Every family has its secrets…
One hot August morning in 1892, Lizzie Borden picked up an axe and murdered her father and stepmother. Newspapers claim she did it for the oldest of reasons: family conflicts, jealousy and greed. But what if her parents were already dead? What if Lizzie slaughtered them because they’d become zombies?
Thrust into a horrific world where the walking dead are part of a shocking conspiracy to infect not only Fall River, Massachusetts, but also the world beyond, Lizzie battles to protect her sister, Emma, and her hometown from nightmarish ghouls and the evil forces controlling them.
Lizzie Borden Zombie Hunter, by C.A. Verstraete, is a fun and fast-paced story. I very much enjoyed the different perspective of the circumstances around the murder of Lizzie’s parents. The author does a good job of giving the reader historical horror fiction without ruining the original story or creating an entirely false world. This would potentially take away a bit of the believability of the story and ability for some readers to relate to the Borden sisters as real people who experienced at least some of what was included in the book, not just as purely fictional characters.
It does seem as though there is always someone telling Lizzie to “watch out!” or some other version of the phrase. Having said that, I don’t see how she would/could have survived for very long against zombies. I’m also surprised her sister Emma didn’t get eaten right off the bat with how often she was right in the middle of things, obviously not versed in much self-defense ability. In all honesty, the sisters seemed somewhat weird to me. I’m not sure what it was about them, but something felt like it was missing. It also did seem a bit unrealistic that the citizens of Fall River wouldn’t notice the zombies suddenly popping up and being fought and killed in the middle of the streets of the town.
I also feel like the situation with John was very abrupt and not thoroughly explained. It is vaguely touched on, but I didn’t feel as though there was enough closure to that bit of the story. I enjoyed the addition of Pierre and his abilities. I feel he brought a sense of masculinity to the story that may have been absent without his addition because there are very few male characters (living ones, anyway) in this book.
Despite my above complaints, I did enjoy this book. I’ve always loved (is that the appropriate word?) the story of Lizzie Borden, so I was excited to read this version. Since I am a huge zombie fan (no, I don’t like The Walking Dead, I think it’s boring), combining my interest in both zombies and the Borden murders was something that created an optimism in me that I hadn’t seen in a while. I wasn’t disappointed and in a world with an overabundance of mediocre zombie books, that was a relief! I recommend this book to anyone looking for a cool twist on an old mystery.
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