Book Review: All the Dead are Here

All the Dead are Here by Pete Bevan is by far the best zombie book I have ever read. Two words folks: must read.  As a series of short stories, Bevan is able to give us vignettes of situations both silly and heartbreaking.  He uses this genre to tell one story from different perspectives but also peppers in unrelated narratives to provide a break.

Although all written by Bevan, most of the shorts have their own particular voice and style.  I had completed several stories and stopped to ask Dave to confirm that they were all written by the same author. Wow! Here are a few examples:

“The Islands” tells the story of survivors trapped on the rooftops of stores. This first person perspective is written “as it happens” rather than as a flash back. There is no past tense here and this element adds to character’s tension – he doesn’t know if there will be a tomorrow.

“These Things Only Happen to Me on a Tuesday” is written as a transcript of a police interview. The descriptions of the sounds playing on the tape are great and let the reader infer the action instead of having it spelled out for you.

“The Isle of the Ungodly Dead” is an H.G. Wells style period piece combining traditional Voodoo zombies with modern flesh eaters.  When I say H.G. Wells I mean H.G. Wells. He completely changes the syntax, vocabulary and tone for this story. This was the story that sent me to Dave for more info on the author.

This type of variety I can expect from an anthology with several authors but not from one writer. Good job!

Also, Bevan is able to take moments and encapsulate them so we can watch them unfold.  For example, in “Leaving Liminality,” the narrator is inspecting himself in a mirror after his first shower in months. We are right beside him as he reflects on the changes in his features for the good and the bad. In “Angels with Dirty Faces” Bevan again lets us experience the moment of agony when an infected father must decide the future for his child. He writes as if he is talk not to a broad audience but to you directly.

Moving on, let’s discuss the meat and potatoes of the book. Bevan has imagined a character known only as The Minister. This character deserves a spot on the top 10 list of villains somewhere between Freddy Kruger and Pinhead.  Many of Bevan’s characters contemplate God’s role in the zombie plague but The Minister puts a dark face to God’s will. Like Noah’s flood, The Minister is determined to cleanse the world of evil and uses zombies to do it. In the season finale of The Walking Dead, Hershel says that God promised a resurrection of the dead but that he thought God had something else in mind. The Minister’s saga put pen to paper on Hershel’s musing.

I so thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found myself taking lunch early so I could read it and then returning late so I could finish the section I was reading. I even interviewed Pete Bevan about this book and other things.

I liked this book so much that I am going to flat out ask you, you and you to go out and buy this book. Like right now. Bevan is self-published so you will find a few grammatical errors but for a 148 page PDF it was almost perfect. I rarely re-read something once I have completed it but I am going to read this anthology again. Like right now.

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