Nerds That Geek Book Review: ‘Nights of the Living Dead’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​The endurance of the living dead as a whole, never ceases to amaze me. This disturbing creature and all of its various iterations have been around for well over eighty years and the modern zombie as we know it, the flesh-eating kind that is, have been around for just about fifty. But only in the last ten years or so, has this iconic monster truly enjoyed its renaissance.
 
After all, the zombie is literally everywhere. You’ll find them in comics, on television and finding a fun zombie flick is as easy as popping the word into the search bar on Netflix. However, this kind of popularity has its draw backs, because in some ways the zombie has lost a bit of its power and ability to scare by becoming iconic enough to appear on a lunch box. Which is why I’m always grateful when I discover any kind of living dead media that manages to bring back the raw terror these creatures instill in all of us, and recently I came across a piece of work that meets that criteria by way of the wonderful anthology novel, Nights of the Living Dead.
 
This magnificent compilation of short stories, takes us back into the world that George A. Romero envisioned back in 1968, by giving us an in depth look at how the rest of mankind dealt with the beginning of the end of the world, and I use the word magnificent when it comes to this book because it has managed to do the impossible… it scared the living hell out of me. There are some incredibly disturbing and powerful stories to be found in this compilation, since it features tales from some supremely creative heavyweights such as Jonathan Maberry, Jay Bonansinga and Brian Keene.
 
But truly, the centerpiece of this anthology, is the sheer fact that it features a story from The Godfather of the Dead himself, George A. Romero. Yes, you read that right, Romero revisited the world he created one last time and let me tell you his story is an utter joy to read through and through. It’s terrifying, it’s powerful and it’s poignant simply due to the fact that this anthology was released shortly before his death and there’s something deeply profound about the fact he was able to write a story in the universe he created and share his dream and vision with so many incredible writers. And to top it off, this tale would serve as the humble beginnings of what would turn out to be the finale of this saga by way of the novel The Living Dead, which was co-written/finished by Daniel Kraus after George’s untimely passing.
 
But all that aside, make no mistake about it. This is a frightening book. On several occasions, I had to put it down to clear the disturbing images out of my head and I only made the mistake of reading it before bedtime once since it had a profound effect on the tranquility of my sleep. Which means that this book is a must own for any zombie fan and quite frankly, any fan of horror for that matter as well. Because this is the zombie genre returning to its roots and it makes these unholy abominations the powerful force we remember them to be and I do hope this book inspires future anthologies that are equally as eager to unleash the living dead’s true fury upon mankind and make us hesitant to see what that noise was outside in the middle of the night.

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