Book Review: The Boneshaker

This book is a steampunk, airship, zombie adventure.  That should say it all, but it is so wonderful I have to say a little bit more.  The basic backdrop for this book is Seattle with a rewritten history.  In a steampunk landscape in which Victorian society has much more advanced technology than it ever did,  one man builds a drill to get to the gold in Alaska.   This man lives in Seattle and when the drill is accidentally set off it leads to a catastrophe which leaves Seattle drowning in a green smoke that turns people into zombies.

Our heroine is an outcast.  She and her son live in the shadow of her husband's mistakes.  When her son goes into zombie infested Seattle to clear his father's name,   the adventure begins.   The Boneshaker is a wonderful, zombie filled adventure and worth reading for any zombie or steampunk fan.  If you like both,  this is your lucky day!

Book Review: Zombiekins

Anyone who knows me well, knows I'm pretty immature.  One of the best parts of being a mother for me is discovering the childhood I missed.   I bought Zombiekins for my son yesterday.    He  loved the book, but I think I've loved it even more.   Zombiekins is middle-grade fiction, but some of the best books ever written were middle-grade fiction.   Can anyone say Harry Potter?  

Zombiekins is the story of a boy who live next door to a rather dark and foreboding mansion.  One day all his neighbors and he gather up their brooms and pitchforks and head towards this gothic mansion with only one thing on their minds. Yard sale.   The lady who lives in the house isn't necessarily a witch.  She does cast spells, turn children into toads, and fly a broomstick, but the author doesn't want to make stereotypes and neither does the main character in the book.  He buys a somewhat messed up looking teddy bear he calls poof.  He also throws out the box and all the instructions.   Madness follows as the zombie teddy bear leaves a trail of destruction behind it.   It manages to infect the entire school, although the staff seems oblivious to this, and it is up to our young hero and his best friend to save the day.

Zombiekins is quirky, cute, and funny.  The zombie illustrations are hilarious and the writing is brilliant.   For a zombie lover,  I found this book to be a welcome addition to my growing zombie library.  It is a little bit a levity in a dark apocalyptic part of my library.

The Re-Animator

There is no better mixture then a not so subtle blend of Lovecraft and zombies. The Re-Animator is that mixture. Based on the Lovecraft story "Herbert West Reanimator, the Re-Animator is set at Lovecraft's infamous Mistkatonic University and follows two medical students in their quest to save their medical careers. The two medical students have been thrown together by odd circumstances. One is your typical hero type and the other is a mad scientist trying to find a way to bring the dead back to life.


After being expelled, the two medical students decide that the only way to save their careers is to raise the dead and prove to the world that they are geniuses and deserve to be doctors (Why not? It went well for Dr. Frankenstein). Of course, our mad scientist isn't really raising the dead as much as re-animating them, but it doesn't seem that much different to me. This movie is a gruesome shock fest and a half and the madness that follows this half-baked scheme is fabulous. From a medical director that has to carry most of his head around on a dish as he tries to rape the heroe's girlfriend to a zombie's intestines grabbing hold of our mad scientist med student and trying to kill him, the shocks are endless.
Re-animator is a campy, cult classic and is one of the best of the 1980's zombies films. It is funny and over the top and so shocking you have to laugh. If you like zombies or Lovecraft this is a must see film.