Continuing with the Zombies vs. Unicorns Anthology, and my participation in the Short Story Peril section of the (R)eaders (I)mbibing (P)eril challenge, this Sunday I read Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Dawn Johnson.
The introduction by the editors, Holly Black and Justine Larbaleister goes over the different types of zombies. We learn that the zombie in Alaya Dawn Johnson’s story is not a voodoo zombie, nor a Romero zombie, nor a 28 Days Later super-zombie. Instead, Johnson spins her own take on zombies.
Love Will Tear Us Apart is absolutely a reference to Joy Divison (and also this title is the reason I can’t get the song by Fall Out Boy out of my head). Anyways, this short story is told in ten numbered parts over the space of twenty six pages. We open with the zombie, Philip Grayson, talking about humans as though they are macaroni and cheese. Philip has a crush on Jack, mainly because Jack is hot and has great taste in music.
Inner turmoil ensues, on both Philip and Jack’s end. We learn why exactly Philip is the way that he is. More music references are made.
Overall, this was a fairly cool story, minus the whole Fall Out Boy being in my head. I enjoyed Johnson’s writing style. It felt pretty hip to me. I know, I know, I sound elderly using the word hip. But she throws in a lot of music references, and it’s kind of like a list. And I just felt it was well done.
Disclosure: Book received for review.
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April (Books&Wine) – who has written 1074 posts on Good Books And Good Wine.
April is 24 years old. She is an educator. In her free time she can be found reading, working out, or eating junk food. She often wears her sunglasses at night.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I am slowly plowing through this too. I love savoring each story. The raping Unicorn story freaked me out.
Hi April, sorry to post this as a a comment!
I'm new to your blog and would love to be on your blog roll and ask you a couple of questions, but none of contact me links are working. My email is motionsrider(at)yahoo(dot)ca if you wouldn't mind dropping me a line.
Shannon
This was one of my favorites because of the gay romance. I mean, a zombie romance is original enough, but a gay zombie one? Even more so. I loved it!