the z word
by lindsay king-miller book review
***spoiler warning***
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The Z Word by Linsay King-Miller is a queer horror-comedy novel about a chaotic but insecure bisexual named Wendy who is navigating a messy post-breakup during a zombie outbreak in Arizona that seems to only affect those who are a part of the queer community. These aren’t the undead kind of zombies, more like Danny Boyles 28 days later kind of zombies that are infected with the rage virus. Wendt and a diverse group if queer friends and frenemies must team up to survive, save pride, and stop the infection that is present in the poisoned drink that is sponsoring Pride.
The Mission: the group have to navigate interpersonal gay drama while tracking down the source of the zombie outbreak to survive and save the local Pride celebration.
The Team: Wendy bands together with a colourful, found-family crew:
- Logan (a drag queen)
- Beau (an older silver fox)
- Sam and Aurelia ( a sword lesbian and her wife who is hooking up with Leah)
- Sunshine (a pizza delivery stoner)
- Leah (Wendy’s ex-girlfriend)
The story begins at a house party to celebrate the beginning of Pride weekend. Wendy is trying to find her footing after a bad breakup with Leah, who is already hooking up with people within her own social circle. To get her own back, Wendy decides to sleep with Logan (a drag queen) in an awkward sex scene. The next morning those who have drank the sponsored drink Seabrook are no viscous, angry zombies that try to rip people apart. Those who wouldn’t hurt a fly are not trying to rip the throats out of the friends. It’s not long before the group realise that it’s the sponsored drink that is turning people from the community into zombies.
What I loved about this book was that Zombies are seen as the negative other which has been in the past been in relation to class and or race. This is the first time that I read a zombie book where the infected other was representing the queer community. Which makes sense seeing as the conservative and religious side of the world has the ridiculous belief that they are infected with something evil. Also, what I liked about this book is that it doesn’t take itself too serious with a plethora of queer jokes. However, the expected twist is that Leah is a part of the conspiracy to spread the deadly virus to the queer community was very anticlimactic. It was very obvious that the book was leading to the fact that one of the main villains in the book would be a member of the queer community to illustrate the issues that sometimes the monsters in minority groups are “in the house” with them.
Overall, it was a cheerful horror novel that was a fun read but not exactly memorable. I give it 3 out of 5.
