Book Review: Valley of the Dead (The Truth Behind Dante’s Inferno)
Valley of the Dead (The Truth Behind Dante’s Inferno) (2010)
Book Release Date: April 30, 2010
Publisher: Permuted Press
Written By: Kim Paffenroth
Review By: Kayley Viteo
Let’s face it. Writing this book took some serious balls. Kim Paffenroth takes what is probably the most famous work of Italian literature to ever be written and adds zombies to it. Paffenroth re-imagines the first canto (part), the Inferno, in the epic poem The Divine Comedy, as being based in a reality where the undead have overrun the world. This then forces him to tell his story in the form of the circles of hell that we now associate with the classic tale.
Now, I should be completely truthful and ‘fess up that I typically hate these types of books because it feels a bit like ripping the soul out of the original material. I have not read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Android Karenina or any of the other horror re-imaginings of classic literature, but with this one I was intrigued and jumped at the chance to review it. I’m sad to say that this book is every bit as soul-sucking as I thought it would be.
Another confession: I am an unabashed and complete nerd for The Divine Comedy – and, in fact, I’m surprised more horror fans I meet have never read it. Yes, it is epic poetry (over 14,000 lines of it, in fact) – but it is … well, I don’t have to defend it. It’s a classic for a reason. My point in bringing it up is that my fanaticism for The Divine Comedy – and the Inferno in particular – likely makes me one of Paffenroth’s toughest critics, but I honestly believe it makes me one of the more truthful ones.
The problem with this re-imagining is that it is entirely unimaginative. The rhythm, so core to the original work, feels constantly off-balance and downright clunky. Each chapter, representing a farther descent into Paffenroth’s version of Dante’s Hell, feels like it is written under some sort of formula akin to “insert zombies here, insert Dante thinking of female character here, etc.” In the original work, the Inferno and Dante’s vision of Hell is about the true nature of sin. Strictly speaking, there really is no other subgenre so suited to a re-imagining of this type of discussion than zombies – at least not in my opinion. That’s what makes the fact that Paffenroth seems to relegate the concept of sin to the background so disappointing. Valley of the Dead ends up reading like Paffenroth wrote a story and switched some details around and stuck Dante in it.
One of the main reasons it took me a while to write this review (and I admit it, it did) was because I forced myself to read this twice. After reading it once, I struggled with how harsh my reaction was after reading some other reviews, all of which were absurdly positive. After my second reading of the Valley of the Dead, which I liked less than the first, I realized that the majority of the positive reviews specifically mentioned that you didn’t have to read The Divine Comedy to understand this. And it is true, you don’t. Judging by my reaction, you probably shouldn’t – but I’m more inclined to say skip Paffenroth’s version and read some classic, epic poetry instead. Trust me, you’ll enjoy the original Inferno better than this one.
I should end by saying that I actually am a huge fan of Paffenroth’s work. He’s a Bram Stoker-award winning writer, and an earlier work of his, Dying to Live, remains one of my favorite zombie novels to date. Perhaps I am just not the target audience for this novel, but I imagine that those who are less concerned with the original work will find this to at least be an entertaining and fun romp. For me, not so much.
