Jayson’s Reviews > Handling the Undead > Status Update

Notes:
(1) The end of this turned out to be a real oddity hodgepodge.
- I mean, if this is meant to be grounded in stone-cold realism—as nearly all of it was—then why do a hard turn into full-on fantasy at the end?
(2) Bottom line: this novel is only really defined by what it isn't, or rather doesn't want to be.
- It tries so hard not to be a conventional zombie story that it ends up being unrecognizable as anything.

Notes:
(1) Having witnessed violence by the undead, albeit relatively mild, we now have violence perpetrated against the undead.
- This violence doesn't seem retaliatory: simply hooliganism emboldened by the idea these aren't dangerous movie zombies, but helpless abominations ripe for "Resident Evil" LARPing.
- Apparently, they never thought the dead might fight back in self-defense to preserve what "life" they have.

Notes:
(1) At this point in the book, the undead (or "reliving"), are starting to demonstrate violent tendencies.
- This starts with the destruction of a toy car and reaches its apogee (at least so far) with the bloody decapitation of a pet rabbit.
- I understand this is meant to be alarming, but it's still nowhere near brain-hungry zombie level.
- More so like the mentally disabled who don't know their own strength.

Notes:
(1) Telepathy plays a fairly significant role in the story: two characters, Elvy and Flora, exhibit psychic prowess long before the big re-enlivening, which is an ability extending to anyone in the vicinity of the undead.
- Supposing it's all related, at minimum it means supernatural energy's always been floating around in the ether. More intriguingly, Elvy and Flora may have played a part in raising the dead.

Notes:
(1) While I understand the concept—as a true-to-life speculation about how an emotionally-restrained Swedish populace and punctilious Swedish government would handle the dead reanimating—it doesn't make for very exciting reading.
- Albeit Swedes, people getting extremely emotional—also taking comfort in religion, alcohol, etc.—should not be seen as extraordinary. Yet this is the driving force of the narrative.

Notes:
(1) Halfway in and the three family storylines are starting to crossover.
- David read Mahler's newspaper article and wants to talk with him.
- Flora realizes Eva authored a favorite children's book of hers and cries.
(2) People correcting others about how the undead are not zombies has become a constant refrain.
- I can understand a few times but it's way overdone.
- You're trying to subvert a genre—I get it!

Notes:
(1) "[David] wanted to throw himself at them, shake them and scream that this wasn't some movie, that Eva wasn't a zombie, that she had just died and then come back to life and soon everything was going to be fine."
- Hence why this book isn't clicking with me. It's too mundane, clinical and bureaucratic. The dead have arisen! Where's the mass hysteria?
- Frankly, people were far more freaked out during COVID.

Notes:
(1) Nearly through a third of this, and I wouldn't consider it horror at all. It's definitely supernatural, but there's nothing scary about it.
- At best, there's a scene where Mahler's digging out his grandson's grave with his bare hands that's awful frenzied—and could be considered psychological horror—but the story as a whole's been quite subdued.
- The undead aren't dangerous, they're feeble and helpless.

Notes:
(1) The story follows three different families, of three different types, with three different generations of undead.
- David, son Magnus, and dead wife Eva.
- Mahler, daughter Anna, and dead grandson Elias.
- Elvy, granddaughter Flora, and dead husband Tore.
(2) So, quite diverse, if almost too diverse—unnaturally so.
(3) Now, the question arises, do the stories remain separate or do they eventually converge?

Notes:
(1) Seemingly, the big zombie event is the result of an interminable electrical surge, which causes terrible headaches and appliances to not shut off. Also, there's the appearance of white, burrowing caterpillars.
- So, is it the electricity, and the caterpillars are a byproduct? Or is it the caterpillars, and the electricity simply awakened them?
- Electricity's a very "Frankenstein" method of making zombies.