God of Zombies by Rob Bliss

Family life can be difficult. Raising a teenage daughter, keeping things interesting with your wife, killing zombies. Every day you survive in the zombie apocalypse is a blessing.

Mike Peabody, his wife Julia, and teenage daughter Susanne, have survived the zombie bombs that have turned most of the US citizens into flesh hungry, acid for brains undead. However, it’s a precarious survival, always moving, never knowing if your next moment will be your last.

When they meet army vet, Mickey, he offers them a lifeline in the form of a casino community run by an old service buddy called Pyper. However, as any fan of zombie literature will tell you, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

The Peabody’s are a delightfully deranged family, obviously driven to sociopathic extremes over the six months they’ve managed to survive. Susanne bounces gleefully as she cuts swathes through the walking dead, and Mike never forgets to call her sweetie as he reminds her not to run with a chainsaw, or to avoid burning black brain matter as his daughter scoops out zombie innards with her hands. I loved it.

Pyper’s compound is suitably eerie, with two characters standing out for their creep factor. Hyper-aggressive Blank, and her hunting companion, Otis.

There’s some body horror in this book, which is always fun, and lots of mutated and giant zombies. Yes, I said giant zombies. I’m talking fifteen plus feet of blind, brain hungry dead flesh. It’s not often you see that in your post apocalyptic fiction.

I really enjoyed this book, with its mix of loving, Dean Koontzesque family banter and grotesque zombie kills. Unfortunately, for me, the third part of the book let it down somewhat, and reduced its overall rating.

Pyper, the titular god of zombies, had the potential to be a fantastic character, but instead I found his brief appearances in the book lack luster and cliche. Blank and Otis were much more intimidating and interesting characters.

The final part of the book is non stop zombie kills. I don’t mind that too much, but when the first two parts included some epic action, it made the last part seem repetitive and reduced the impact of the climax for me.

One of the female characters spends the last part of the book naked, for no good reason that I could think of, and I thought it was a disservice to her character.

Despite these glitches at the end, I enjoyed this book immensely, and I recommend it to every fan of zombie horror.

I award God of Zombies…

God of Zombies is available for $3.03 ebook and $14.99 print book on Amazon.

---

Click here to read my review of Widow by Rob Bliss.