Married with Zombies

Sarah and David are having a hard time. They constantly fight over the most inane things and even go to couples’ counseling to try to salvage their marriage. Things really aren’t looking good. On their way to a routine session, things seem weird. There are very few cars on the road for the time of day. People are largely absent, like the security guard to the building. Their counselor eats another couple who then reanimate and try to eat them. Sarah and David must work together and put aside their lesser problems to be able to survive. Can they keep their lives and also save their marriage?

Married with Zombies is more of a romantic comedy than a zombie novel. Where many authors take the zombie apocalypse as very grave and depressing, Jesse Petersen takes it and makes it into a relationship strengthening exercise with lots of laughs along the way. Sarah and David both have their faults, but Sarah seems to fly off the handle more frequently over stupid little things. I understand her frustration sometimes, but other times she just loses me. I liked watching them go from normal people to zombie killing experts. Their first zombie kills are pretty funny and largely come from Sarah. She kills zombies with such random things as her high heel, a letter opener, and a toilet seat. All were worthy for the zombie kill of the week. Every chapter was headed with a title of a relationship help book except with an added zombie twist, which added an extra bit of fun.

Although Married with Zombies was a light enjoyable read, as a hardcore zombie fan, I found some things annoying. First of all, it’s a very cliché story about a zombie outbreak that I have read countless times. Beyond the humor and relationship between Sarah and David, everything was very run of the mill. The zombies also irked me. Some of them ran, which I have a problem with (atrophying muscles and whatnot). The major bother for me with them was pain and fear. In several instances, zombies would flinch in pain or run away in fear. Zombies are dead. They don’t feel pain or fear or really anything at all. They won’t run away if fellow zombies die and they won’t stop coming for you until they can’t move because they lack self preservation. Every time this happened I rolled my eyes. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal except that those flinches of pain gave Sarah or David an opening to attack. I would have been more understanding if there had been a scientific reason for this behavior, but it was just nonsensically portrayed this way. Because of this, it was a bit of a frustrating read.

Married with Zombies is a light, fun read. It’s perfect for an introduction to zombie books that’s not too heavy or depressing. Seasoned zombie fans might find it frustrating like I did.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins