Book Review: Brains: A Zombie Memoir
Brains: A Zombie Memoir (2010)
Book Release Date: May 25, 2010
Publisher: Eos
Written By: Robin Becker
Review By: Kayley Viteo
In the wake of a zombie apocalypse, college professor Jack Barnes is bitten and turned into one of the mindless horde. Only, it turns out Mr. Barnes isn’t quite so mindless. Brains is his memoir, written in the hopes of letting the world know of his pursuit for zombie civil rights before he finally, literally falls to pieces. Decay is a bitch, a fact Jack reflects on throughout this amusing, if ultimately flawed, first-person narrative.
The story begins with Jack pre-zombification in what I found to be the most hilarious portion of the entire book. Jack and his wife hide in the basement as their zombie neighbors advance and what follows is highly amusing dialogue about whether or not he will actually eat his wife after he turns. Unfortunately, I found that this was the first and only time I actually found myself laughing and by the end of the novel, I was bolstered only by randomly funny passages.
Still, even if the book isn’t as funny as I imagined it would be, there is an intriguing idea here that I’ve often thought about – the idea of a zombie (or infected person) retaining some memory or kernel of their previous self. Romero alluded to this in Land of the Dead – yes, that one where the zombies ended with a place to call their own – but I haven’t ever come across someone who has dealt with it in a full-scale way. Here, Jack retains his consciousness while others like him retain other aspects of themselves, including speed and a nurse zombie who comes in handy when someone is leaking entrails. Jack creates and leads a ragtag zombie gang that walks the country to meet their maker, the scientist who created the infection. Trouble is – the humans are fighting back and poor Jack, he really just wants to be understood.
Ultimately, I found Brains to be somewhat of a tiring read, filled with pop culture and literature references that feel constantly misplaced and are sorely overused. In the moments that aren’t clogged by these missteps, the novel shines when it actually gets focused on the idea of the gang as a very, very dysfunctional family struggling to stay alive. It’s the opposite of what you would normally read and while that is refreshing and unique, there really isn’t much of a plot. Instead, Becker relies on Jack’s monologue and random gore scenes to keep you intrigued and there just was not enough there to keep me fully interested.
I should clarify that having read other reviews, I know that there are a multitude of people out there that loved this book far more than I did, largely due to the fact that they find Jack to be more funny than I think he actually is. In the interest of full-disclosure, however – I do tend to favor more true-crime type memoirs and this is definitely not one of those, so in the end my dislike for Brains might come down to simple personal preference. Therefore, being such a quick read, you really should give this one a chance to see if it hits your funny (and gore) bone.
