Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum

When I won this from Velvet at vvb32 reads I was so excited. This book sounded like so much fun that I waited for it to come everyday and when it finally did I bounced off the walls.

Synopsis From The Back Cover:

What you hold in your hand is a document from the early days of the zombie plague. Little is know about the author before his infection -- only that he was a poet. This facsimile of his actual journal recounts the events of humanity's darkest hours through the intimate poetry of haiku. Inside you'll find increasingly disjointed and terrifying three-line poems (all in the classic 5-7-5 syllable structure), and follow the undead poet on a journey through deserted streets and barricaded doors.

Experience every eye-popping, gut-wrenching, flesh-eating moment of the eventual downfall of the human race from the point of view of a zombie, and gain insight to help you survive -- if you can.

Now when I fist heard about this book I was expecting just a collection of gross haikus about eating flesh and bloody entrails spilling out on the ground. Instead I was pleasantly surprised by the reality of the book. Instead of random 3 line poems that didn't tie into together the author presented a story told through haiku. It was about a young mans journey from terrified human being to flesh eating zombie who slowly decomposed on his journey to feed his hunger.

Now as story it works on almost every level except for maybe the disjointed affect the form naturally has. Taken separately the haiku doesn't work because most are told in a narrative form rather than a pure poetic style.

Some of my favorites that do work by themselves are:

little old ladies,

speed away on their wheelchairs,

frightened meals on wheels

I loved my momma.

I eat her with my mouth closed,

how she would want it.

I encourage anyone with a taste that runs a little strange like mine does to pick this book up and enjoy. I recently discovered that the author has written a new book entitled Vampire Haiku, so I will be adding that to my TBR pile very, very soon.