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Zombie

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What to expect

Fourteen-year-old Jeremy Barker is obsessed with zombie movies. He attends an all-boys Catholic High School where roving gangs in plaid make his days a living hell. His mother is an absentee pillhead, his older brother a self-diagnosed sex-addict, and his father an ex-Marine realtor who disappears night after night without explanation. Jeremy navigates it all with a code cobbled together from Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later, Planet Terror, Zombieland, and Shaun of the Dead: Avoid Contact, Keep Quiet, Forget the Past, and Lock-and-Load.

The code is put to the test when he discovers in his father’s closet a bizarre homemade video of a man strapped to a bed, being prepped for some sort of surgical procedure. As Jeremy—troubled but ever-optimistic—attempts to trace the origin of the video, this remarkable debut moves from its sharp, precocious beginnings to a climax of almost unthinkable violence, testing him to the core.

Critics Review

“Wow! A crazy, wicked, knock-out of a book! Zombie is an energetic, hilarious romp through Jeremy’s world, which is full of dangers and perils of both real and imagined (or are they imagined?). Remember those zombie movies from your childhood that kept you up nights holding onto your baseball bat for safety? When you read this book you’ll go searching for that baseball bat again…Trust me.”

Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

“If you are a ‘youth spy’ and want to know how teenagers feel and what they say when adults aren’t around, Zombie—a funny and very authentic, well-written first novel by J. R. Angelella—should definitely be the next book you read.”

John Waters, writer and director of Hairspray

“An irreverent and twisted coming-of-age story with one of the most shocking endings I’ve ever read.”

Matthew Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook

“Crackles with energy and attitude.”

Publishers Weekly

“Without a doubt, J. R. Angelella is a truly gifted writer, and Zombie, his first novel, is one of the smartest, strangest, and most beautifully crafted coming-of-age stories you will ever encounter. I eagerly look forward to see what he comes up with next.”

Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time
Author J. R. Angelella
Narrator Alston Brown
Duration 10 hours and 20 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781620640951
Format Audiobook
Publisher Blackstone Publishing
Genre Family life fiction, Fiction: general and literary, Narrative theme: Coming of age
Availability AU, GB, IE, US

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