My Top 5 Zombie Books
I've seen a lot of post for zombie fiction recommendations and I normally list these 5 every time
Hey Survivor,
It’s another Monday in the apocalypse! I remember a year or two ago Eric Thomas posted he loved Mondays cause that’s when he makes his money. Money doesn’t come in on the weekends it just goes out, that kind of made me feel better about waking up and clocking in every Monday morning. I hope your weekend was awesome! I didn’t do too much, I watched a shark movie with the wife (against my will), sat down with the Scream Kingz to talk Pretty Little Liars Summer School, and tried to get my writing life organized (Spoiler, that last part didn’t happen) But I’m ready to kick off this new week with a Bang!
Today I’m hitting you with My Top 5 Zombie Books. For the past few days on Facebook, I’ve been seeing people ask for zombie book recs and you know I love a good zombie story, so I have a list of them, but these are the ones that I normally spit out first. Let me know some of your favorites.
My Life As A White Trash Zombie By Diana Rowland
I’m a big fan of horror, everyone knows this, but what some people might not know but could figure out from my writing style is I love Horror Comedies. Something about being freaked out one minute and laughing the next resonates with me. So, I jumped into this book because of the title alone. White Trash Zombie had me rolling and I’m happy I picked it up because it was a great book and a nice little twist on the zombie genre.
I’ve only read book one but the series follows Angel Crawford who wakes up in the ER after an overdose to find out she’s a zombie, not the Romero kind, you really couldn’t tell she was dead aside from her being cold, a little pale and the fact that she likes to eat brains. Someone gets her a job at the county morgue and Angel slowly starts finding out there is something weird going on in town and that she might not be the only dead thing walking around.
Slow Burn (The Series) By Bobby Adair
Slow Burn was my introduction to not only indie fiction but zombie literary fiction as a whole. I mostly read about zombies in comics, not really full-on books. But I got the audiobook because it was like 3 books for the price of one (Daddy loves a deal) and I was hooked. Once again it’s a book that can make me laugh out loud.
I’ll admit the series might be longer than it needs to be, I feel like there are two filler books in it, but still, I love the universe that Adair built with the different levels of infection and the epic team of Zed and Murphy as they try to survive this apocalypse and figure out what it means to be slow burn zombies. There’s a zombie chain gang, Celebrity mansions being blown up, shady government, and a lead who seems to fall in love with anyone who is remotely nice to him. I always got a kick out of reading the series. I think I’ve read it three times in total.
The Girl With All The Gifts By M.R. Carey
I’m gonna be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the movie. I don’t know what it was about it, but it just didn’t pull me in and I didn’t find myself caring much about anyone. Now with that said, the book was 100% better, I was worried it was going to be the same but it didn’t disappoint.
I feel like what the book did that the movie didn’t do was dive home the fear that Melanie had, going to class and seeing that every other day one of her classmates would be taken to see the doctor and never return. It felt like a horror movie watching these kids get taken out one by one. Aside from that, I love zombie fiction that mixes up the genre and makes you ask questions like; what would happen to the offspring of infected people, and if they were just children, would the world have a problem with experimenting on them or even killing them for the betterment of mankind? This book made you ask yourself a lot of questions, like are you evil if you don’t risk your life for a world that hates you? Or are you just a survivor?
Normally I would pick World War Z by Max Brooks, but both the writer and the star of the movie are slowly turning out to be trash so instead, here are two books that are really outside of the box when it comes to the zombie genre. Both of these books I loved and I’m pretty sure they both got 5 stars from me. Great stories by two great authors.
The Undead Truth Of Us By Britney S. Lewis
Sixteen-year-old Zharie Young is absolutely certain her mother morphed into a zombie before her untimely death, but she can't seem to figure out why. Why her mother died, why her aunt doesn't want her around, why all her dreams seem suddenly, hopelessly out of reach. And why, ever since that day, she's been seeing zombies everywhere.
Then Bo moves into her apartment building—tall, skateboard in hand, freckles like stars, and an undeniable charm. Z wants nothing to do with him, but when he transforms into a half zombie right before her eyes, something feels different. He contradicts everything she thought she knew about monsters, and she can't help but wonder if getting to know him might unlock the answers to her mother's death.
As Zharie sifts through what's real and what's magic, she discovers a new truth about the world: Love can literally change you—for good or for dead.
Nightmare on Trap Street By C.N. Phillips
Sometimes death births new life, and that is fact for sisters Rhonnie and Ahli Malone. After facing the wrath of Madame, the young women take on the job of being security detail for none other than Sadie Thomas, the head of The Last Kings. With a new drug, Vita E Morte doing numbers under her belt, it is apparent that Sadie has plans to distribute it all over the United States. However, after seeing the deadly side effects of the drug, Sadie agrees to get rid of the formula and take it off the market for good. Only… somebody doesn’t want her to. In fact, they’ll do anything to get the formula for themselves, including taking out the leader of The Last Kings.
With a phantom gunning for her head and her own camp’s loyalty being tested, Rhonnie and Ahli are the only ones that Sadie can trust with the location of the formula—Trap Street. It’s a place only spoken of in hood myth. Legend is that not only is Trap Street a neutral ground for the most elite hustlers, but it a fortress for their secrets. Once there, the only objective is to destroy the formula for Vita E Morte so no one can ever sell or take it again, but not even Sadie is prepared for the gory nightmare that awaits her.
Dread Nation & Deathless Divide (Books 1 & 2) By Justina Ireland
Badass Black Women take on a racist world and kill zombies while doing it. What’s not to love?!? The first time I sat down with this book I wasn’t vibing with it, I wasn’t really in the mood for a period piece, but a few months later I picked it back up and I’m so happy I did. Jane and Katherine are amazing. The concept of this series is that during the Civil War at the battle of Gettysburg, the dead came back to life, which ended the war.
Now that zombies are running around the country has a new enemy to fight and they pass a law that requires Black and Native American teens to go to combat schools where they will learn how to put down the dead and keep their White masters safe. That’s where we meet Jane and Katherine, enemies turned survival buddies because the dead aren’t the worst things about this world, the people can be even worse. I love it because it’s got this Western vibe to it and the world-building by Ireland is amazing, whether you like history or not, this is a must-read for a zombie fan.
Well, that’s everything. What are some of your favorite zombie books? And have you read any of these?
As always, stay safe, stay woke, and stay alive!
