Disgustingly horrific. I loved it. Gory as hell with a twist that I've yet to see on the zombie genre.

thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the arc!

It was a good book. I really liked the story behind the virus and how they found it. My issue was with the pacing of the story. I feel like it takes a lot of pages to get to the action of the book (more than half of it) and then it goes away quickly. I also felt like the characters could have been given names more diverse since there were a lot of scenes where characters with similar names were together. As it’s a short book, I didn’t know enough about them to recognize and assimilate them. It happened a few times for me when Lalo and Larry where together or when Agent Jackson and Jason where fighting the zombies.

I was going to give this book 2,5 but honestly I found the ending so funny that made me go up to 3.

I love horror that is gross and gore filled so this zombie book was perfect for me!

It's got body horror, bodily fluids, and lots of zombies! Very much gave me Night of the Living Dead vibes. The characters were great and for a short book the chapters were very in depth and went by quick! The story flows beautifully and gives you tons of entertainment in a short read! Also who doesn't love women in horror!!!

***ARC from NetGalley***

This was a wild ride. Originally, based on the cover, I thought this would be a graphic novel. Nope, but that is fine. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Not sure if the final version will have trigger warnings at the beginning, but the book opens strong and never lets up. It is violent, but that is the point. And it really is janitors vs. the living dead. As I neared the end of the book I wondered if a different title would work (just for fun), but like the overall story, it is to the point and pulls no punches.

It is a very clever plot and the reader will come to care for the characters and actively root against the bad guys. The ending is a bit open in that the story could continue, but most likely will not.

If you like horror and/or zombies, highly recommend.

A fun, quick, gory read. Interesting spin on a zombie trope, and I very much appreciated just the “right amount” of gore. Absolutely there is gratuitous gore, but the plot didn’t rely on just that shock factor. Unlike some other extreme horror books rely too much on the extreme gore for lack of a plot, this book absolutely did a fantastic job balancing them. But please do understand, there IS an extreme amount of gore and graphic depictions of violence.

This book is perfect for those who want a fun horror read, that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I enjoyed the misfit heroes, and the backstory of how the parasite was discovered and how it turned the victims into zombies. Just don’t get too attached to the characters here, the fast pace of the book doesn’t lend itself to lengthy character development which, I actually appreciated. It is a zombie book after all.

If you’re looking for a fast paced, gory, unserious horror novel to cozy up to for a weekend, this is the book for you.

Janitors vs The Living Dead starts out gory and disgusting and continues throughout the entire book. It was great. A country club is overtaken by zombies and it’s up to the janitorial crew, also known as SCUM, to save them. These zombies are spreading the virus quickly. The quiet, pristine neighborhood turns into chaos. The chapters are long and usually that makes reading hard for me, however, this book is so full of action and gruesomeness, I was not deterred. I would definitely recommend this book to any extreme horror fan. Thank you Netgalley and Dead Sky Publishing for the digital arc.

What a read by the sisters of slaughter!!!

This is a horror, splatterpunk, and darkly funny book. A small community vs the janitorial crew for the community, zombie style. The descriptions in this book are amazing and make you feel like you are there with the dead surrounding you. The characters are easy to like, and the book has a constant steady pace of action happening.

Located just outside of Sedona, Arizona, the Serenity Canyon community is an exclusive place. Rich folks, nice houses, lovely neighborhoods. For those who can afford to live there, all the amenities are available. For those who have to work there, however, it’s a daily exploration of drudgery and excess. The Serentiy Canyon Maintenance (the SCM initials are usually expanded to SCUM by the workers themselves) crew are responsible for keeping the place clean and for bestowing free house cleaning services once a month. They take a lot of nonsense for the low wages they earn.

However, things are a’changing in the community, and those changes will tear apart expectations for both the privileged and the working class.

It all begins with Dr. Theodore Reinart coming home from a terrible day at the office. His put upon wife endures all manner of abuse until she’s had enough and kills him. Faced with the ugly reality of disposing of the body, she gets the idea to stuff him down the outhouse over by the golf course. It is supposedly only for official use and seldom cleaned. The idea of her horrible husband’s remains rotting down there among the mounds of waste is all too precious.

However, what Stephi fails to realize is that Teddy is not himself. In fact, he’s a breeding ground for parasites that can stitch his dismembered body back together, make him mobile and aware again, and give him a desire for destruction. Not merely against the woman who killed him but against the entire human race. The parasites want a breeding ground, after all. They want more space, more puppets to control, more food …

The SCUM crew are among the first to get clues that something is awry. Their once in a blue moon outhouse cleanup detail discovers something either blew up the place or crawled out from below. However, they have enough internal strife to distract them from the bigger problems. Instead, they focus on the cleaning element, thus allowing the reanimated Teddy a bit of time to kill. And as the evening’s soiree approaches, which will invite all the community to a can’t miss party and forces the SCUM crew to stick around after hours for late night clean-up detail, Teddy’s going to have an easy time taking down as many community inhabitants at one time as he could like.

Soon enough, the community becomes a battle ground. However, Teddy’s government run research group may offer some hope. The accident that ended up infecting him with the parasites infected others at his lab. Dr. Abilene there has some idea of what is going on, and if she can get the right data and act quickly, she may be able to intervene before the parasitic invasion gets completely out of control. But will she be able to crack the mystery, will Teddy run rampant, and will the SCUM get motivated and save the day? Michele Garza and Melissa Lason (collectively known as The Sisters of Slaughter) pen a short and nasty splatterpunk novel about the have-nots and the have-lots batting not to become the have-rots in Janitors vs. the Living Dead.

Say what you want about the American powder keg culture these days, but it’s certainly an overflowing wellspring of inspiration for satire and horror novels. The Sisters of Slaughter have taken up the banner, spinning a yarn about parasite zombies overrunning a community and adding in plentiful assaults on social privilege along the way. Not to suggest the book is a screed on such topics. These ideas mostly occupy the subtext and some sly asides, but the theme is clear as day for anyone bothering to look beneath the surface. This is a book written from the hearts of two authors who’ve known crap jobs, and their sympathies always lie with the workers forced to clean up other people’s waste. The wealthy might have money and opportunities that the workers never will, but they are also pretty much incapable of recognizing or defending themselves from the otherworldly. Not that the SCUM crew has a much larger chance, of course. Human beings don’t want to believe they’re living in a horror show, but folks used to being on the receiving end of the feces boulders that slide downhill seem to have a better chance of getting out of the way that the folks responsible for rolling them do.

Even the government funded progenitors of the book’s apocalypse seem utterly incapable of reading one another and dealing with their own nonsense. In cut away scenes to the lab’s woes, head researcher Reinart is revealed to have been a liar and philanderer, who was operating from an agenda wholly unknown to his colleagues. His infectious accident might not have been so accidental as it seemed … and within the organization itself there are plans within plans, agendas on top of agendas, and few of them have to do with the survival of civilians. Profits and domination are part and parcel of the American Way, after all …

On top of these meditations, Garza and Lason have put together a delightfully disgusting splatter novel about a particularly nasty strain of walking dead. This is a book that’s not afraid to employ all manner of bodily fluids in addition to blood in its pages to gross us out, and it’s effective at doing so. The master cadaver wanders about smeared with dried turds and urine, he and his minions use spit and projectile vomit in order to infect others when they aren’t biting and rending victims to pieces for sustenance. As we might expect, there’s some potty humor to go along with the gruesome horror, which probably should not work as well as it does. The whole experience will leave most readers yearning for a mental scrub to clear some of this stuff out of our memory banks. Nevertheless, it’s a fun, filthy, and repulsive ride into extreme horror.

And the reason it works as well as it does is the fact that The Sisters of Slaughter have not forgotten to give us characters to empathize with and a few to hiss at. Despite the short page count on this sucker, it’s got an epic cast of dozens, and while not everyone is fleshed out and layered, there are enough memorable characterizations to keep us turning the pages. So, we have the SCUM’s laidback leader Lalo, their uptight property manager Peter, the regular housecleaners Rosa and Isabel, the always bickering Shane and Jose, the nearing retirement Carl, the new girl Sunny, and a host of others on the SCUM crew. We also have old Miss Brandon and her Pomeranian Puffkins, Stephi the killer housewife trying to cover her tracks, the rich party thrower Claudia and her coming home from college daughters Kim and Andrea, we have the louse Joel, and other wealthy homeowners. On the side of the research, we have clever Dr. Sarah Abilene, the sinister Dr. Murphy, the over-their-heads security dudes Donald Freely and Trent “T” Carver, as well as a couple of brutally efficient on-site agents Boze and Jackson. And then there’s the loose cannon Big Jim, an Army vet suffering from psychological trauma who was let go from the SCUM crew, disappointed his catering wife Sandy, and is now looking for a little payback—will he wind up back at the Canyon in time to mess things up? You bet. It’s a big group of potential victims and heroes, and we’re never quite sure who will survive.

Horror afficionados who prefer their living dead as an uncoordinated stand-in for pure anarchy may be disappointed to find the mob is a more coordinated and directed source of terror. As well, the creatures in The Sisters of Slaughter’s book seem to be divided into strata, around 1% of them retaining conscious memory of who they were and the others being mindless automatons of parasitic destruction, which may cause ghoul apocalypse purists to turn up their noses. However, it all feeds into the larger picture.

Janitors vs. the Living Dead is a fun page turner of a read. Siding firmly on the splatterpunk side of the fence, it has some things to say about the society we live in, some extremes to visit, and a distinct conscience. However, it’s all delivered at a horror beat we can boogey to. Smart, sometimes surreal, and always nasty, the book belongs on the shelves of readers looking for a gory gross out of a good time.

I liked the beginning more than the middle and the end. It got to be too repetitive. The cover is so cool and I was intrigued to read it. I would recommend to other people but it just wasn’t my favorite arc to read.

I have a strong stomach for horror and gore but I whole book about zombies vomiting and bowels exploding 🤢🤮

This is good zombie horror. It was entertaining. Don’t get too attached to any characters because no one is safe in a zombie horror. This was not a new twist on a zombie horror. The underdogs being the janitors in a high society neighborhood because the only people who can stop the zombie apocalypse.

In a 200+ page book the chapters are looooooong. There is only 8 chapters in the whole book but there is enough page breaks to take a break when needed.

Genre: Horror
APK: Ebook
Pages: 229
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Series or Standalone: Stand-alone

Thank you Dark Sky Publishing for a free copy of Janitors vs the Living Dead for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a review copy.

This is a very refreshing zombie novel. It takes a lot to get and keep my attention with zombies these days, but Janitors vs. the Living Dead was so much fun. The book reads like an action movie, and has a root cause I don't think has been explored much in zombie fiction. These zombies are grosssss, y'all. Zombies are objectively disgusting anyway, but these zombies are even worse than usual. Trust me. Overall, the book has some really cool ideas executed very well. I was unfamiliar with the authors, but am delighted to see they have an extensive back catalog, so I'll definitely be checking those out. 4 stars

This book is heavy on the “gross” elements, which is typically what I steer away from in horror. I did not get the desired experience of being scared from this book so I had to put it down. Readers that are wanting to feel grossed out will enjoy this one. I am more into horrors with extreme violence and heavy overarching themes and this one is different. The cover is neat though!

I appreciate the opportunity to leave this honest feedback voluntarily.

I was not prepared for the way this book started. It immediately throws you into the chaos of a deeply unsettling scene featuring a misogynistic abuser and his brutal demise. If shock value was the goal, the author certainly succeeded.

> She thought of cutting him into pieces and tossing him in the lake but she worried he’d end up rising to the top because shit always floats.
>

Lines like this set the tone—dark, grotesque, and laced with a grim sense of humor. This book is definitely for fans of body horror. If you’re squeamish, tread carefully. It doesn’t push the envelope too far by modern genre standards, but someone picking it up based on the title alone might be in for a nasty surprise.

The writing leans heavily into visceral imagery, sometimes to great effect:

> The moniker stuck to them all like feces on a bathroom wall….
>

Not exactly poetic, but certainly evocative. However, there’s something that feels off about the way racial and ethnic aspects are handled. Most of the janitors in the book are Latino/a, which leans into a stereotype in a way that feels uncomfortable. It’s not overtly offensive, but there’s an underlying ickiness to it that’s hard to ignore.

The book does bring an interesting twist to the zombie genre with sentient undead and zombie POVs. That’s not something we often see, and it adds a fresh perspective. Unfortunately, the execution leaves something to be desired. There are inconsistencies in the storytelling that make the narrative feel amateurish. For example, a character doesn’t know what an orchestra pit is in one sentence, then is talking about a gala in the next. If the intent was to portray memory loss, it needed to be done with more finesse.

Ultimately, I found myself skimming the last half of the book. The premise had promise, but the execution didn’t hold my attention. If you love body horror and don’t mind a few narrative stumbles, you might find something to enjoy here. But for me, it just didn’t land.

I am not going to give this a rating anywhere else just because I don’t think it’s for me. I do think it is a good book and I think others would really like it however I dnf’d at 53%.

*Thank you to NetGalley, the authors and publisher for an advanced copy!*

Mopocalypse Now!”

Finally, a zombie novel that dares to ask: What if the real last line of defense against the undead was a group of overworked, underpaid janitors who’ve had enough?

Janitors vs. the Living Dead delivers everything you never knew you needed—mop-wielding mayhem, industrial-strength disinfectant used as a weapon, and breakroom banter that’s somehow sharper than the machetes. These custodial warriors don’t just clean up messes; they annihilate them.

The action is relentless, the humor is darker than a school bathroom at 5 AM, and by the end, you’ll have a newfound respect for the people who take out the trash—especially when the trash bites back.

This zombie book is fast paced, the action starts immediately. This not your typical zombie book it has a lot of elements to which consist of gore, lots of vomit, explicit scenes and downright just gross. This book takes place in the beautiful desert setting of Arizona, where we explore a janitorial staff called the SCUM crew. They work in an exclusive neighborhood that caters to the rich and famous. What starts off as a night full of overtime and dealing with uppity people is a night full of terror and a fight for survival.
I enjoyed the book had a very good back story explaining the origin of the parasite that made people zombies. The characters were believable and seem like people you’ll know. Once the action started it didn’t end until the very last page.
Definitely give this book a read as it has a nice spin on the zombie genre. If you want to read a book with a different take on zombies and want to be grossed out, this is the book for you! I do not recommend this for anyone who has a weak stomach. Will definitely be reading more from these authors.
Thank you to Michelle Garza, Melissa Lason, NetGalley, Dead Sky Publishing- Death’s Head Press for providing me with an ARC! I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book was both vile and disgusting. I loved it! It left me feeling queasy from reading, but I wanted to know how it all ended. This was a fun read that doesn't take itself too seriously. If you like Shaun of the Dead, this would probably be a good book for you! It definitely has good splatterpunk scenes! I read this book strictly based on the title and cover art and it did not let me down. I fully expected it to be a wild, erratic, nasty ride and it was all that plus some!

On the downside, there were many spelling and grammatical mistakes throughout the book. I skipped over the first several because all books have mistakes, but I eventually started to track them and there are enough that it lessened the enjoyment for me. This includes using the wrong word several times, the wrong spelling, missing words, missing letters in words, and even conversations that appear to have been edited and wasn't fully removed. I counted more than a dozen of these issues. I hope this gets fixed before publishing because it's a great book otherwise, and would make a disgustingly great horror movie!

I absolutely adore this weird, gross little book. It is everything I love in a good horror book. There’s gore, profanity, hilarious characters, and so much more. Definitely a 5 star read for me!

Thanks so much to the authors, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me this eARC in exchange for an honest review. I've read some of The Sisters of Slaughter works in the past but that did not prepare me for this extreme horror slaughterfest. Janitors vs. The Living Dead reads like that classic zombie movie from the 80s, Return of the Living Dead. Full of humor, gore, horror and great death scenes makes this book stand out for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this reading and look forward to delving further into their catalog. Highly highly recommended.

I really appreciate what this book tried to do, I love a zombie story. But overall I think it failed when it comes to writing characters. None of them were particularly likable but also they talked like overly stereotypical tropes. It often got repetitive in how it described zombies and gore. But had a few decently fun scenes.