The Mammoth Book of Zombies

I'm a sucker for any and all things Zombie, but most of the stories in this book didn't really do it for me. There were offerings from classic authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, and those were quite good. But the copyrights have also run out on those works, so they're available anywhere. What I wanted were more original, more recent tales, modern tales of zombie horror. The zombie apocalypse never happened, and I felt somehow gypped. In my opinion, the All Flesh Must Be Eaten anthologies were much better tales for zombie horror.

To be sure there were some bright spots. The stories from Clive Barker, Karl Edward Wagner, Peter Tremayne, Robert Bloch, and Joe R. Lansdale were quite good. But this was a short story show more anthology, and the rest of the stories weren't of as high a caliber as the aforementioned authors. Taking into account the book's content as a whole, I had to give it 3.5 stars. show less

2023, re-read the 5 I saved from my original read which was maybe 30 years ago.

~ The Song of the Slaves by Manly Wade Wellman
From the intro: "a chilling tale of revenge from beyond the grave..."
ugh, that is a hard read. I read it once a long time ago and parts of it stuck with me. Unfortunately, I've refreshed my memory and regret the re-read.

~ Sticks (1974) by Karl Edward Wagner - I originally noted that I like the beginning of the story. So that is as far as I read again. It's still wonderfully creepy. A man comfortable with the wilderness (frying pan hung on his belt) out fishing starts to come by lots of odd lattice work or wired-up sticks hanging from trees, shoved into rock crevices, etc.. If you've seen Blair Witch or any witch show more movies these days, you'll know what I'm trying to describe. Then he sees an old house and inside the entrance, the lattice work sticks are sketched all over the walls. He enters and he even goes down into the basement. // novelette (Lovecraftian) "lich" (a corpse, animate or inanimate)

~ The Taking of Mr. Bill (1993) by Graham Masterton - Peter Pan retelling
ugh. why did I read/like these things. CW: rape, child kidnapping.
"... When William was found, her heart could start beating again."...
Overall, a stupid story of Peter Pan and Captain Hook that adds nothing to the lore. I won't be reading that again or recommending.

~ They're Coming for You (1986) by Les Daniels - Wife and the man she was cheating with, were murdered by the husband. they came back as zombies but not for brains. they came back to finish what they were up to. "Come clump, come thump, come slithering sounds!"

~ Later (1993) by Michael Marshall Smith - Man's gf dies he digs her up and she continues to live with him but as a Zombie show less