A review by bloodonsnow
Ladies Night by Jack Ketchum
3.0
You know, I don't know how I feel about this book. From a purely objective standpoint, it's a fun little zombie story, and I enjoy fun little zombie stories. But I can't completely separate myself from my feminist viewpoints, so as such, tend to read everything through that lens. And that's where I run into trouble with a few things in this book, mostly Elizabeth and the mother.
Was Elizabeth killed because she was desireable? Was the mother killed for being a shrew? Were they punished because of the continum they presented to the father, Elizabeth playing the whore and the mother playing the unatainable, hated for being untainted Madonna? The deaths of all of the other myriad women didn't trouble me because they weren't fleshed out much. Even the rape vicitm seemed to be painted with some degree of pity; we felt less badly when she ran over men with reckless abandon because she had reasons even before she was infected.
Granted, I'm inclined to believe that Ketchum decided to simply kill off all the women because it's a zombie story. People don't tend to live through zombie attacks. Technically, both sexes had a pretty heavy death toll, but in the end the men won.
As they tend to do.
In short: it's a fun little zombie romp, heavy on the fear that's ingrained within all men of women's sexuality.
Was Elizabeth killed because she was desireable? Was the mother killed for being a shrew? Were they punished because of the continum they presented to the father, Elizabeth playing the whore and the mother playing the unatainable, hated for being untainted Madonna? The deaths of all of the other myriad women didn't trouble me because they weren't fleshed out much. Even the rape vicitm seemed to be painted with some degree of pity; we felt less badly when she ran over men with reckless abandon because she had reasons even before she was infected.
Granted, I'm inclined to believe that Ketchum decided to simply kill off all the women because it's a zombie story. People don't tend to live through zombie attacks. Technically, both sexes had a pretty heavy death toll, but in the end the men won.
As they tend to do.
In short: it's a fun little zombie romp, heavy on the fear that's ingrained within all men of women's sexuality.