Speculative Fiction Junkie

Glynn Barrass

My first encounter with the softcover chapbooks of Dead Letter Press was a fairly good experience (see this), so when the opportunity arose to read another of their offerings I didn't hesitate. This time the book was The King of Deadtown by relatively new horror author Glynn Barrass.

In The King of Deadtown, Great Britain and the rest of the world succumb to a virus brought back to England's shores by soldiers returning from Iraq. One in five people is susceptible to the virus, which kills its victims and then reanimates them; that is, turns them into zombies. As the narrator and his family are about to make their escape, the narrator apparently succumbs to the virus and when he reawakens alone he is indeed a zombie. Well, that's not entirely true, for while he is a zombie physically his mental capacities are still decidedly human. How he handles his new predicament is the story that is told in the remainder of the book.

The first part of the book focuses on the narrator's discovery that he is a zombie and what this entails. Unlike his fellow undead, who appear to be the mindless flesh eaters we usually take them for, the narrator retains the mind of a living human and resists the degradations in which his mindless fellows indulge. In this way, Mr. Barrass raises a question about what exactly it is that makes us human. Mr. Barrass doesn't really answer the question but instead goes on to pose it in a different way by contrasting the feelings and actions of the narrator with those of two surviving humans who often forage in the area the narrator occupies. Their treatment of the zombies they encounter is horrific and leads the reader to seriously question who should be feared more: the zombie narrator or the ostensibly human monsters.

While not ultimately groundbreakingly original, Mr. Barrass's tale is nonetheless competently told and a solid, entertaining read. Additionally, the central role that questions about categories and stereotypes play in it elevates it above a mere well told story. If you like zombie fiction, I heartily recommend it. If you're not a zombie aficionado, you still might like it.

Rating: 7/10

The True First

The King of Deadtown was first published in May of 2008 by Dead Letter Press. It is limited to 150 signed copies.

[This review was based on a review copy]