Elegy for the Undead

by Matthew Vesely

Jude and Lyle's newlywed life is shattered when a vicious attack leaves Lyle infected with a disease that transforms him into a violent and often incomprehensible person. With no cure for the "zombie" virus in sight, the young husbands begin to face the last months they have together before Lyle loses himself completely.

 Fond remembrances of young love meet the challenges of navigating a partner's terminal illness in this bittersweet tale that explores both how we fall in love and how we say goodbye when the time comes far too soon.

Genres: Horror, Queer, LGBT, Romance, Novella, Zombies, Adult

152 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 13, 2020

About the author

Matthew Vesely (he/him) writes genre-bent, queer, contemporary fiction. He is the author of Elegy for the Undead: A Novella, a 2020 Foreword INDIES finalist. His work has also appeared in Adelaide Literary Magazine. A 2019 graduate of Rowan University, he currently resides outside of Philadelphia. Visit www.MatthewVesely.com to keep up.

Reviews

[Lala BooksandLala · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars

[Brandon Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

An allegorical zombie apocalypse relationship drama- It was definitely sad and emotional, but little things kept annoying me with the POV’s. I think it would have been a more impactful story (or at least better for me lol) if it was single perspective, or possibly even dual 3rd person POV.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
This is the kind of zombie fiction that really is not about the zombies. In fact, it might even appeal most to readers who don't normally read the subgenres. I personally love zombie stories, so I really enjoyed the more action driven scenes in this novella. However, the majority of the narrative was much slower paced.

Given current events, the pandemic in this book felt scarily realistic with discussion of quarantine and infection control. This made for a fascinating backdrop for queer romance at the heart of this story. At its core, this book was really the relationship between these two gay men. Particularly, it explored how terminal illness affects a relationship. While I enjoy queer horror, I personally don't love when fictionc focuses on romance. Readers who enjoy those emotional elements will likely love this book a bit more than I did.

I would recommend this one to anyone looking for slow burning ownvoices queer horror with a heavy focus on the relationship.

Disclaimer I received a digital copy for review.

[Stitching Ghost · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what it is about titles that should have been right up my proverbial alley not landing lately but this book had it all, the queerness, the zombie plague, the slow decay of sickness that renders one alien from oneself, you know my favorite things to read about. Yet, I didn't really vibe with it. There were a couple of scenes I liked but overall I was rather indifferent to what these guys were doing, their relationship was complicated in a boring way, which is to say they were adult about it but the way it was described wasn't particularly interesting.

[Shaun Hutchinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not really a fan of zombie stories, yet this is a zombie story and I am a fan. It's also a story about love and about two people learning how to love one another and then how to let each other go. Maybe it's just the isolation making me more maudlin than normal, but Jude and Lyle's story hit me hard. It was painful but it gave me hope. It is a simple story elegantly told. I can't wait to read more of Vesely's work.

Do yourself a favor and read this book.

Note: I listened to the audiobook and it was a unique pleasure. I felt both narrators added a level of intimacy that you don't often find in books. Lyle's narrator especially captured the voice and earnestness and yearning of the character.

[Rhiannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking. Extremely accurate portrayal of a Philadelphian zombie, Wawa is life and death

[Hussein Baher · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

An allegorical story about loving someone with a terminal illness in the context of, weirdly enough, a zombie apocalypse. Also its gay.

It was 3 stars until those last pages made me ugly tear up on the bus.

[Hannah (hngisreading) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quiet zombie apocalypse novella that focuses on love, illness, and loss. The shift from developing their love story to exploring how we say goodbye and move on was devastating.

[ThatBookish_deviant · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25/5

Elegy For the Undead is a novella that takes place while an apocalyptic zombie-like pandemic sweeps across the country. The pandemic theme is secondary to the love story between the two main characters, Jude and Lyle. It read more like a coming of age story than the horror story I was anticipating.

[Amanda Sola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread thoughts: Still love it lol

This time around, I was able to consider Lyle and Jude as individual characters a little more. One thing about this book is that a lot of the character growth is unsaid or brushed over. So we have Lyle in college considering his own physical needs and not communicating leading to indiscretion. As the couple grew and learned to communicate, he found that physicality is much more than sex and the cowardice in his youth turned into the man that tried to fight a zombie to protect the man he loves. He was afraid to lose Jude and wanted to hurt him but then turned around and chose to let Jude go as his illness was overtaking him. It was a beautiful but subtle transformation.

Jude is a saint. That's all :)
__________________________________
Yes, this is a book with zombie like creatures, although more of the Crazies type of zombies. But this was way more than zombies. The zombie aspect was more of an allegory for a long, fatal illness, like AIDs or cancer and how you can get sick and try to live your life still, but it's always there, waiting to take you. It's a love story and a moving on story and a growing up story all in one. This was beautifully written, and I was honestly sad when it ended.

[Tessa {bleeds glitter} · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't tell if the disconnect I felt came from the writing or the fact that one of the narrators sounded like he was being sarcastic all the time, especially when doing voices.

I'm not sure we needed the zombie apocalypse drama for the tragedy of having a loved one loose themselves to an illness over time (I feel like this was a bit more of an Alzheimers allegory than other mortal illnesses but maybe that's just me), especially because it was over quite quickly and easily afterwards. It was... engaging, sure, but I feel like there could have been another setting.

Still, it's a moving book about different moments that defined the relationship between our two protagonists and the eventual and tragic death of one them that they both see coming.

(I'm glad the book ended on the wedding vows because I was about to start ugly crying but I truly cannot stand that kind of romantic love confessing atm and so my heartless cringing lessened the blow significantly)

[Matthew Vesely · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did write this, so I’m incredibly bias. But hey, if you like gays and the harsh parts of love, might be for you!

[Sam Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is very good.

their relationship was painfully relatable and familiar which made me enjoy and also hate reading this lol but as good as the characters are, the plot for this was lacking some and this is a different horror. i figured with a zombie (and big sigh pandemic) story there would be a bit more spooky scary action but it felt more lit fic (not a bad thing, expectations were just in the wrong place) overall this story is heartbreaking and sad and i'm very happy i've read this <3

[Miss Syreena · Rating 4 out of 5]

At its heart, a queer love story told from different time periods around a zombie plague (ahem, apocalypse). Great character development and would make for a suspenseful movie if we could include the flashes forward and backward throughout.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars!

A very different type of zombie story, although it wasn't without its heart racing and anxious scenes of running from and killing the undead! It's more that it uses the zombie genre as a lens to take a deep look at a gay relationship between two men who meet in high school, become friends in university, fall in love (not without its bumps, including some infidelity and terrible communication), and get married.

During an outbreak of a virus that causes zombification, one of them gets infected, while the other doesn't. Very sweet and cute, while realistic and also occasionally scary and gory. An odd mix that works most of the time.

[bweadbun · Rating 4 out of 5]

the kind of love only a zombie apocalypse can bring out in a person😭😭 bill and frank in another universe <3

“I want to relive it like it’s happening all over again. Perhaps living again in this way is the beautiful death we all deserve. […] All these horrible moments feel more controllable now, as if nostalgia gives me greater strength but less truth.”

(tbh i’d rate this higher if not for all the pop culture references but that’s just personal preference)

[Rissa (rissasreading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 - I listened to the audiobook at work and I literally had to go to the bathroom to finish the last chapter because I was crying.
This is such a sad, heartwarming, heartbreaking, and gut wrenching read. I really loved both of our main characters, flaws and all, because they are so perfectly human. Especially in the face of this awful illness that will take someone away, their love remained perfectly intact and they embraced each other even more. My god, this was a story that made me want to hug my partner and never let them go and I love that.
I think the way this story was told took away from my enjoyment when I was listening to the audiobook because I felt confused at points by where we were in the timeline of the story and I feel had I actually read this, that wouldn't have happened. So that did take away from my enjoyment a little bit but I feel like that's just a format issue not a story issue.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. Nope. Not what I was looking for- wanted zombies. Was promised zombies. This was dystopian drivel; more about the love story than apocolyptic events. Not a hater but did not meet expectations. Happy so many others enjoyed it.
Glad it was short.

[Ej Hines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought about my girlfriend when I read this which made me cry a lot. I LOVE GAY PEOPLE 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quiet little book that focuses less on zombie adventure and more on the mundane dynamics in a couple — and how that changes with illness and tragedy.

[John Perine · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I love you more than I’m scared of you.”

The saddest and most beautiful zombie story there will ever be.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I've been on the hunt for a literary zombie book for a while, because I think one should exist, the way literary vampire, werewolf, and witch (to say nothing of ghost) novels exist. I think the issue is that the zombie apocalypse obsession in the early-mid 2010s gave the idea of zombies a certain... stink, which is a shame because there's so much potential, I think. There's their roots in Black culture, of course, coming from Haitian and Central African folklore, and them being reanimated corpses without soul gives the opportunity for commentary on grief that differs from other dead or undead monsters like vampires and ghosts. I think the closest I've come so far to the type of zombie novel I'd like to see more of is Pet Semetary.

So naturally, I was very excited to hear of the existence of Elegy of the Undead, after it was given a glowing review from a Youtuber I enjoy. A literary zombie novel that's less of a zombie novel and more of a slow exploration of love and grief and the relationship of these two men? Sign me the fuck up.

It is not a good sign when I finish a 127 page novella and my first thought is "woof".

I said in my review of Medusa of the Roses that sometimes, the writing is so pretty I will forgive any and all sins, and that is true. The opposite, however, is also true- the writing can be so bad that I can and will overlook things I liked or at least typically enjoy in books because of that. For me, this was not good writing, not in the slightest, and it sank this novella. A 127 page novella should be a piece of cake, but when I'm drowing in bland, YA-y writing (no surprises here that Shaun David Hutchinson gave this a 5), it took me four whole days to read it and not because I was trying to savor it.

It also didn't help that I kept getting Lyle and Jude's perspectives mixed and I'm still not entirely convinced either of these men aren't the same person. I think the author kept trying to give Lyle especially a very distinct personality, a sort of snarky, oversexed cool boy thing, but it didn't really land because it wasn't reflected at all in his narrative voice, which remained pretty bland and flat.

Like, I actually got a little pissed off during that scene where Lyle cheats on Jude with that guy from his writing class, because the entire time he's making fun of this guy's bad writing and I just wanted to be like "honestly look at yourself first, before you make up a character for us to hate because he writes like a wannabe Hemingway".

I also thought their relationship was so bland. Look, I love a good mundane book, and I'm a romantic so I can pretty easily get swept away by a love story and grief, but there just wasn't anything there for me to latch onto. The writing wasn't pretty enough to make the mundane kind of love portrayed here beautiful, and the character's declarations of eternal love and marriage felt startlingly hollow because of it. The attempts at pretty quotations felt generic and hallmark-movie-y, and at times laughable- Lyle being like "This is going to get graphic and if this is too much information for you, this isn't the book for you, this is a real depiction of our love story" and then following that with the most vanilla sex scene I have ever read made me audibly snort.

If I ever have to read a warning like that again I better be fucking traumatized by the paragraphs that follow.

Let's talk about zombies now (finally!)

This is the first and will be the only zombie apocalypse book I have ever read, and I do appreciate it for confirming that I do, in fact, have no interest in that specific plot. I guess I could see a future where I read a Night-of-the-Living-Dead type book, but I just don't want to read or watch anything that associates zombies and viruses. My taste in medical body horror is very specific, and viruses and virology have always been a bit too "Michael Crighton-y" for me to have any interest in them.

I think the greater problem is that the parts dealing with the zombie outbreak were just straightforward action and not really anything I'd find intriguing about such an outbreak, which is, you know, the idea that you'd have kill your loved ones or someone's loved ones and how you'd be able to compartmentalize the idea that the person who looks a lot like your spouse or child is doing horrible things and you'd have to kill them to protect yourself and others.

I think this book wanted to do that, but was hindered by the poor writing and bland characters and overemphasis on action.

Honestly, the only reason why this is a two and not a one is because I think it's just not memorable enough to be a one? Ones have to be something truly special in their own horrible way, and this was just not it. I think the best comparison is actually Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda because I also found that book just entirely unspecial in every way despite it desperately wanting to be special. If anyone has any suggestions for a zombie book that might be more up my alley, let me know!

[Chanel Chapters]

I was rooting for the zombies over the unfaithful husband.

2⭐️

[Lisa Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's you that I love, and neither time nor horror can change that. (p. 45)

Matthew Vesely's Elegy for the Undead is a touching, bittersweet, tragic love story. It's classified as horror by my library, but this is one of those books that doesn't exactly fit in that category. I mean, yeah, it has zombies, but that is more of a secondary focus here.

Elegy for the Undead is an allegory for loving and being with someone who has a terminal illness.

But more than that, like I said, it's a love story. And I normally don't like love stories at all, but this one was good, which is a pretty high complement coming from me. I think perhaps I enjoyed this love story more than others was because of the zombie, or "terminal illness," aspect. It added a different complexity to the story that made it very unique and compelling.

I don't normally like narratives that bounce back and forth in time, but the way Elegy for the Undead is structured adds a lot of tension and emotion to the story that I appreciated. Each chapter is titled with the name of the character who's perspective we are in as well as a short phrase that identifies where in time we are in relation to when Lyle was bitten and contracted the zombie virus.

This story is woven very carefully together and it's quite brilliantly done. Vesely does a great job maintaining tension and interest just with the structure of the story. The pacing is steady throughout and this book is very beautifully and poetically written. I mean, top notch writing imho.

I want to remember before the outbreak, before the virus, before I had even known the life I would come to know-- before Jude. I want to relive it like it's happening all over again. Perhaps living again in this way is the beautiful death we all deserve. (p. 7)

And we do go all the way back to when Jude and Lyle first meet, which was my least favorite part of the book. It did it's job of establishing their relationship and how they met and fell in love and the problems they had as a gay couple and their struggles with sexual desire and experimentation. Even though all of this was very well done, romantic drama just isn't my thing, so I struggled to connect with that part of the narrative. But damn, it sure was beautifully written.

I did, however, connect very much with the terminal illness comparison. My father died from cancer, which basically turned him into a monster (not an evil one, but a physical one with amputated legs and skin that looked like scales), so this aspect of the book interested me quite a bit. You really could pick this book apart and find a dozens of connections between illness and horror as well as life and death. Elegy for the Undead would make a great book club read because discussions could be endless.

This is a story about finding and losing both love and life and I think Vesely is brilliant for filtering it through a zombie/horror lens.

And I appreciated the perspective shifts because we get to see this story from both sides, mostly from Jude, the "healthy" one, but also from Lyle, the "sick" one.

The worst part of dying isn't the actual dying. I don't even have to try for that. No, the worst part about dying is trying to figure out how to leave the ones you love. (p. 95-96)

My favorite part of this book was the later half when it moved from showing us how Jude and Lyle met and fell in love and struggled, to when the zombie outbreak happens and the aftermath of Lyle being bitten. There are some intense and heartbreaking scenes where Lyle isn't able to control the zombie inside himself and he attacks Jude. It was SO good and SO well done. It was beautiful and brilliant and tragic.

I liked this one quite a bit. It's not like any zombie book I've ever read.

I rated Elegy for the Undead by Matthew Vesely 4.25 out of 5 stars.

You might like this if you like: love, romantic drama, and beautiful writing.

[Andrew Eder · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded UP because it deserves it. The .5 minus is because zombie stories just don’t do it for me. But had this been something other than ZOMBIES I think it would’ve been a full 5 stars.

Where do I begin. The structure was great. The back and forth was so well written and thought out. I loved getting pieces of the story in multiple timelines. Loved.

The character development was incredible and I loved reading about their life together growing up. There wasn’t anything I didn’t love about their time together.

You also know what’s going to happen and the inevitable the entire time, but it was absolutely heart wrenching to actually read that part. I teared up (a huge sign of good storytelling) and just wanted so much more for this couple. I feel like I’m grieving with them.

The action of it all was also written well that I just couldn’t put this story down. While the inevitable was a slow burn, there was so much build up that it felt really fast.

I really really really loved this story and the unconditional love. It really broke my heart when they both started to accept their fate, and I just was not ready to let them go. I’m still not.

Highly highly recommend.

[Aaron Stover · Rating 4 out of 5]

A high 4 stars. My wife read this to me while we were on a road trip. The story had us hooked from the start. About 3/4 of the way through, i started talkin crap about how it wasnt nearly as sad as i had heard it was. My wife shared her thoughts on it which opened my mind a little bit. But then, one or two chapters later, i ate my words hard. I havent read many books but i wouldnt expect a book to be able to make me cry so much. Not once or twice but four times all within the last 20 pages or so. My poor wife battled through her tears, her wavering voice making the emotional impact of the words she read to me even greater. We loved and hated this book for beating us so emotionally.

[Christine Harrold · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a PERFECT EXAMPLE of modern horror. It is a love story about Jude and Kyle, how they met, their relationship growing pains, trust, loyalty, lust, comfort, patience and despair. A beautiful character study. That all takes place in a zombie outbreak.

This terrifying and heartbreaking short novel goes back and forth between before and after, in Jude’s viewpoint and in Kyle’s. You know them, you love them, they make you annoyed, they make you smile, they make you cry.

Well-written, poignant and lovely.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book was awful. I started it as I went for a walk and didn’t stop until it was over. It’s short, but somehow felt far too long and prosey (which wasn’t very good). It’s a debut, and you can tell. The characters were all one dimensional and awful, the plot was so boring (which is crazy since this was about zombies !) and the dialogue was INSANE!! How are you going to publish “the shit™️” in a novella… sorry that’s so cringy.

Don’t waste your time with this one, no good.

[Anna Swafford · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book that is somehow a mixture between Shark Heart and the COVID pandemic, look no further. It's actually shocking that this came out in late 2020, for how much it captured those first few years of COVID. The writing is simple and, at times, not the greatest thing I've ever encountered, but then there are phrases that punch you in the gut. I think its greatest strength is its ability to reveal relative truths between the perspectives. Repeatedly, there are moments where one main character believes one truth and the other believes another contrasting truth, and it doesn't make either any less true.

[Derrick Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHOA. It’s been a long time since a book made me cry. Plenty have brought tears to my eyes but none recently have hit me with the emotional force that this book did. I was full-on sobbing by the end. And I loved every bit of the journey. Such a beautiful love story that I never would have guessed could come from the zombie sub-genre. READ THIS NOVELLA. You can thank me (or hate me) later.