Zombies and Shit (spoilers)

Zombies and Shit by Carlton Mellick III

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In a post-apocalyptic future overrun by zombies, twenty people are dropped in the middle of a wasteland, forced to be contestants on the most popular reality show on earth, Zombie Survival! Which will find his or her way to the helicopter and be the only person to leave the Red Zone alive?

Once you read an awesome book by an author, it becomes the measuring stick against which you judge the subsequent books you read by that author. For my money, Warrior Wolf Women of the Wastelands is the measuring stick against which all other Carlton Mellick III books should be measured. Does Zombies and Shit measure up? Sadly, no, and I shall explain.

I've read a few Carlton Mellick III books in 2011 and most of them feature the following elements:
1. punks that are invariably superior to the rest of the characters
2. bizarre sexual fetishes
3. a woman with an unusually large clitoris
4. gore

Zombies and Shit features all of these. To me, it feels like elements of Apeshit and Warrior Wolf Women of the Wastelands were recycled and repacked with Return of the Living Dead style zombies to capitalize on the zombie fad that's currently everywhere. Also, Gogo's zombie fetish felt like it was shoehorned in and made me roll my eyes. It also irked me that the most annoying character in the book was one of the survivors.

At this point, you may notice that I gave it a 3 even though I've spent the review criticizing it so far. Well, I'm not going to lie. It's still a really fun book with the gore and weirdness I've come to expect from Carlton Mellick III. If I hadn't read any other CMIII books, I would have rated this one a lot higher. The inclusion of Mr. T as a zombie-killing machine, the T-2000, made me forget all of my gripes with the book every time he made an appearance.

To sum it up, if you're only going to read one Carlton Mellick III book, I wouldn't have it be this one, but if you're looking to give him a try and you're into zombies, this would be the book for you.



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