kmoraine8686's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
ruhhnay's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Mannnn, I loved this weird, unique, hilarious, tense, crazy book. There was SO much to love and this one is right up my alley.
This is a book about a typical society with a not-so-typical issue: when some people die, they are reanimated and want to live among the "Breathers," doing as much as they can to resemble their lives before death. Unfortunately for them, the living are not so accepting and the zombies find themselves victims of their own version of racism, inequality, violence, and struggles in self-worth. What is the point of their lives now? What were they brought back to do? Andy and his found family have to figure out how to make this forced regeneration work for them and somehow create meaning in being a zombie every day.
It's crazy how a book about zombies is able to so effectively connect back to tragedy and very real, current issues, while still throwing in a ton of humor, romance, and mystery. I mean, this really had it all!
I'm stealing these from another review because I want to keep all of these hilarious quotes forever:
"If you’ve never woken up from a car accident to discover that your wife is dead and you’re an animated, rotting corpse, than you probably wouldn’t understand."
"If you’ve never seen someone get his arm torn out of his socket by a gang of drunk college fraternity boys who slap him in the face with his own hand, you probably wouldn’t understand"
"if you’ve never been confined to a five-foot-long, three-foot-wide, three-foot-high cage for five days, than you probably wouldn’t understand."
"If you’ve never been in a room full of zombies eating freshly cooked human flesh, than you probably wouldn’t understand."
This is a book about a typical society with a not-so-typical issue: when some people die, they are reanimated and want to live among the "Breathers," doing as much as they can to resemble their lives before death. Unfortunately for them, the living are not so accepting and the zombies find themselves victims of their own version of racism, inequality, violence, and struggles in self-worth. What is the point of their lives now? What were they brought back to do? Andy and his found family have to figure out how to make this forced regeneration work for them and somehow create meaning in being a zombie every day.
It's crazy how a book about zombies is able to so effectively connect back to tragedy and very real, current issues, while still throwing in a ton of humor, romance, and mystery. I mean, this really had it all!
I'm stealing these from another review because I want to keep all of these hilarious quotes forever:
"If you’ve never woken up from a car accident to discover that your wife is dead and you’re an animated, rotting corpse, than you probably wouldn’t understand."
"If you’ve never seen someone get his arm torn out of his socket by a gang of drunk college fraternity boys who slap him in the face with his own hand, you probably wouldn’t understand"
"if you’ve never been confined to a five-foot-long, three-foot-wide, three-foot-high cage for five days, than you probably wouldn’t understand."
"If you’ve never been in a room full of zombies eating freshly cooked human flesh, than you probably wouldn’t understand."
koolaiddeathclub's review
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I feel like this book had a lot of potential to be great and say important things with its metaphor and then the writer just kinda forgot how to complete a narrative and derailed the whole plot in the last two or so chapters. The 4 rating is for the version of this book that lives in my head. Otherwise it’s a 2 bc I’m mad at the ending.
msriddle's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
wathykite's review
dark
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
gwimo's review
5.0
Breathers is possibly the funniest book I've read to date. The way S. G. Browne times his jokes make the read marvelous. It leaves me wondering why I put it off for so long. It's not difficult to see the comparison to any civil rights movement - the narrator even brings it up himself. What makes this book great is that it's not your typical zombie book. The world isn't at the brink of apocalypse or even the dawn of the post-apocalyptic era. Zombies haven't overpowered humans. In fact, they've been around for centuries and kept in the shadows. Not until recent decades has their presence been acknowledged. And they're even treated the way people treated African-Americans and homosexuals - with fear and ignorance.
The whole zombie civil rights idea aside, the book also judges the humanity of, well, humanity. By shining the light on innocence of children - "Is that true? Are zombies really human?" - to the shear hate of adulthood - "Go back to the grave!" - we're given insight on how outside forces mold our views on what is right and wrong, acceptable and what should be abhorred. It stay true with the Romero-philosophy, the sense that zombies should only bring to realization the way we handle social issues - war, racism, materialism, xenophobia, civil rights, etc.
But Breathers also brings another aspect of the zombie evolution. The creatures aren't mindless. They are exact reflections of the people they once were. And the vampiric rejuvenation is a nice edition to the zombie mythos.
It's the zombie book that will become canon, if not already.
The whole zombie civil rights idea aside, the book also judges the humanity of, well, humanity. By shining the light on innocence of children - "Is that true? Are zombies really human?" - to the shear hate of adulthood - "Go back to the grave!" - we're given insight on how outside forces mold our views on what is right and wrong, acceptable and what should be abhorred. It stay true with the Romero-philosophy, the sense that zombies should only bring to realization the way we handle social issues - war, racism, materialism, xenophobia, civil rights, etc.
But Breathers also brings another aspect of the zombie evolution. The creatures aren't mindless. They are exact reflections of the people they once were. And the vampiric rejuvenation is a nice edition to the zombie mythos.
It's the zombie book that will become canon, if not already.
gracehawk's review
2.0
*Slight spoilers?*
I enjoyed this book. The writing has a good flow and the story was interesting and fresh (which in a world of zombie related media, can be hard to do.)
HOWEVER. As a young woman a little alarm bell starts going off in my head when I’m reading a book where an older male protagonist (34 in this case) becomes interested in a much younger girl (Rita, 23). I shut this early warning down to prevent it from influencing my thoughts on the book because 23 is actually a pretty respectable age as far as this ‘hot young girl who’s mature for her age and definitely pursues me’ trope goes. I put aside the feelings I got that a big part of Rita’s purpose was to satisfy a fantasy, because again, as far as this trend goes I’ve read far worse and I appreciated the fact that she at least wasn’t a helpless young girl barely on the side of legal.
BUT BETH?!
She’s brought in so late that she can’t have any real use to the plot apart from providing the fulfilment of best friend Jerry’s book-long goal: sex. (I can’t find Jerry’s exact age, but I’m pretty sure it’s around 20. If not and this is some type of ‘Romeo and Juliet law’ thing then this is NOT made clear enough). Even then, I could ignore that... but Beth is 16. There’s literally a line (p. 237) that says: ‘True, Beth is only sixteen, but somehow I doubt anyone is going to charge Jerry with statutory rape.’ In reference to the likely outcome that the two will hookup and zombies have no legal rights and are not considered people in this world. Is this line meant to comfort me?? This just put the nail in the coffin for me and I don’t think anything will be rising again from within.
The thing that really annoys me about the Beth situation is the fact that it’s so easily avoided. Why couldn’t Beth be 18 at least? Is that really so much to ask for? The fact that she’s 16 serves the plot in no way, there’s absolutely no reason she needs to be this age, it just reflects back in a gross way on the author who made that totally unnecessary decision. I won’t be reading anything further by S. G. Browne (and no, I’m not saying that to sound intimidating or to Send A Message, I know this review is likely going into the void.) because Beth’s inclusion as (essentially) an underage sex doll makes me feel icky, and there are plenty of authors out there who don’t.
Like I said, I liked the book, and I was willing to ignore the Rita thing giving me ‘ugh of course’ vibes, but the Beth thing dropped my rating by a star. I can’t decide whether it’s a good thing or not that she was barely mentioned after the party where it was suggested they would have sex, but it gave me about 50 pages to forget about how much the situation annoyed me at least which bumped my rating up by a star.
I enjoyed this book. The writing has a good flow and the story was interesting and fresh (which in a world of zombie related media, can be hard to do.)
HOWEVER. As a young woman a little alarm bell starts going off in my head when I’m reading a book where an older male protagonist (34 in this case) becomes interested in a much younger girl (Rita, 23). I shut this early warning down to prevent it from influencing my thoughts on the book because 23 is actually a pretty respectable age as far as this ‘hot young girl who’s mature for her age and definitely pursues me’ trope goes. I put aside the feelings I got that a big part of Rita’s purpose was to satisfy a fantasy, because again, as far as this trend goes I’ve read far worse and I appreciated the fact that she at least wasn’t a helpless young girl barely on the side of legal.
BUT BETH?!
She’s brought in so late that she can’t have any real use to the plot apart from providing the fulfilment of best friend Jerry’s book-long goal: sex. (I can’t find Jerry’s exact age, but I’m pretty sure it’s around 20. If not and this is some type of ‘Romeo and Juliet law’ thing then this is NOT made clear enough). Even then, I could ignore that... but Beth is 16. There’s literally a line (p. 237) that says: ‘True, Beth is only sixteen, but somehow I doubt anyone is going to charge Jerry with statutory rape.’ In reference to the likely outcome that the two will hookup and zombies have no legal rights and are not considered people in this world. Is this line meant to comfort me?? This just put the nail in the coffin for me and I don’t think anything will be rising again from within.
The thing that really annoys me about the Beth situation is the fact that it’s so easily avoided. Why couldn’t Beth be 18 at least? Is that really so much to ask for? The fact that she’s 16 serves the plot in no way, there’s absolutely no reason she needs to be this age, it just reflects back in a gross way on the author who made that totally unnecessary decision. I won’t be reading anything further by S. G. Browne (and no, I’m not saying that to sound intimidating or to Send A Message, I know this review is likely going into the void.) because Beth’s inclusion as (essentially) an underage sex doll makes me feel icky, and there are plenty of authors out there who don’t.
Like I said, I liked the book, and I was willing to ignore the Rita thing giving me ‘ugh of course’ vibes, but the Beth thing dropped my rating by a star. I can’t decide whether it’s a good thing or not that she was barely mentioned after the party where it was suggested they would have sex, but it gave me about 50 pages to forget about how much the situation annoyed me at least which bumped my rating up by a star.
constellation_library's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I read this when I was in college and finished it in an afternoon. It was absolutely not your normal zombie novel full of horror and gore, but instead was a romantic comedy featuring zombies as the main characters that are not so different from us. It was such a fun read and has stuck with me for years. If you want something different and lighthearted, check this one out!