The Z Word
Ratings11
Average rating3.4
“Sexy, scathing, delightful, and intimately devastating.”—Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt and Cuckoo Packed with action, humor, sex, and big gay feelings, The Z Word is the queer zombie romp you didn’t know you needed. Chaotic bisexual Wendy is trying to find her place in the queer community of San Lazaro, Arizona, after a bad breakup—which is particularly difficult because her ex is hooking up with some of her friends. And when the people around them start turning into violent, terrifying mindless husks, well, that makes things harder. Especially since the infection seems to be spreading. Now, Wendy and her friends and frenemies—drag queen Logan, silver fox Beau, sword lesbian Aurelia and her wife Sam, mysterious pizza delivery stoner Sunshine, and, oh yeah, Wendy’s ex-girlfriend Leah—have to team up to stay alive, save Pride, and track the zombie outbreak to its shocking source. Hopefully without killing each other first. The Z Word is a propulsive, funny, emotional horror debut about a found family coming together to fight corporate greed, political corruption, gay drama, and zombies.
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hmmm. i felt that the characterization in this was a bit too reliant on marginalized identity=personality without giving us much else. it was akin to how i felt about the cast in brooms.
one star for steamy sex scenes, i guess, even though i'm massively judging wendy's sense of priorities (and unhealthy, eye-rolling obsession with her ex). once the infection stuff started going, the book also began moving pretty fast, so there's that. but the underlying corporate pride (and company spokesperson) stuff seemed a bit too clowny for me even though i wanted the allegory to work.
also i keep fixating on how in a flashback, one character makes a therapy appointment for their partner against their will and drives them to the appointment without any sort of heads up whatsoever to the other person while positioning themself as a savior. that seemed pretty fucked up to me.
The Z Word is a wild ride. It was just the story I needed at the exact moment I got my mitts on it. I enjoyed the hell out of it. What's poor Wendy to do when there is an outbreak during Pride of an infection that turns people into, well, zombies? Well, she could form a gang with a drag queen, Beau, Aurelia, and her ex, Leah, and try not to get bitten.
Add in a pizza delivery person driving around in a pizza delivery van designed by Mad Max and an evil beverage company and you have some idea of how wild and wacky this will get. The Z Word is also surprisingly sweet and has some moments I would love to see come alive on the big screen.
Maybe someday.
Not sure if I’m just maybe not a zombie book person, or if this one just didn’t hit for me. But this didn’t make me wanna read more books like this. Story felt kinda over the top, even for a zombie book. The two main characters who were like maybe not over each other seemed to have a really terrible relationship, so the story kinda acts like you’re wanting to pit them together again but they definitely should not. And you find out someone was involved in and their “redemption” arc isn’t really redemption-y enough for me.
