The world is going to
hell - people are dying, zombies are rising and everything is falling apart.
Which rather interrupts porn stars Dick Shooter’s and Bunny Hole’s latest
scene.
They try to protect
those they care about as the world continues to descend - and eventually end up
in a mega-church
So I saw this book
and realised it was a zombie apocalypse told from the point of view of a porn
star, complete with puns.
Naturally I told
myself I was above such puerile nonsense and I will not lower myself for such
clearly gratuitous ridiculousness.
And then I requested
it. Because you all knew I would, right? Our protagonist is called Dick
Shooter, of course I had to request this!
I didn’t go into this
book expecting something especially high brow. I expected something ridiculous,
unnecessarily sexualised but probably very fun. On some level I was right -
this was fun, extremely fun. It was silly, it was often ridiculous, we have an
extremely well endowed porn star couple known and recognised far and wide and
zombie diseases causing appendages to drop off. Hell we have a character called
Mr. Bater. Of course it’s super childish in places - but it’s fun and
surprisingly recognises lines.
There’s also a lot of
really cute moments - like people believing (not unreasonably) that this is the
end of the world and our porn star protagonists camping in a church. In a
surprising move there’s some very pragmatic alliances of necessity, some
recognition that while doing porn is not morally right with the church goers,
Dick coming back from the dead and seeming to have
In fact Dick and
Bunny, while not exactly brilliant, aren’t depicted as bimboes either. They’re
not shamed or attacked by either their depiction or the other characters for
being porn stars. Dick may not be the best father but he’s not a completely
awful one and clearly loves and cherishes his daughter, Abigail. And she is a
brilliant, smart, mature and excellent character. Bunny loves sex, isn’t shamed
for this, is clearly not damaged or hurting or broken or wrong for both being a
porn star and enjoying her work. She’s also clever, capable and a good person
to have at your back in a crisis. Also it’s a running joke that all these nice
moral upright people around Dick and Bunny definitely recognise them.
We also have
vignettes of a range of other characters and little glimpses into their own
characters and histories - a woman recovering from childhood sexual abuse and
how that has caused issues with sex which were hard for her relationship,
people who sought religion but were shunned for something as shallow as being
tattooed. A man with a severe compulsive eating disorder which, while not
examined, seemed to depict him more as being a figure of pity than ridicule:
albeit also a figure of disgust. A man who struggles with severe anxiety and a lot
of understanding around that: again, no mockery but careful management. There’s
a compound of gay men - and it’s not unproblematic. We have a definite reliance
on stereotype and even a sex-predator undertone. But equally there’s an edge
there that suggests some level of performativity as well, especially in a world
which is increasingly dangerous and they have one of the few safe spaces: these
men are not going to hide and instead are going to throw it all out there,
especially when it comes to challenging some clearly homophobic guests: they
throw their sexuality in these men’s faces as a challenge.
We also have a series
of minor POC characters among the many side plots and experiences as we see the
many people dealing with the growing zombie apocalypse
Look I’ve said all of
these things like this book is even remotely highbrow or sensible or full of
analysis. It isn’t. That’s the point. This is a laughable often silly book of
zombie porn stars with guns and a series of ridiculous scenes as people react
to this. Yet it still included multiple minor POC, LGBTQ people, people with
mental health issues and while not being terrible with them - but not once
deviating from the sheer silliness of the plot and the characters. You. Can.
Do. Both.
I do quite like the
concept that zombie-ism doesn’t exactly turn you into a brain dead eating
machine but shuts down a lot of the brain and leaves you stuck in your
obsession. So the glutton just keeps eating and eating and eating. A woman
obsessed with work becomes a workaholic and her issues . A bratty,
self-absorbed teenager just gets worse and worse. Zombieism takes them all to
the next level.
I also really like
the villain here and why she’s focused on Dick and Bunny as evil. I like that
her grievances have some kind of reasonable foundation: she has been treated
terribly and exploited and dismissed. But her targets are still misplaced - and
yes we have an anti-porn crusader as the villain.
In all - it was a fun
read. And I expected that, I expected these rather silly characters to be
charging around with many many many shenanigans. But I didn’t expect it to be
this fun, I didn’t expect it to be childish but to know where the lines should
be. And I didn’t expect a decent plot, an interesting concept and a series of
fun vignettes showing a whole lot people reacting to the zombie apocalypse with
a whole lot of fun which works so well. It actually pulls it off
