Zombie Bake-Off

Stephen Graham Jones novel suffers the fate of so many of the horror movies it is based on. After a great set up and the introduction of entertaining characters, the proceedings devolve into page and after page of typical zombie mayhem. Jones keeps things moving at an admirable clip, but dozens of descriptions of death by zombie become tedious. The novel quickly becomes neither funny nor fun. Written accounts of zombie mutilations lack the visceral kick of the gut pulling and brain munching that goes on in movies. Visual special effects, both good and bad, reflect some real enthusiasm on the part of their creators. Written descriptions of dismemberments and grotesque mutilations just take too long. Movies demand only ninety minutes of our time, rather than the four or five hours required to get through Jones' novel.

One review on the paperback of the novel credits Jones with "subverting genre conventions." They must be referring to other books than this off-the-shelf exercise in zombie fiction.