It’s a fairly safe assumption when you pick up a zombie fiction novel that it’s going to be told from the eyes of the breathers. There’s usually a viral outbreak of some type that goes, from the meatbag point-of-view, horribly wrong and then lots of zombies die. Not really the sort of thing us undead folk find particularly compelling. With his book, Aftereffects: Zombie Therapy, author Zane Bradey has come up with an interesting take on the zombie genre.
It takes place after a zombie virus pandemic. In this case, a cure was found for the virus and administered to the infected. I’d like to point out that I couldn’t think of any reason you’d want to be cured of this condition.
Did anyone ask any of the zombies if they wanted to be cured? But I digress. Although people cured of the “disease” are able to integrate back into society – apart from missing digits and perhaps some unsightly bite marks, their brains retain the memories of their actions while they were zombies.
The main character of the book, Dr. Victor Frenzel, is a therapist who assists people dealing with the aftereffects of their time as zombies. Under the course of his sessions, the patients are able to recall in vivid detail how they were infected and then what they did while infected.
The book is comprised of a series of therapy sessions in which different characters discuss their actions and thoughts while they were zombies. They range from men and women, to teenagers, and they all have different and interesting stories to tell.
To be clear, when I say vivid detail, I really mean it. From the point where each of the patients is trying to get away from the zombies, gets caught and then becomes one us, Mr. Bradey spares no detail. The graphic descriptions of bodies being torn apart are splatterpunk at its finest. I recommend Slayer as listening music. Their tunes make an appropriate soundtrack to these graphic tales.
All in all, Aftereffects:Zombie Therapy is a well-written and entertaining novel with plenty of gore to satisfy us zombies. I give it two severed thumbs up! You can go to Zane Bradey’s website to find out where to get yourself a copy.