Z

November 14, 2011
When the zombie apocalypse comes, it's teens who will inherit the Earth. That's one thought readers can take away from this eclectic collection of 10 reprints and one new story featuring young adult protagonists dealing with all manner of zombies. Offerings range from the slice-of-life (such as Darrell Schweitzer's "The Dead Kid,â which is suggestive of a more horrific version of Stand By Me) to the stomach-churning (Marie Atkins' "Seven Brains, Ten Minutes,â which pushes its narrator past the point of no return). Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "The Third Dead Bodyâ imagines a lifeline connecting those who have been murdered by the same hand, and Scott Edelman's "The Human Raceâ is a provocative look at what it means to be alive when those we love are dead. Leading things off is Jonathan Maberry's post-apocalyptic novella, "Family Business,â which was recently expanded into the full-length Rot & Ruin; original to this collection is Thomas Roche's "Deepwater Miracle,â which stages a zombie attack at sea. Often gruesome and frequently disturbing, this anthology isn't for the fainthearted, reading more as a collection of stories about teens than ones expressly written for them. Ages 14âup.

November 1, 2011
Another anthology shambles onto the zombie bandwagon. This predominantly reprint collection sets a high bar for quality when it opens with Jonathan Mayberry's stellar "Family Business," which was rewritten as the opening of Rot & Ruin (2010). Starting an anthology with by far its best offering, sadly, makes all the other entries suffer in comparison. Despite the unflattering basis for comparison, there's plenty of solid brain-eating goodies here, from Kelly Link's tale of a boy who screws up exhuming his dead girlfriend to Nina Kiriki Hoffman's upsetting and sharply graphic tale of an abused and murdered teen prostitute looking for her own sort of closure. Scott Nicholson's "You'll Never Walk Alone" ruins a perfectly good zombie horror with its stereotypes of Appalachians as ignorant, racist hicks who can't decide if zombism is an "Aye-rab bug" or plague of sinners whose "souls are roasting under Hell." Other contributors successfully mine the gore and grotesquerie of undeath for Viking feminist empowerment tales (Christine Morgan), poignant stories of shambling love (Catherynne M. Valente), pirate adventures (Thomas S. Roche) or just gleefully gross thrills (Marie Atkins). For those zombie enthusiasts who haven't already collected the other anthologies in which most of these were previously published. (Horror. 14 & up)

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November 15, 2011

What is it like to grow up during the zombie apocalypse? That's the intriguing theme of this YA anthology. In Jonathan Maberry's "Family Business," a boy learns the art of killing zombies from his big brother, while in Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "The Third Dead Body," a young woman explores her feelings after becoming one of the walking dead. Other contributors include Catherynne M. Valente, Christine Morgan, Scott Nicholson, and Kelly Link. VERDICT Adult zombie fans will also want to read these 11 stories that offer original ways of approaching an increasingly popular horror topic.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.