Deathbreed Reviews

[Todd Tjersland]

This thread is for keeping track of media reviews of Deathbreed: A Zombie Novel.

"Deathbreed is incredibly engaging and has an amazing amount of character development. ...Not only can Tjersland create a character, but also he can make you cringe with his incredibly descriptive scenes of gore, sex and violence. He really does have a way with words. ...This is pulp in its highest form and is HIGHLY recommended to any zombie fiction buff."
--The Zombie Review

[Todd Tjersland]

Here's a recent review from Amazon, written by a thoughtful fan.

WHAT IF YOU PUT TROMA, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, AND CLERKS IN A BLENDER?[/i]

I've read so much zombie fiction that a lot of the more recent stuff just bores me because it adds nothing new. While this is a classic seige situation, the author creates characters that are so believable that it never stops feeling fresh. Like NOTLD, the characters inability to unite and work together becomes their undoing. Instead, what comes to the fore are all their worst traits - particularly in the case of narrator Jimmy Nyberg, the swing shift clerk at the convenience store in which the book is set, and in his boss Bryan. Be warned though, this book is not for the easily offended. If you take the most offensive Troma movie you've ever seen, then dial it up to eleven, you'll have an idea of how far this book goes. After finishing it, I had to wonder if it would have worked so well if a more mainstream approach had been taken. The book would definitely find a larger audience if it were, but I'd have to say no, because the narrator and his motivations felt real, as opposed to the author just trying to be offensive for the sake of it. The book is flat out hilarious throughout, with the jokes and humourous situations grabbing you on page one and never letting up, but the book also delivers some of the best zombie action sequences, extreme gore, and character conflict a lover of this sub-genre could possibly hope for. In the end I was certainly offended by much of the content, particularly with one specific scene of a sexual nature, but for serious fans of zombie fiction, provided you go in with the caveats before mentioned in mind, I'd say you'd be hard pushed to find anything better currently available.


Link to Amazon review --->
www.amazon.com/Deathbreed-Zombie-Novel-Todd-Tjersland/dp/B002AD2328/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_prod_9_0

[Todd Tjersland]

Another glowing Amazon.com review:

Shocking, Disgusting, yet Amazingly Hilarious and Soulful Zombie Novel

Wow! Deathbreed is not your typical zombie novel and not for everyone. The story takes place in a small town in 1991 just before the infamous L.A. Riots. It is character-driven, told in hysterically deranged and hateful first-person narration by Jimmy, a horny, messed-up twenty-one-year-old convenience store clerk with delusions of grandeur. The guy has spent his entire life savings ($800) taking out classified ads in the back of supermarket tabloids to sell fake "voodoo spells" to morons. He's just waiting for the ads to come out, thinking he'll get rich quick and be able to quit his job. His only friend is Ace, a teenage white kid who talks in ebonics and acts like a cross between Vinnie Barbarino from Welcome Back, Kotter and "the Fonz" from Happy Days. Ace lives to play Street Fighter II, get laid, and steal free soda. Together, they make fun of everyone who comes into the store and each other.

Jimmy is in love with Kim, the fifty-ish Korean wife of Byron, the convenience store's racist redneck owner, and dreams of making her his, along with every other female that comes through the door. A steady stream of hilariously stupid, grotesque "regulars" shop there, including a retarded, ugly fat lady named Matilda who wants to make Jimmy her boyfriend. She also wants to run for mayor so she can make it a law nobody can call her a "retard" anymore and spends all her disability money on lottery tickets to finance her political campaign. Many of the customers (like her) display some obvious early warning signs of zombie virus infection (though they don't appear to have been bitten).

Jimmy has irritable bowel syndrome (keep in mind this novel was written years before Zombieland and was probably the inspiration for the Andy Samberg character, although Jimmy is a lot funnier), and that makes for some pretty funny situations. After the first news reports of the Rodney King verdict leads to riots in L.A., other weird stories start coming over the TV and radio, including reports of mass murder and crazed mobs. Jimmy dismisses it all as big city crap, saying, "things like that could never happen here." But he's about to be proven wrong . . . He's stuck working a late shift with Byron when he gets a bad case of nervous diarrhea. Jimmy misses out on what may (or may not be) the first time a zombie wanders into the store because Jimmy's in back stuck on the toilet. Then, when he comes out and finds a dead black guy on the floor with his brains bashed in, Jimmy suspects his racist boss of murder, even though Byron claims it was a hold-up. Byron sends Jimmy home and promises he'll "take care of it." Naturally, the police never get called. Everything appears to be a standard film noir cover-up the next day, but then more bad things happen around the edges of the characters' lives. There is a real sense of impending doom and no escape, then the zombie apocalypse breaks out full-scale, and there's no denying it's the end of the world.

With nowhere else to go, Jimmy heads back to work and takes part in raising prices sky-high to rip off the panicked customers even more. Ace shows up with a couple dumb teenage girls who just got out of juvie and weasels his way into the boss's good graces just in time to stay as they are forced to close the store for good. Only none of them can leave, and a power struggle ensues between Jimmy and Byron over who will control the fate of the store and everyone in it. This is the classic Night of the Living Dead seige situation, with the characters all flipping out about the apocalypse, fighting each other, looters, and zombies until only a few survivors are left and the zombies break in. Did I mention the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard gets a cameo? And there are all kinds of awesome pop culture references from back in the day, like Milli Vanilli and Van Halen, as well as some Romero-esque social commentary.

The zombies are a mix of fast and slow, but this is explained as they start off fast when they first reanimate, then get slower as they rot. All the other classic zombie "rules" are in place (it's a virus, there's no cure, zombies are dumb and can't talk, etc.). This makes the book work well for fans of both new and old school zombies. There's a lot of super-gross zombie action, including juicy gut-ripping, spilled brains, bites, and head-shots, along with explosions and escape attempts. Not to mention when Jimmy tries to "make a soul connection" with a sexy nude female zombie.

Deathbreed's got a definite Charles Bukowski (Factotum) meets Clerks vibe with a liberal dash of Tarantino meets Troma (Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead). It's an amazing tour de force, but not for the faint-hearted. You'll either love it or hate it--there is no middle ground on this one. The humor is on every page, as is the contempt Jimmy has for everyone (including himself). There is a real sense of despair, of wasted potential, running through this book that really makes the story come alive. What sets this book apart is how deeply flawed the characters are, how broken and lonely and hurting. Watching them struggle against not only the horrors of the outside world, but against themselves, is a lot of fun. Will they become heroes or villains? Zombies or survivors? Whichever way they go, it won't be pretty. Despite the humor (or perhaps because of it), the characters feel fresh and disturbingly real, like they could all really exist. Maybe they do, and if you've ever shopped or worked at a convenience store, you've probably met some.

Link to Amazon review --->
www.amazon.com/Deathbreed-Zombie-Novel-Todd-Tjersland/dp/B002AD2328/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_prod_9_0