cover image Reanimated Americans

Reanimated Americans

Martin A. Mundt. Creeping Hemlock/Print Is Dead (www.creepinghemlock.com), $14.95 trade paper (280p) ISBN 978-0-9847394-0-0

It’s 2019, and the zombie apocalypse of 2000 has turned out to be rather anticlimactic. Sure, the dead now make a habit of rising from their graves and shambling around the streets, but instead of hungering for human flesh, they simply hang around and make nuisances of themselves. Thanks to the ACLU, they also have rights. Chicago Census Bureau trainee Jett Ahrens is one of many government employees tasked with keeping records on “animated-Americans,” a task he diligently attempts despite interference from his own co-workers, corrupt cops, a “serial re-killer,” a former priest seeking a glimpse of heaven, and an insane gangster. Mundt’s plain prose heightens scenes of gruesome horror and gallows humor. Though not for all tastes, this darkly comedic satire is enjoyably novel in its depiction of a world where the walking dead are more likable and lively than many of the living. (Dec.)