Review: A really scary zombie tale
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 29, 2012
Anyone who is a fan of zombie tales has surely imagined what it would be like to actually BE a zombie -- being dead, but alive, mindless, seeking only human flesh, your own flesh peeling away in rotten chunks.  I've always imagined it would be deadness, no thoughts, no feelings, certainly no loneliness.  Just deadness.Billie Sue Mosiman always goes just a little bit further than the rest of us.  She imagines a person who gets "turned", but instead of being senseless, the zombie remains aware -- aware that he's rotting away, aware that he is dead, aware that he is alone.The narrator of The Lonely Walk is a father, with a small child who is dying from starvation and a wife who is slowly losing her mind out of fear.  And isn't it fear that pushes our narrator, who is unnamed, out of his safe house to seek milk and food for his family?  More than necessity, he is pushed by the fear of staying there, watching his loved ones die.  So he plunges out the door into a world swarming with the undead.If it seems like bravery, it soon turns out to be foolishness, as the narrator doesn't last long before he is attacked and bitten.  When he awakens from the attack, he doesn't realize at first that he is now a zombie.  As the realization hits him, it also occurs to him that, unlike most zombies, he knows he's a zombie.  The rest of the story explores how he copes with this knowledge and how he struggles with his awful loneliness.Mosiman is a master story-teller, so you know you've got a jewel in your hand.  But this story is such a vivid, wracking portrayal of what might be that I promise you, you will be more afraid of zombies than you ever were before.