetically engineered chaos to hilariously absurd sci-fi twists involving aliens and time-spanning media. Each story is clever, unexpected, and laugh-out-loud funny. If you enjoy absurd humor, creative insanity, and stories that don’t take themselves too seriously, this is a fantastic read. Laughter truly is good for the soul—and this book delivers plenty of it.

[Nemesis Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andy Zach, Tori Smith and Olivia Smith continue to create a fun interesting world in the Life After Life Chronicles series. The characters are refreshing, the world continues to build, and the insanity increases. Hilarious and action packed. Audio Version: Michael Stafford does a great job with their respective characters and the overall narration.

[Jan Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Will say up front that I was appreciative of the author sending me this book for free. I feel badly that the story wasn't as funny with the zombie vegetables rather than turkeys, but it was ok. Several stories were from other writers. They were amateurish, as if written by high schoolers. Good on Andy for giving them a place to fill out his book. I probably should have chosen the mother in law book instead. The cover with the glasses is funny, so I have hopes for that book.