For those really into zombies, and perhaps brass humour, I think you’ll find much to love here. There was some good storytelling but for me it felt like it needed an extra oomph; there was some missing substance that didn’t allow me to fully engage with the book.
It is a quick read and there’s some mystery in it, which I love so always a plus in a story, so it’s good for a quick laugh and break-up of your routine (unless you only read noir-style humour zombie books in which case I think you may need to branch out or you’ll run out of books).
Braineater Jones by Stephen Kozieniewski
Genre: Horror / NoirBraineater Jones wakes up face down in a swimming pool with no memory of his former life, how he died, or why he’s now a zombie. With a smart-aleck severed head as a partner, Jones descends into the undead ghetto to solve his own murder.
But Jones’s investigation is complicated by his crippling addiction to human flesh. Like all walking corpses, he discovers that only a stiff drink can soothe his cravings. Unfortunately, finding liquor during Prohibition is costly and dangerous. From his Mason jar, the cantankerous Old Man rules the only speakeasy in the city that caters to the postmortem crowd.
As the booze, blood, and clues coagulate, Jones gets closer to discovering the identity of his killer and the secrets behind the city’s stranglehold on liquid spirits. Death couldn’t stop him, but if the liquor dries up, the entire city will be plunged into an orgy of cannibalism.
Cracking this case is a tall order. Braineater Jones won’t get out alive, but if he plays his cards right, he might manage to salvage the last scraps of his humanity.
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I liked that the story was told as the MC’s diary entries but in some cases it made the story more confusing. Some things felt repetitive and we jumped around quite a lot. The main character works as a detective but with the cases he worked on he skimmed over many of the (important) details that would’ve made understanding the mystery a lot easier on the reader. I make a lot of notes when I read and I was left with a lot of questions that, perhaps not pertinent to the overarching story, were created because these cases were rushed through and details overlooked. I don’t know whether I could say that any of the mysteries at work in this story were actually completely solved, and it’s doubtful that was a deliberate attempt by the author for suspense and intrigue.
There are some comments from the author at the start of the novel that I didn’t agree with. He makes note of how the noir style has certain elements that are essential to the genre and so in his writing he chose to retain the derogatory language used towards POCs and women.In my opinion, you can most certainly stay true to the noir style without continuing to use discriminatory comments. There is much more at work in the genre than these attitudes so I think the tone could easily have been created without perpetuating these beliefs.
The story was enjoyable for the most part and certainly a unique take on the zombie genre, which I appreciated. I think a lot of the humour arose from the dialogue and while some was at times unnatural, it did provide many laughs.
About the Author: Stephen Kozeniewski lives in Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the modern zombie. During his time as a Field Artillery officer he served for three years in Oklahoma and one in Iraq, where, due to what he assumes was a clerical error, he was awarded the Bronze Star. He is also a classically trained linguist, which sounds much more impressive than saying his bachelor’s is in German.
Author links: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Mailing List
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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