Pariah

It's the zombie apocalypse, and a handful of survivors are holed up in a Manhattan apartment building, caught between a seething mass of the undead out in the street and a seething mass of toxic masculinity inside. There's kind of an interesting premise for a zombie story here, and a bit of humor and such, but, honestly, it really is primarily just a constant parade of dysfunctional male horniness, from the pathetic to the downright psychopathic. There are some female characters, mind you. There's the one, for instance, who somehow manages to exist mostly only in relationship to men and/or babies even when we're in her POV. And the plot device one, whose primary trait is her lack of a personality. I don't mean that she's written show more two-dimensionally, either. I mean, that's literally her deliberate defining characteristic, leaving her free to be used, abused, and lusted after by men without the hindrance of actually having any opinions about it.

And, OK, there is a bit of a satiric, or at least sardonic flavor to all of this, or a vague attempt at one, anyway. Fingerman certainly isn't putting these guys forward as role models, especially the vile frat boy rapist character. But, still. Ugh. It's not even so much that it's all highly unpleasant. Zombie novels are allowed to be unpleasant. It's that it gets so tedious. At one point, I literally yelled "I'm tired of hearing about your fucking boner!" at the page. Fortunately, I was alone at the time.

Rating: 2.5/5. Usually, books that I rate that low have poorer writing than this one, just on a prose level. But in this case the decent-enough writing is probably the main thing saving it from a lower rating still. show less

Bob Fingerman draws on the rich tradition of zombie lore, and adds his own particular spin. This quickly paced well-written novel doesn’t skimp on the gore, or gallows humor. The characters in the book are all trapped within a NYC apartment building, and are running low on supplies. Along comes Mona the pariah, who mysteriously seems to be immune to the zombies. In fact, her presence actually repels them. The apartment dwellers beg her to move in with them, so that she may keep them supplied, and therefore alive. Near the end I thought it was turning into Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, but . . . well, I wouldn’t want to give anything away.

Pariah is a book about zombies. I love zombies. Naturally, I expected to enjoy this book, but I was completely unprepared for how amazing Pariah was.

It's the zombie apocalypse and the government has boarded people up in their apartment buildings. As those few humans struggle to survive, they notice a girl who can walk among the zombies. Mona wanders unharmed through streets filled with shambling undead. The zombies see her, they just don't care. While the survivors try to unravel the mystery as to why Mona is immune, psychological aspects start coming into play. Trapped with neighbors for months, hiding from certain bloody death has caused mental health to deteriorate. Mona's ability pushes some survivors a little closer to the edge. show more

The thing that made Pariah that much better than other zombie books was the humor. It was biting, very dark and mean at times. It fit with the situation the survivors found themselves in. People are on edge, at their very breaking point and the sarcasm laced dialogue is deep, funny and feels almost too real.

Pariah includes zombie portraits drawn by the author. These were both impressively done and helpful to understanding the state the zombies are in. Pariah is funny and disturbing with terror on many levels both fantastical and realistic. Definitely the cream of the zombie crop. show less

The worldwide zombie plague rages on with the shambling masses of walking dead. New York is home to eight million zombies and a handful of living people unable to leave their apartment building. The living wait for the zombies to deteriorate or stop, but they keep going, covering the city once teeming with life. Months go by and their food, water, and patience for each other are dwindling. One day, they spot a girl walking through the zombies. The zombies actually move away from her while she walks and they get her attention. Their world gets marginally bigger now that they can access necessities and luxuries with this girl's help. After a while, they get curious about why she is immune, but is the information worth possibly alienating show more her and severing their only tie to the outside world?

Pariah isn't a typical zombie apocalypse novel. Most books have the humans trying to fight the zombies or trying build a normal life despite the zombies. These people do not. Only a few acts of heroism were done on the first day and then the people resigned themselves to life in a cage. They didn't try to escape or gather supplies from the outside world after seeing a few people's failed attempts and they don't do much of anything except bicker, eat, pass the time, and wait to die. The portrayal of human behavior in this extreme situation feels real. People can get used to the most horrible conditions, even if it is constant hunger and hopelessness surrounded by the undead. These people have chosen to try to outlast the zombies instead of trying to work through or around them to get the things they need. This fact becomes extremely clear when no one does anything to help a dying infant and they are just as resigned when they run out of food. No one is willing to risk their lives among the zombies to help anyone.

The outside world is so close, but they can never reach it, creating a torturous existence. The first half of the novel describes how they live day to day, introduces each character, and fills in some their pasts. These characters come from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from Abe the elderly Jewish man to Eddie the macho misogynist. Some of them find or reaffirm their religion and others see their atheism proved. All of these people are selfish, annoying, and insufferable, but this is probably a better representation of what real people would actually do in a zombie situation. I didn't really like any of these people, but I found the writing and the story compelling.

My favorite character by far is Mona, the messiah/pariah that arrives about half way through the book. She is the most intriguing character because of her special ability to walk among the zombies unmolested and because she is the most selfless character in the entire novel. (Plus she doesn't talk much.) No matter how big or small the request, Mona always ventures out into the urban wasteland to get whatever her newfound friends want or need without judgment or question. She never really fits in with the zombies or the humans, leaving her in a category of her own. The zombies are inexplicably repelled by her, but the people don't feel quite comfortable with her either. Although she saved each on of their lives, they want to know why she is immune and they are not. Mona saved this book for me because I was just about to give up on it when she appeared.

Pariah is a weird but realistic zombie novel. The varied cast of characters portrays humanity in a frank and unflattering manner that rings true. Many think this book is too bleak or not action packed enough, but I think it's a good addition to the zombie genre. I would recommend it to zombie fans interested in character studies and character driven plots with ambiguous outcomes. show less

This is the first time I write a review and it's because this book deserves it. Not in a good way, though. I can't believe how people rate it 4 stars. This book is not only unbelievably slow, but extremely uneventful. It takes a whole 150 pages to present us with an exciting moment. Not gonna lie, the premise sounded good and that's why I picked it up but it takes effin' long to get to the plot. Let me tell you that these characters are some of the most sexist, racist and overall disgusting pigs you'll ever read about. One would think that with the amount of time we spend getting to know them and just in their head overall, the author would invest some time on character development, well guess not. I won't bother with the rest of the show more novel so I read some spoilery reviews on how it ends and it's freaking disappointing. The plot had so much potential and so much mystery surrounding it, and to only get a paragraph explaining the deal is a joke. I think the best part of the novel are the zombie drawings on some of the pages, cause not even the actual zombies were memorable.
I really don't recommend this novel unless you like disgusting characters, extremely slow plots, and bad endings. I wouldn't even condemn the people I hate to reading this book. show less

Overall, bleak and unoriginal. Any possible interesting arc was nixed in favor of something gory or violent at random. The story clearly ripped off bits from other zombie books like The Walking Dead - no pun intended. A much better book of this genre is Zombie, Ohio.

I so wanted to like this book. It has a cool cover, it's got cool illustrations, and it's got a more realistic spin on life after the zombie apocalypse. What more could I ask for?

Unfortunately, the more realistic spin made this book so grim that I just wanted everyone to be eaten by zombies so I could get on with my life. At about the point that I made that observation I thought, "Okay - all done."

Lots of people really loved this book, but it just wasn't the read for me.