Zombies! discussion
What type of horror book would you like to see?
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Hello, Richard!I love zombies a lot, and I've been watching all of the zombie shows and movies I could find out there, and I am currently exploring the literary zombie genre, adding more and more books to my to read list since becoming a member here not long ago.
Personally, I like it when authors do a little something different with the archetypical horror zombie genre, like combining it with other genres and approaches (historical fiction, biography/memoir style, fantasy, cosmic horror/weird fiction, non-fiction/theoretical approcah, introspective/psychological, science fiction etc.) or when they make non-typical zombies (fungal, conscious, alien). Not to mention adding other types of horror creatures to the story world as well, like vampires, witches, ghosts, monsters and the like. The story could also be less action paced too, and a with heavy/deep character focus. Even pre-apocalyptic settings can be more interesting than post-apocalyptic. I enjoy an essentially classic zombie novel too, but the execution needs to stand out in some way, in theme, style or setting.
Thanks for the great feedback. Very interesting takes on the well-worn genre.
I don’t care where the zombies came from and I generally like the old fashioned Walking Dead stumblers. My favorite parts are always the outbreak period where nobody knows what’s happening yet. Obviously I’m a big fan of WWZ which was basically perfect. I need enough character development that I care about the people and have someone to root for and someone to break my heart (T-Dog on the Walking Dead 😢) I like buddy stories too I guess now that I think about it. You can slip a little humor in like Daryl and Carol or Mike and BT (Tufo’s Fallout series.)Also, no harems. For the love of god no romance story subplot and no sex scenes. I don’t need women characters jammed in if they don’t fit but if you’re going to have them please let them do something besides scream “my children!!!” and have sex for food.
I don’t care about the gore. I can take it or eat it… er I mean leave it.
Also please please please no politics. I’m trying to go to a fantasy world not merge zombies and twitter.
Some of the best stories I’ve read lately were actually animal stories. I LOVED Tufo’s Book of Riley series and I recently listened to a little short audiobook called Good Boy by Thomas R. Clark and it just ripped my guts out! And not in the good way! It was devastating but I loved it and haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
All that said, I’ll try anything especially if it’s on audiobook. I have more time to listen these days than to actually read.
I like zombie books where the living or survivors are not all idiots or absolutely evil. Very sick of non stop zombie attack, human attack, zombie attack, evil human had a cult books. They now remind me of harlequin romances - “formula” zombies.
I like human development and ingenuity. I know there are bad people in the world but in many novels it seems like all the good guys are gone except for the main characters
I have been in catastrophesites and helped rebuild, in my opinion most people are not evil.
Teresa wrote: "I like zombie books where the living or survivors are not all idiots or absolutely evil. Very sick of non stop zombie attack, human attack, zombie attack, evil human had a cult books. They now re..."
Sounds like The Walking Dead where you've got the Governer & Neagan and all good people are gone except for Rick. I liked the feeling of the 1st season when you had seemingly normal people figuring how to survive and how to potentially rebuild society.
Thia wrote: "I don’t care where the zombies came from and I generally like the old fashioned Walking Dead stumblers. My favorite parts are always the outbreak period where nobody knows what’s happening yet. Obv..."I agree! The beginning of a zombie apocalypse is so thrilling! And I agree as well with the romance thing. I tend to dislike that, especially if it feels forced, which it often does.
But I love gore, though, so keep that sidedish on the menu, please!
Teresa wrote: "I like zombie books where the living or survivors are not all idiots or absolutely evil. Very sick of non stop zombie attack, human attack, zombie attack, evil human had a cult books. They now re..."
That's a good point. I have been wondering the same thing. It would seem like most people just lose their sense of heart and reason and become evil just for the sake of it. I guess you can blame the old basic principle of storytelling: conflict. It's hard to be creative when it comes to that part. Sometimes they just put some bad guys in and call it a day.
I much prefer that the bad guys have depth and nuance, and that it's not so obvious who's good or bad. I guess that's because I feel like most people are somewhere in between, although I appreciate that circumstances can change you in many different ways.
Teresa wrote: "I like zombie books where the living or survivors are not all idiots or absolutely evil. Very sick of non stop zombie attack, human attack, zombie attack, evil human had a cult books. They now re..."
No more CULTS!! I’m with you. I don’t even need a human villain. I always get bored with series when they switch to the “but the most dangerous part of this post apocalyptic world is… other people!” Oh leave me alone. It’s the flesh rending ZOMBIES!! And also probably just daily life and scrounging up food etc ;)
Nicolai Alexander wrote: "But I love gore, though, so keep that sidedish on the menu, please! ”Very funny :)
As an indie-author in the horror / zombie genres, I'm always interested to know what readers love the most. I know what I like, but what kind of book would you like to see?
Lots of gore? Heavy or light character development (are deep characters important to you)? What type of setting (city or rural)? These type of questions.
I already gather inspiration from movies, TV shows, books (e.g. Walking Dead, George Romero, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, assorted other works of horror / zombies) so there's always enough crap floating in my head to produce more books. But I'd love to get some first-hand feedback from GR readers on what they love and what they'd love to read more of.
Who knows, I may even incorporate some of these things into future books !