From his initial training at a secret military base in Texas to the frontlines and back, an unnamed infantryman shares all the gory details of his progression in America’s covert operations against a hidden worldwide zombie plague.
The story is trying to be at least three different genres: a zombie apocalypse horror story; an irreverent, crass, and vulgar comedy; and a war story told from the POV of an ordinary noncommissioned doughboy. While each facet is entertaining in its own way, the story often has trouble integrating them in an organized way.
The zombie apocalypse motif is done conventionally. It’s explained early on that humans can be turned undead by viral infection and then have to be put down with “two bullets to the brain.” As typical zombies, they’re disgusting and dangerous, but their lack of personality makes them rather less exciting adversaries, a bit like overgrown vermin that need to be eradicated through heavily armed pest control. Some great fight scenes are written, but they make up a minority of the text.
As a comedy, whether readers will enjoy it will depend on their tastes in jokes. Beauchemin gives his narrator and main characters a sort of blue-collar coarse humor. They like to pass downtime hours “bullshitting” with politically incorrect and outright offensive jokes. Some will be turned off, while others will laugh, but the dialogue is often too aimless and trivial.
The war story theme is perhaps the most well-done, due to the author’s apparent extensive knowledge of military life. Beauchemin has experience in the U.S. Navy and his real-life background seems to endow his military fiction writing with great realism. The novel is full of intriguing complex details of military terminology, weapons, practices, and culture.
Perhaps what makes integrating the different themes most difficult is the use of an overly intrusive narrator. The anonymous narrator, briefly nicknamed “Fritz,” spends too much time pausing the story to explain military jargon, customs, and routines that should have been shown rather than told. This literary device may work for certain types of fiction, but it becomes lecturing more than storytelling when overdone. Lecturing and a disorganized narrative structure detract from Beauchemin’s otherwise compelling writing.
~Christopher James Dubey for IndieReader