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    Brains: A Zombie Memoir
    Unavailable
    Brains: A Zombie Memoir
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    Brains: A Zombie Memoir
    Ebook225 pages3 hours

    Brains: A Zombie Memoir

    By Robin Becker

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “A witty and unexpected take on the zombie genre; I had a great time.”
    —Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels

     

    Subtitled “A Zombie Memoir,” Brains looks at America’s favorite walking-dead flesh-eaters from an audaciously original and deliciously gruesome new perspective. Debut author Robin Becker blazes new ground with this story of former college professor-cum-sentient zombie Jack Barnes, who recounts the tale of the resistance he organized in the wake of the recent zombie apocalypse. World War Z; Shaun of the Dead; Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies… Becker tops them all with Brains—a witty, tasty treat for anyone who every spent a midnight glued to a classic George A. Romero zombie epic!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 25, 2010
    ISBN9780062000309
    Unavailable
    Brains: A Zombie Memoir

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    Reviews for Brains

    3.5/5

    71 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Told from the perspective of a zombie who finds he has the ability to think and to write, Brains was unexpectedly funny and very well-written.
    • 4/5
      So far I'm enjoying the book immensely! It's chock full of clever cultural references and clearly written by someone with a witty sense of humor. I'll have to wait and see if the story/plot follows in this way, if so... It could become a favorite.

      Final thoughts after finishing: Everything above sticks but the book slowed, the clever writing and references were mostly sacrificed to an okay plot. Great book but I was disappointed that the finish wasn't as spectacular as the start.
    • 2/5
      Brains: A Zombie Memoir approaches the zombie novel from the perspective of a zombie narrator, and though the concept has been utilized a few times (with more or less success) it is still an interesting way in to the zombie story and can be a lot of fun.I wish I could say that Brains made good use of the vantage point of the zombie to aids its very obvious intention to be humorous, but I just can't. It's an incredibly bland, cliche novel that relies on a lot of tropes and overused devices to try to force a chuckle out of the reader. The zombie in question is Professor Jack Barnes, who, once turned, sets out to try and find other zombies like himself -- zombies that can think and write like he can, so that they can convince the living to treat them equally and respectfully despite their cannibalistic nature. It is a scary concept in a lot of ways -- the thought of retaining all of my mental faculties despite your body literally rotting around you, unable to communicate to others -- but Brains doesn't ever seem to know where it stands and whether it takes itself serious or whether the entire thing is tongue-in-cheek. Because I didn't know where it stood on its own issues, I had trouble deciding where I stood on IT, and that coupled with the truly mediocre writing and poor attempts at humor really threw me off. It took me days to finish and I felt really let down.
    • 2/5
      **This review is of an Advanced Review Copy, not the product released for purchase.**This is a different take on the traditional zombie tale. Man gets bitten by zombie. Man becomes zombie. Man realizes that although he is now a zombie, he still has his personality, can think, and can write. Man searches for other zombies who have retained some kind of intelligence and proceeds to have existential discussions with himself. Once he has gathered a small group of "soldiers," the main character leads them to find their maker, a scientist who unleashed the zombie virus upon the world.This story has a great beginning, a great ending, and a really fun premise. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to get through the middle. I'm a big horror fan. I'll devour a classic Stephen King novel or a Dean Koontz novel in less than a day. "Brains" was just too much for me. I could handle the descriptions of cannibalism, but the violence against small children made me want to stop reading several times. I slogged though, even though it literally made me feel sick. Plus, the literate zombie's internal musings got very repetitive and bordered on annoying. I know he's not supposed to be likable, but he wasn't even entertaining. However, when I talk to library patrons about reading, I tell them that it's important to every now and again read something they don't like because it will help them identify and appreciate their literary tastes. I didn't want to be a hypocrite.Take out the baby scenes (at least the human baby scenes) and cut out a lot of the drivel in the middle and you've got a great short story. Something tells me that this started out as a short story and the author decided to flesh it out (ha ha) and make it a novel. She should have left well enough alone.
    • 5/5
      Since I have never read a zombie-centric book in my life, I decided to broaden my horizons when an opportunity to review one came up. And I think I have found yet another genre that I highly enjoy!After reading and laughing (out loud may I add!) my way through the first chapter I had to keep going to see what antics Jack would get involved in with his search for his creator. This book was exceptionally clever and entertaining until the last page. I was infatuated with the idea that he still maintained a ‘human’ perspective with the instinctual thirsts that a zombie would possess, in one word, BRAINS! I loved that he would rationalize most situations as a human would, but survival instincts almost always prevailed.The characters that Becker created were phenomenal. Although most of the zombies shuffled around with food on the mind, there were some stand-out characters that still retained their human-like qualities which made a hilarious and entertaining motley crew as they battled their way across the United States. Another human-like quality that I appreciated in Jack were his random tangents of pop culture from current events surrounding him.This was a fun and quick read that I highly recommend to anyone who wants to explore the inevitable zombie takeover of the world!
    • 4/5
      A very quick and funny read. Writing was not top notch, but the story was quite entertaining. Not sure I liked the ending as much as the story of the way to get to the ending, but still pretty funny. If you like zombies and like to chuckle and want a nice light and quick read, this book is for you.
    • 1/5
      Couldnt even finish a quarter of the book. Relies way too much on cliches to be funny.
    • 4/5
      This gory dive into the world of the undead is written more like literary fiction, instead of the thriller or horror one might expect when picking up a zombie story. Our hero is Jack Barnes, a one time English proffessor, now doomed to zombie-hood. He is different than his drooling mindless counterparts however, in that he can think and write. He finds others like him, with intelligence and special abilites, and vows to try to live peacefully with the humans and try to come to some sort of treaty; his people would be allowed to live, and they would eat the unwanted of the humans - criminals and such. The story revolves heavily around a zombie, who remembers his human days, who is trying to merge the two realities together. He loves and wants to be loved, yet he also loves to eat brains. At times a little too prosey for my taste, but the heavy handed wording fits well with the tone of the book.
    • 4/5
      Jack Barnes was a mild mannered, elitist English professor one minute and a salivating, brain loving zombie the next. Even though he has been zombified and can no longer speak, he has somehow retained his brain function and ability to reason. He decides to seek out the scientist responsible for the virus to prove his self awareness and end the conflict between zombie and man. Along the way, he encounters other zombies with unique abilities: Joan can repair zombies injuries, making their undeaths longer; Ros (a nickname given by Jack after Rosencrantz of Hamlet fame) can speak as well as he did in life; Guts can run faster than any other zombie; Annie is a sharpshooter with killer aim; and Eve is a pregnant zombie who will hopefully give birth to a bouncing zombie baby. Can Jack and his troupe of talented zombies tell the authorities of their sentience before they are killed? Is there any possible resolution between man and zombie? This short book is an interesting read. It’s the first book I’ve read from the point of view of a zombie during a zombie apocalypse situation. Usually with a narrative of this style, zombies are integrated in society and trying to cope. In this novel, zombies mostly have the upper hand with sheer numbers while society has fallen apart. Another unique aspect of the novel is how it’s practically drowning in different allusions and references to pop culture. Everything is referenced from Shakespeare to zombie films to philosophy and everything in between. The number and breadth of these references impressed me and made the narrative a little schizophrenic in a postmodern way.Zombies are used to highlight the wrongs in our society, as they do in many other films and novels. Before he was a zombie, Jack was a pretty terrible person. He was a sexist that viewed women as simply the sum of her parts. The most despicable thing he said about his mentality before zombification was how he loved anorexic girls best because of their low self esteem and self discipline. He was an elitist and scorned anything remotely associated with lower social classes. When he became a zombie, none of these things mattered anymore. It was only when he was separated from society and humanity that he experienced happiness and love in his odd zombie family unit. Race also doesn’t matter to zombies. They are all shades of grey and they all want brains and more brains. Being a zombie is preferable to being human, according to this novel, because of the equality and unity it provides. Brains is a really fast, enjoyable read. The only thing I would have liked to see is the perspective of the other sentient zombies. I think they could have added more to the story. It kind of feels funny to root for the flesh eating zombies for once, but this novel is a welcome addition to the zombie genre.
    • 4/5
      The premise is unique and the story is entertaining but it just seems a bit rushed. The book jumps forward days, weeks, or even months at a time in a few sentences with no comment or reason. I understand that some of this is explainable by the first person perspective and a lack of interest from the narrator but it seems that it's not so much a novel as a very detailed outline for a larger story. I recommend the book for its originality but it doesn't need to go to the top of your reading list.
    • 4/5
      Robin Becker's "Brains" was a fairly satisfying zombie novel, and with that accomplishment it broke the mold of most zombie long fiction. I love zombies, I've always loved zombies, but to be honest the majority of zombie novels on the market are a huge disappointment. I was more than a bit wary of Becker's effort at first, seeing as it based its narrative on a 1st person perspective, dependent upon personifying zombies and allowing them human characteristics, thus necessarily taking them beyond the genre as I saw it, but I was in for a surprise. Becker's personality actually suits a zombie (No offense intended dear, but I call it as I see it). Whether it's her writing skill or her actual personality, the sense of humor, the alienation from humanity, the predatory nature exhibited in the zombies she describes actually works. The jokes her primary zombie character engages in remind me of some of my friends, and even of myself. Upon reading the book, one may either find this fact hilarious or deplorable. I make no apologies, and I suspect and truly hope that neither does Becker. And there you have it... I was so enraptured by the ability of the writer to personify the zombie point of view that I was quite unable to objectively judge any other aspect of her writing style. I think there were a few things that annoyed me, a few failings here or there, and her excessive praise for Max Brooks' "Zombie Survival Guide", which I found imbecilic and could bear no more than a brief moment's examination of, certainly grated a bit... but the main thing that carries this book isn't technical detail, isn't necessarily literary skill, it's personality. "Brains" has it. In spades. I recommend it strongly to those aching for a taste of brains... it may not be the holy grail, but it's certainly entertaining and given what's available on the market you may not get much better anytime soon unless your eyes glaze over and you crack open a skull yourselves.
    • 5/5
      Brains: A Zombie Memoir by Robin Becker was brilliant, to say the least. It was edgy, refreshing and totally unlike anything I have read lately. It was a quick read, at only 192 pages. I only wish it would have been longer- but the author was clever leaving it as she did. I don't know if I will get to visit the courageous and cunning Jack Barnes again- though I would be the first one in line to buy a second book if there ever was one.A scientist, Stein, has been trying to mold the perfect person. But, just like it should- it all goes wrong when they release the virus before it is ready. This leads us to the endearing college professor, Jack Barnes, and his wife being surrounded by infectious people. Zombies. He inevitably contracts the foul zombie virus that has been eating the country. Along with his newly decaying body he has found a new passion: Brains. He says it better than anyone, "...beautiful, bountiful, bubbly, bewitching, bedazzling brains." I am in love with the way this book is written. It made me laugh, cringe and hope. Hope for zombies? Who would have thought. I was utterly torn, do I want the zombies to get slaughtered?! Do I want them to survive to brutally eat more humans!? Geesh, I still don't know. But I DO know that I loved Jack Barnes and his little entourage of special zombies. Jack goes on an adventure with his fellow zombies to find their God, their creator... the reason this all started. Stein. I mean, he must appreciate their existence, right? He'll help them survive among humans.... right?This is what I love about Jack- when you look into his eyes, they aren't vacant and glossed over like the majority of the undead. No, he is self aware. He can read. He can write. And he is smart enough to realize there are others like him. He finds Guts, Joan, Annie, Ross and Eve. All with their own individual zombie super powers. They will fight for equality, or die (again) trying!I highly suggest this book to anyone- if you don't mind some serious flesh eating. The book is written in first person, which is why it is so much fun. Who doesn't want to be present for the thought process of a self aware zombie? I'm going to be reading this book more than once, and recommending it to all my guy friends. Can we have another, Ms. Becker?