Book Review: The Loving Dead

The Loving Dead by Amelia Beamer (Night Shade Books, 2010)

Zombieland meets Scream (or: Romero does Emmanuelle) in this funny, self-aware, and unabashedly steamy zombie novel.  Beamer's brilliant conceit here is to treat zombieism as a venereal disease (the virus spreads through kissing as well as intercourse).  And once the infected start turning, they want your body for more than dinner.  This is a book that gives new meaning to sexual appetite.

As a first novel, The Loving Dead has plenty to recommend it.  The narrative brims with wit and sardonic humor, yet also manages to provide ample scares (including a terrific set piece involving a zombie outbreak amongst tourists on a zeppelin ride).  The sex scenes are expertly presented, proving at once erotic and authentic (no easy task in any novel, let alone a horror-comedy).  Beamer, a native of Oakland, also exhibits a deep familiarity with Bay Area geography and culture; the novel appropriately climaxes at Alcatraz, as the main characters seek a safe haven from apocalypse.
But perhaps Beamer's greatest accomplishment here is her creation of interesting, well-rounded characters, whose basic humanity renders them easy to identify with.  These are people who throw house parties, work at Trader Joe's, tell jokes, use iPhones and watch Netflix, have sex, want love, and fear commitment.  And they've seen a slew of zombie movies, an experience that comes in handy when the loving dead start pawing their way through civilization.

The novel concludes with an epilogue-type last chapter set "ten years later," which some readers might find  jarring, not just for its chronological leap but its shift into a more maudlin tone.  Taken on its own merits, though, the chapter stands as a fine piece of extrapolation, sketching a portrait of an America a decade removed from a successfully-quelled uprising.  More importantly, the chapter explores what life would be like for the still-infected (their zombieism held in check by antiretrovirals) as they attempt to make their way in quote-unquote mainstream society.  The uneasy mix of discrimination and coexistence here gives this last chapter a strong True Blood vibe.

Overall, this is not a flawless novel (at times, excessive character introspection reduces the pace to a slow crawl), but The Loving Dead nonetheless marks an impressive debut.  This clever variation warrants a spot on every zombie-lover's bookshelf--or bedroom nightstand.