Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection by Don Roff

I come from a family of artists. My grandmother, mother, and brother (plus a few other close family members) all draw and paint, and they are phenomenal at it. My grandmother has always been a fan of creating field guides; she’s very much into nature, and so she has books and books full of notes, drawings, and paintings of mushrooms, birds, and plants.

I’m sure you can see why this book makes me feel nostalgic, all warm and fuzzy inside.

Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection is set up like a personal art journal or field guide. The art is absolutely stunning, mostly done in blacks and reds, with a close attention to detail in each piece. Chris Lane did an amazing job with the art in this book; the pictures are gruesome, but memorable. One picture that stuck with me since my last reading over a year ago was of a zombie in the water. The images are haunting.

The narration itself is a personal one. Dr. Robert Twombly is a hematologist working in downtown Seattle when the infection hits. The story catalogs his time in the Blood Treatment Center and afterward, when he moves out from his office to a houseboat, and there to encampments on his way to Canada. He meets other humans, and more zombies than one can count, on his travels. They touch upon the story in different ways, all leaving an imprint upon the life of Dr. Twombly.

The personal take on the story leaves one feeling invested in the main character through the end. So much can go wrong in an outbreak, and this man takes us through the hell of watching people you care for deteriorate before your eyes while hoping that you yourself will not be infected.

This book is scary, in that the story has a very real feel to it. The pandemic happens, and no one knows why. In mere days, it has covered the globe and infected 90% of the population, decimating entire countries. Soon, the Internet and cell phone services go down, followed shortly by electricity. After that, you’re all alone.

In the end, the explanation for the disease that created the zombies isn’t even important. This story is about the humans who survive, and how they do so. I highly recommend this book; its mixture of art and storytelling kept me enthralled right from the very beginning. The human aspect of the story makes it that much more real, that much more heartbreaking.

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