To me, one of the most fascinating trends in today’s literature is how we’re altering and molding ancient mythologies to fit with modern-day storytelling norms. Vampires went from single-minded monsters to sparkly love interests, for example. Zombies - well, zombies are a little more difficult because they are inherently, um, brain-dead. Not much you can do with that, right? 



Doesn’t mean someone won’t give it a shot, though. And recently, I read a book that attempted to do this and maybe cash in on the recent supernatural teen/paranormal romance craze. For me, the results were mixed. Zombies Don’t Cry, by Rusty Fischer, is the tale of a girl named Maddy Swift, who sneaks out one night and dies in a freak lightning strike. When she wakes up, she’s a zombie. 

This book features some of the most common tropes in this type of fiction, including the good zombie/bad zombie dynamic, a secret society of zombies, a teenage love triangle, and a school dance (the Fall Formal). It’s a predictable story with an erratic plot, superficial characterizations and few real surprises - but it's not terribly serious or cloyingly angsty, and that makes it a more enjoyable ride than some "paranormal romance"-style novels I could mention.

I really do think that hormonal, adolescent zombies are a harder concept to pull off than similarly-profiled vampires; sex has always been an integral part of the vampire myth, after all, and zombies are just...dead. That makes up quite a challenge for an author, and brings up questions that aren’t really answered here...like, if a zombie is injured, they’re incapable of regenerating new tissue, right? So if she gets hit in a fight, isn’t there just a big gaping hole/bruise/spot that anyone can see? And if you’re brain dead, how do you think about romance and feel happy or sad or righteously indignant?



Ultimately, I think what happens here is that the author gives lip service to the concept of a zombie and lets the rest slide. Maddy must eat brains, but she can go to the butcher and get the remains of animals - much like modern-day “good” vampires get their blood from animals via blood bars or hospitals. Her body temperature is way lower than usual. But she has feelings, and she can live her life with a modicum of normality (assuming she wears a lot of makeup).



In this world, there are good zombies and there are Zerkers. In general, zombies who have been turned by natural phenomenon such as lightning are thinking, feeling beings. Zombies who have been turned by other zombies are Zerkers. One of the Elders of zombie society explains it thusly: “Zombies can talk, reason, drive, think. communicate, read that book your holding, and...care. Zerkers care about only one thing: brains.” 



Actually, it’s not a bad way of getting some actual personality out of zombies, which is not an easy thing to do. But I doubt this novel, taken as a whole, is going to enjoy the popularity that certain other genre fiction offerings have, and I’ll tell you why. Mainly it’s because of the characterizations. These characters aren’t intense enough; they’re broadly drawn with not enough depth. I happen to believe that some of the success of books like Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight has to do with a lot of angst and relatability and tortured romance, and the characters in Zombies Don’t Cry just don’t have enough of those aspects. Still, I found the Twilight series pretty much unreadable for exactly those reasons.

I have no major complaints about the main character, although I didn’t think Maddy acted realistically in certain situations. How would you react if you woke up dead? But, when certain secondary characters did things, or had things happen to them, I didn’t find it at all interesting for two reasons: I didn’t feel like I knew them well enough to care what they did, and there wasn’t enough setup. You always expect the person who ends up dying in a movie to have a better backstory and a more interesting relationship with the protagonist. There was only one guy in the book who met that qualification. And new characters kept popping up unexpectedly as if I should know who they are. It felt like there ought to be more context for Maddy’s interactions, as with her teacher and her best friend, to make sense of what happens later. As a result the flow of the plot felt jerky and a bit unnatural - even for a novel based on zombies.

The enemies aren’t that interesting, in my opinion - ooh, evil brooding not-teenagers - but then again, I felt that way about Twilight, too. Still, Meyer’s vampires felt a touch more sinister than these dead-eyed, bullying berzerkers. And the society of zombie Elders end up figuring much into anything. I’m still not sure of what the point of them is, other than to hand Maddy a manual on how to be a zombie. Well, and to make life difficult for newly-created zombies - since apparently they let roving bands of teen zombies take care of the bad guys. They also punish new members of the living dead for not knowing that a secret society of zombies exist - except I'm not sure how new zombies are supposed to find out, except by luck. Also, I didn’t really have an opinion on which guy Maddy should end up with, because neither seemed all that interesting. Whereas in Twilight I was Team Jacob until he hooked up with Bella's daughter.



Not that this is a terrible book. It’s actually a fast, absorbing read, and Maddy is at least a better heroine than Bella Swan. The author doesn’t take things too seriously, so the book’s style is more quirky than gut-wrenchingly sincere, and that definitely helps. It’s kind of fun, the tone is a tad silly, and if you don’t take it too seriously, you’ll like it just fine. 



Ultimately, I wanted to read this book because I could see that writers and storytellers are trying to change the story of zombies into something that had more narrative oomph, and I’m not sure how it can be done. This books proves that it can - sort of, although a lot of character development is missing here and I think this would have to figure prominently into any really great transformation of zombie culture. And if the story isn’t perfect, well, it’s still an interesting look into our society’s current zeitgeist and the evolution of monsters into true characters.



Zombies Don’t Cry, a Living Dead Love Story by Rusty Fischer, was published by Medallion Press, Inc. in 2011. There’s a sequel out now, called Zombies Don’t Forgive. Both are available through www.amazon.com.