Zombies in Pennsylvania, again! Yes, this is written by the screenwriter of Night of the Living Dead. Chapel Grove, Pennsylvania, to be exact! This time the "THEY'RE EATING FOR TWO." Mother in the maternity ward have been bitten and they are now going to breed the next generation of zombies. I am going to leave this review right there so you can enjoy the rest of the story on your own. I am giving this a 3.5 star review rounded to 4. Why? Because anything related to the original George A. Romero deserves stars!

While Russo is an originator of the zombie genre as we know it, it might be time to let the dead die.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I'd rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher, and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

This entry into the Living Dead saga, that was created by the author with the classic Night Of The Living Dead and turned into the classic film was a big let down. I was not able to get into the story or the characters. It was very slow moving and I found it a chore to get to the halfway mark. Which I still have not made it to as of yet. I do not believe I will finish it either. Two stars for the mere star power and respect I have for the author, nothing more.

Epidemic of the Living Dead is about a town in Chapel Grove, Pennsylvania. Zombie outbreaks have already been happening but Chapel Grove has been pretty lucky until infected needles start a plague which affects the pregnant women of the town.

At first, the newborns of the infected mothers seem to be normal, but then they start to change. They hang out in their own groups. Detective Bill Curtis and his wife’s daughter weren’t affected by the virus until she is bitten by one of the “kids.” So, they witness it firsthand while a government facility that has been playing god has been monitoring these kids too.

Honestly, the best part of Epidemic of the Living Dead is the beginning chapters with the infected needles and the concert. Those scenes were intense. The first half of the book was my favorite.

The downside of the book is that almost every character is unlikable. Especially Bill’s partner Pete Danko who thinks that he’s the top dog. He doesn’t even flinch when he shoots his zombie son and has killed innocent people to get information. So, it’s kind of hard to feel too bad for any of the characters.

The other downside is that the story is just okay. The kids being “superior” and hanging out in a group together gave me major The Village of the Damned vibes.

Overall Epidemic of the Living Dead will appeal to zombie obsessed fans that are looking for a quick read. It’s not exactly memorable but it does make a fun Halloween one. My rating for this book is 3 out of 5 stars!

This ended up on my DNF pile. The premise was great, but the story was written in what I percieved as "script writing". I stopped at 39%. No offence to the author, but this couldve done with better editing.

I'm approximately 50% through this book and I have to say it is not what I thought it was going to be. I had very high hopes for this title because of the iconic John Russo who wrote it. I admire Russo and Romero immensely for their major contributions to zombie popular culture. Basically, they created the modern zombie as we know them today, without their release of 'Night of the Living Dead', we wouldn't have all the incredible zombie films and TV shows that we do now.

So I came into this book with very high hopes and maybe that's why I feel a bit let down. I found that were were many major characters in this book and the constant shifting of voices and perspectives made the story hard to follow. I did enjoy the general aspects of the story such as, the way society continues to live with the threat of the plague constantly overhead and the way that the government was so corrupt (it made for some interesting situations).

I didn't enjoy the random secondary characters, especially the stupid names of the druggies/dealers. I found myself getting annoyed at all the dumb nicknames and it was a real turn off for me. I also found an error in the book, at one point it states that Wanda got bit by her son who was then killed by his own father....but she was never bitten, the son was killed and Wanda wanted to die along with her son, but she never was bitten.

As I've said, these are my comments at around halfway finished with the book, I am unsure if I'll even finish this title because it hasn't really hooked me. If this book wasn't written by a legend like Russo I may have not even gotten to the 50% mark. I will amend my Goodreads review if I ever finish this book, but this is my all comments currently.

Epidemic of the Living Dead by John Russo

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃



John Russo, decades later, continues to re-invent and bring a fresh take on the zombie horror subgenre in Epidemic of the Living Dead.



The story is about a world that has already dealt with the terrifying plague of the undead. Years later, infected needles are stolen and the town of Chapel Grove, Pennsylvania is overrun with zombies. A lot of people die, and some expecting-mothers are bitten and sent to a maternity ward to deliver their babies. The newborns of these infected mothers seemed to be normal, but as the years go by, these kids start inhibiting strange characteristics and appetites, especially once they reach puberty.



I finished this book in three days because I couldn't put it down! There are so many twists and turns, fast-paced dilemmas and occurrences with the flesh-hungry ghouls, and John Russo kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. I kept turning page after page because the suspense was always at an all-time high. There are no boring parts, I can assure you that.



The main character, detective Bill Curtis, is a very well-written and enjoyable character that I was rooting for the whole time. Each character in the book was believable and either made me hate them or feel some sort of sympathy or approval.



If you're a zombie fan, or just a fan of good horror in general, I highly recommend Epidemic of the Living Dead by John Russo.



I would really like to see this book turned into a big budget movie.



And the book is not just a good horror/zombie story, it has a very well-crafted scientific take.



I received an ARC copy from NetGalley, but now I REALLY want the physical copy of the book.

So, I have a confession to make. I’ve been waiting for someone else to review this book.

Oh, not that I wanted to copy their review. I just keep thinking that maybe I missed some huge thing and that someone else’s review will point something out that I can appreciate – something to make me like this better.

But, no, as of the day I’m writing this, I’m it. And I sort of want to write this before I forget the book.

And you see…I will forget it.

Oh, I appreciate the author. He’s one of the OGs of the zombie sub-genre. He’s written a ton of really good books in this arena and I was so looking forward to this.

And…I didn’t love it.

Part of the issue was the style. It’s mostly tell and very little show. It made the read slower than normal – I even felt apart from some of the action scenes. And most of the characters? They didn’t live and breathe for me. Most never made it past the cardboard cutout stage.

The book spans years – over a decade – and jumps over years in a split second of text. It was disconcerting.

But, I did like his zombies and I definitely appreciated the very different spin he adds to a genre that’s gotten very cliché.

It was just a much slower read than I had hoped.

Will still happily read the next one. This one just wasn’t quite for me.