Review: A fascinating tale
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 5, 2013
Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d utter: I just read a book entitled Black Redneck vs. Space Zombies and, at one point, I cried—actual tears! While not a perfect book, the unexpected gems this story offer make it very much worth reading.The Story:Black Redneck vs. Space Zombies is the story of Jefferson Belladeer, an African American adopted and raised by self-proclaimed rednecks in Mississippi. As a youth, he embraced the redneck culture and, with the guidance of the big brother who raised him, became a rodeo star and all-around badass. However, upon discovering that his adoptive father had once been a racist, he rejects his family and friends, his childhood town, and all of his redneck interests. It takes the death of that brother to bring him home and force him to once again question just who he is. While he handles the selling of his brother’s property, a visitor from space takes up residence in his woods. And when a group of partying teens become an army of space zombies, Jefferson must once again rely on his redneck skill set to stay alive.The Writing:I very much enjoyed the writing, which was generally of a high quality. Roy has a real knack for using metaphors that are both vivid and funny (the chapter titles, too, are often funny). The dialogue is also consistently strong, especially the use of dialect. Right from the start, Roy creates a strong sense of setting and character, and does so with a light touch, not slowing down his story with tedious exposition. There are a spattering of typos and passages where frequent word repetition steals some of the music from the prose, but these were the minority.What I Loved:My favorite part of this book had nothing to do with zombies. Jefferson’s struggle with his identity was absolutely fascinating. As I said, I shed a few tears as Jefferson came to realize that, race aside, his redneck family had loved him. There were so many characters along the way that were far more complex and lovable than one would expect from a book that, on the surface, seems like mindless fun. Even Jefferson’s horse had personality. I don’t always like the use of flashbacks because I often find them to be lazy storytelling, but the flashbacks in this book were an absolute joy and gave the protagonist so much more depth. Of course, the story culminates with some pretty cool action scenes, but all of this emotional build up rendered those scenes far more significant: Jefferson being a badass redneck, riding a horse and shooting a huge gun, isn’t just cool to visualize, it’s his way of reconnecting with his brother and his childhood. Awesome.What I didn’t Love:My primary issue with Black Redneck vs. Space Zombies was the space zombie half of the equation. The story is told very much like movie, which, for me, was a weakness. In a monster movie, you expect the quick scenes of the monster to be intercut with the setup. It works in such a format. However, this same technique doesn’t necessarily work in a book. You see, the story was wonderful when it was about Jefferson and the other citizen of Picayune, but when it switched to the space monster or aliens the plot movement was so obvious and there were no characters for me to care about, so I was bored. It made for an inconstant reading experience. I’d get: interesting Jefferson scene, monster eats a squirrel, interesting Jefferson flashback, monster eats a deer, and so on. Once the action comes to a head this becomes a nonissue, but for the first half of the book it made for a very choppy experience.So, while I did find the overall book a bit inconsistent, when it’s good it is really very good. For anyone who is interested in reading something a bit different I’d recommend checking this book out. Oh, yeah, and the cover artwork is stinking awesome.