Premature Book Review: Breathers

S.G. Browne's Breathers: a Zombie's Lament is the story of Andy, a young man who dies in a car wreck and returns three days later as a zombie. In this book, zombies have always been around and are now populous enough to be noticed. They are also the heroes of the story—denied right because of their undead status and dealing with a harsh public that may treat them however they please.

Breathers was suggested to me by Ruby Tombstone (@Marawitch on Twitter), and so far it is very enjoyable. It is not a typical zombie story: they do not thirst for brains, and many of them can speak. Andy lives with his parents, though they are not too happy about it. Here's a little excerpt.

Not every corpse that reanimates moves in with his or her parents or has a friend or relative willing to take them in. Nearly half end up homeless or in shelters, with the less fortunate getting harvested for parts and sold to medical facilities or impact testing centers. And it's rare for a spouse to take the undead back into the fold, especially if there are any Breather children. I don't know about the other states, but California's Child Protective Services frowns upon single parents who allow a zombie to live at home. And when it comes to visitation rights, the undead have zero.

[...]

the Undead Commandments: You will not disturb the living. You will not be out after curfew. You will not commit necrophilia. You will not covet your neighbor's flesh. There are a few more about honoring your host guardians and refraining from acts of civil disobedience, but for the most part they're just a bunch of rules we have to follow in order to coexist with the living. Breathers, on the other hand, don't have to follow any rules regarding the undead. Except for the necrophilia part. But that's just common sense.

(S.G. Browne is on Twitter too, here.)