Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World

by Daniel Kraus

“A stroke of genius! This is the definitive love letter to the film, written with such meticulous passion and demented glee that you feel yourself standing on the set during the shoot.”—Greg Nicotero

A New York Times bestselling author dives into a horror movie classic to examine his favorite film’s importance to our history, culture, and psychology, creating a perfect blend of research and memoir in the vein of Quentin Tarantino’s Cinema Speculation. Daniel Kraus first saw George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead when he was five years old. Through watching it approximately three hundred times since, Kraus discovered the many ways the film is tied to his childhood trauma and how its influence has carried into his adulthood. He couldn’t help but Are there other admirers of the film out there who feel the same?

Partially Devoured uses a frame-by-frame deep dive into Night of the Living Dead to produce a kaleidoscopic cultural investigation of the film’s importance and to examine the author’s early life of rural isolation and local violence.

Careening from film analysis to rabbit-hole tangents, Partially Devoured will take readers from screaming laughter to the depths of grief, all while illustrating how a beloved genre film has woven itself into so many facets of our lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Horror, Memoir, Adult

320 pages, Hardcover

Published March 10, 2026

About the author

“Kraus brings the rigor of a scientist and the sensibility of a poet.” – The New York Times

DANIEL KRAUS is a New York Times bestselling writer of novels, TV, and film. WHALEFALL received a front-cover rave in the New York Times Book Review, won the Alex Award, was an L.A. Times Book Prize Finalist, and was a Best Book of 2023 from NPR, the New York Times, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and more.

With Guillermo del Toro, he co-authored THE SHAPE OF WATER, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus co-authored TROLLHUNTERS, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series. His also cowrote THE LIVING DEAD and PAY THE PIPER with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero.

Kraus’s THE DEATH AND LIFE OF ZEBULON FINCH was named one of Entertainment Weekly‘s Top 10 Books of the Year. Kraus has won the Bram Stoker Award, Scribe Award, two Odyssey Awards (for both ROTTERS and SCOWLER), and has appeared multiple times as Library Guild selections, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, and more.

Kraus’s work has been translated into over 20 languages. Visit him at danielkraus.com.

Reviews

[Lorin (paperbackbish) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never even watched Night of the Living Dead.

[Becky Spratford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starred review in the February 2026 issue of Booklist and on the blog: https://raforall.blogspot.com/2026/02... (link live on 2/4/26 at 7am central)

Three Words That Describe This Book: conversational style, heartbreakingly beautiful, 360 degrees of detail

For all readers, whether they have heard of Romero or not, this is a book about America, about death, oozing with grief on every page, while simultaneously bursting with life.

What readers think begins as a film study, an argument for the greatness of Night of the Living Dead morphs over time into an intimate memoir, one that allows the author to process his grief, both personal and for what our country has become.

It all begins with a note on how to cue your version of the film to the book. And then everything is told under the headings of time stamps. Kraus explains what is going on in the scene, including details about the filming, actors, how the scene was created, mistakes in the film (but they are all endearing to Kraus), backstories about the business and all of the sequels inspired works etc.... so much.

This is ultimately a memoir about the author, but it also gives everyone who was a part of the movie, a small chance to live again as well. Kraus digs into

But it is all relayed in a conversational style, as if you are watching this movie alongside him and it is being paused in a scene and then he gives your every bit of minutia about that scene but gets sidetracked into so much more detail. It flows perfectly wether you have seen the movie 100x or like the average American you know the basic outline of the classic movie.

Along the way he is also meticulously leading readers to understand his argument for why this film is so important. I won't spoil it for you. Read the book.

But this is also billed as the story of how a movie about the dead coming back to life taught Kraus how to live, personally, and in this part he does not disappoint. Kraus shares his personal connection to the film (which he has done in other places before) but goes even further to share how it made him the man and artist he is today.

It is a film study, a social study of America through the lens of this film from the moment it came out until today, it is a memoir of a famous author, and it is a grief narrative-- of people lost and not just those Kraus knows personally, of a country lost, of a time lost, of bad luck, mistakes....so much grief. And yet, here Kraus stands, living and making sense of the world through art,

Jade Daniels (from My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones) would love this book. She would weep on the bench with Kraus as the book ends.

Also for those who loved Cassandra Peterson's memoir of her life as Elvira. But, and I am serious here, this is also for fans of Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. Don't think that because this is about a zombie movie it is not worthy to be compared to that classic. If you have a reader who is not a snob and can just trust you that these two books have so much in common, they will thank you.

Kraus has had a lot of books that will never be forgotten from Rotters (still a YA classic) to The Shape of Water to Whalefall and now Angel Down, but this is a book that will be read long after he is gone. Fans of the movie will find it and will take the deep dive with him and then, they will find so much more about America, about people, about death, and most importantly, about life.

[Melissa Leitner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Counterpoint Press for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. Night of the Living Dead is a movie I also saw as a small child, but one that didn’t leave a lasting impact on me as it had for Kraus (that was The Evil Dead for me). It was fascinating to read about someone else’s passion and why it had such an impact on them. I haven’t seen the movie in probably fifteen years, but I will be watching it tonight with more context than I ever thought possible. Kraus manages to talk about the most minute of details surrounding the film while somehow making it all seem exciting. He blends his relationship with the movie and his personal life, creating a bit of an autobiographical landscape at times in the book. I found those pieces of the book just as fascinating as all the small movie details. I think it is important to note that just because Kraus loves this movie does not mean he is hesitant to call out its flaws (of which there are plenty). He also does not shy away from explaining the movie’s lasting impact on audiences in regard to the political landscape at the time and the allegories behind both the zombies and the casting of a black male lead actor in the position of the hero. A fascinating, extremely detailed exploration of both a movie and a period of time that may not be so dissimilar to the one we are living in today.

[Marguerite Turley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Digging into a Daniel Kraus book is always magical. I know there’s going to adventure, brilliant writing, and always tears. This one was no exception. What an immersive reading experience this was. Watching Night of the Living Dead while Kraus does his best(and most incredibly detailed) commentary, some of it quite hilarious and some of it quite touching and downright heartbreaking. I love the way he interjects pieces of his life and the hardships he dealt with. All the tragedy and how deeply meaningful this movie is to him. We get to see a very personal look into his life and all the things that got him where he is today. I know i say this often but Daniel’s writing is just profound goddamn it. This is him on a level I have not yet experienced. In my opinion I dare say it may be his best yet. Another one of my favorites and probably will be for this year. Just so honest and heartfelt. Daniel you are amazing and every time I read one of your books I am blown away and I can’t stop thinking about any of your stuff it’s just incredible. This book, part memoir, part love letter is just everything. Pure perfection!! Thank you to Counterpoint books for the advance copy!

[Elric Kane · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best deep dives into both a classic film and the self. With each detailed layer of the film he uncovers, Kraus peels back a layer of himself revealing the seismic impact a movie can have both on a culture and a kid who will grow up to be a writer of tales that will similarly spotlight the delicate balance of things.
A moving and obsessive dive into one of the great primal scream films of our time.

[this_eel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it’s possible that Daniel Kraus has actually seen Night of the Living Dead TOO many times? While this was enjoyably an obsessive minute by minute recounting of the movie, packed with trivia, behind the scenes technical and script-writing tidbits, and biography, all drawn from fixation, research, and a long time in the archives, it had a few flaws that I found diminished the overall experience.

The good? Sitting down with someone who adores a movie and wants to chew on every second, appreciates its excellence and can peel back the layers of its messy history with vigor and—let’s say derangement (laudatory). It’s a quick read with the voice of conversation in the hallway at a con, which I think will be very appealing to big old nerds. It’s very interesting to read this back to back with one of his novels and see the range of his writing styles and get a bit more of his personal philosophy to match against the themes and perspectives I perceived in Angel Down.

But! I have some other things to say.

First and foremost, Kraus has clearly examined every scrap of the film and its makers from every angle. That’s great for a deep dive but there are many many many many instances in this book of Kraus making suppositions about everything from how often the movie has been screened in a given theater to the most intimate inner experiences of cast and crew who never indicated his hypothesized sentiments anywhere. He also shows great confidence in knowing how an audience will react, from assuming that it will take almost the whole movie for a newcomer to assume that Karen might be zombiefying to assuming that all of us [ethically and with disgust, to be clear] watch recordings of murders by police on repeat. I don’t have reason to agree with a lot of his confident guesses about others and I don’t align with any of his guesses about me. This undercuts his analysis. Too often he steps off the path of letting the research speak and tinhats. I’d expect that in a conversation with fans but in a book I want more restraint.

I also think he goes way too easy on the filmmakers in terms of the sexism of Barbra’s character. In general when Barbra is discussed there’s a lot of “she’s not so bad” or “she’s actually kind of…radical if you think about it” and Kraus writes about her as if she (without much say in the matter) is the natural result of patriarchy. Okay but regardless of the extent of social and legal oppression they’re constrained by, women have been people, not puppets, the whole time, you know? Personally I think that if Barbra is a political statement on the side of women she’s a poorly executed (RIP) one. And Kraus also has a kind of “whoops haha well it’s not GREAT” attitude towards a lot of the extraordinarily misogynistic projects that Russo, especially but not exclusively, took on later. Speaking of Angel Down - one of my few real complaints about that book was the unsettling sensation that a guy with benign intentions had not quite wrapped his head around women as people, and that was also my sense here.

I think he also goes way too easy on, within the text, the controlling violent spectre of Harry. It feels a little bad for him and I think that’s profoundly unnecessary. He sucks and he sucks in a societally relevant way. The book goes pretty in depth into Duane Jones’s experiences as a Black man in the role and yet still doesn’t go hard enough in on what a stark narrative this strikes up in terms of the two most antagonistic figures in the movie—not the dead, but Harry and the cops. I would have liked to step away from the factoids long enough to get into a deeper cultural analysis, but despite the subtitle re: changing the world, Kraus doesn’t often seem able to step past a narrow band of sometimes myopic insights. There is a lot about Vietnam soldiers but little about white supremacy. I don’t know—it seems pretty relevant.

I wish that the autobiographical sections had spent a little more energy on interweaving his story with the story of the movie—I think the subtitle massively oversells the “life saving” thread—and a little less time listing the memorabilia he owns.

And finally, per my part way through update, I want to know how a professional movie guy can call MOZART AND SALIERI “FRIENDS, BUT ALSO RIVALS.”

For buffs and people who like books about things and also those who have read his fiction, I think it’s worth a read. But were I Catapult I might have bullied him to handle a few things differently.

(I received an ARC from the publisher and gobbled it up with some notes for the chef.)

[Brian Shevory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks to Catapult Counterpoint Press, Soft Skull Press and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of Daniel Kraus’s wildly fun and inventive deep dive into the world of Night of the Living Dead titled Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World. Kraus, who estimates he’s seen NOTLD over 300 times since his first viewing at age 5, took the title for this book from a line that is repeated a few times in the film. Newscasters, who appeared so realistic to me when I also first viewed this film at a young age (closer to 8-9), repeatedly describe the victims of the reanimated ghouls of the film as being partially devoured. While I love the film reference in the title, I feel like Fully Consumed might be a more fitting title since this book is so comprehensive in exploring every nook and cranny of the farmhouse, the characters, actors and extras, and the production company, as well as the various offshoots, remakes, comics, novelizations, board games, and all other ancillary and tangential products related to NOTLD that I am in awe of Kraus’s fandom and knowledge related to this film. It’s amazing and the book is truly a wealth of resources for anyone who wants to learn what seems like everything they possibly can know about this film.
While the book’s educational impact is incredible, I most enjoyed Kraus’s narration of the film. It’s a little hard to explain, but he takes readers through the film as if we are watching it with him; however, he occasionally hits the pause button to let us know about the careers of the actors involved in each scene, how they interacted with Romero or further contributed to the production of NOTLD or even how they participate in the zombie-cons that have arisen since the premiere and celebration of this iconic film. I can’t say that there’s another book that takes such a deep dive with so many fascinating digressions that still remain relevant and on topic about the film and its scenes. Jonathan Lethem did shorter, but similar approach to John Carpenter’s They Live, but didn’t really go too much into the production or legacy of the film. Rather, Lethem’s book is a scene by scene analysis and is fun, but not in the same way that Kraus’s book fully consumes all there is to know about NOTLD and Romero’s legacy in horror and film. There’s so much to love about this book, and for me it’s Kraus’s genuine enthusiasm and joy in discussing his love for this film (and horror in general).
Maybe it’s because I could relate to Kraus’s experience. We are about the same age, and like Kraus, my first encounter with NOTLD was at a young age when I caught it on TV. As Kraus notes, the lack of a copyright due to a production error caused significant issues for NOTLD and its production company, where it instantly became part of the public domain. As a result, it’s one of those films that was constantly on television in the 1980s, even though it is about possible space radiation that resurrects the dead to become flesh-devouring ghouls (not zombies). And like Kraus, this movie imprinted itself on me for some time. It was one of the most terrifying films I had ever seen, and I was not one who was easily scared by films (I begged my parents to let me watch Alien and American Werewolf in London when I was like 5—I was always seeking out scary films). However, something about this film completely frightened me, and it wasn’t until later that I realized it was the production and how un-film-like it was. When I first watched this film, I don’t remember much about the soundtrack. It’s a point that Kraus brings up a lot throughout his analysis, and I appreciated learning more about this library soundtrack. It’s also exciting to learn that it is available on vinyl. However, when I first encountered this film, so much of the film seemed so realistic; even the newscast seemed to be so real, that the film really terrified me. I think also that this was one of the first survival films that I saw where the threat from outside is almost as bad as the threat from inside. That is, the struggle between Ben and Harry was also really terrifying for my younger self. We see that people are not working together, but are working against one another. I also think that seeing young Karen transform into a flesh-eater, and then kill her mother and eat her father was also a shocking revelation to 8 year old me. The idea of revolting against parents seemed shocking at the time. However, what was most upsetting to me is the ending of NOTLD, where we see the good guys don’t win. I’m glad that some of Kraus’s most impassioned writing about the film are focused on the end of the film, and its continued relevance to today. I won’t reveal the ending here, but it’s definitely something that shocked, angered, and left me so distraught when I first watched it. Kraus’s description and analysis gave me an even greater appreciation, and yet it still moved me to be so angry and sad about it at the same time. It’s some great writing, but it’s hard for me to say whether it’s the best part of the book. I couldn’t put this book down and just kept reading and reading to learn more about the film’s production and understand its importance to Kraus.
Other experiences Kraus describes resonated with me as well, from spending so much time in the horror section of video stores, seeking out the most disturbing, banned films to really engage my love of horror, to watching Terror in the Aisles around the same time as NOTLD and wanting to watch all of the films that were featured in this incredible documentary. A few years ago, I watched Ms 45 and was taken back to being 9 or so and seeing a gun-toting nun mow down some creeps from Terror in the Aisles. I loved the references to other Romero films as well, especially some of the lesser known films like The Crazies and Martin. Strangely enough, my dad once rented the Crazies and I still remember the dad in that film trying to kill his kids and a grandma who used knitting needles to kill a solider. I also remember watching Martin in college and being blown-away by the inventive take on the vampire film. Kraus provides some in-depth analysis and research into Romero’s career, but also takes us through the variations of NOTLD scripts that are in the Romero archives in Pittsburgh. It allows us to better understand the changes that were made during production possibly because of cost, time, or other issues. Nevertheless, Kraus, due to his astute and innumerable viewings of NOTLD is able to identify all the flaws and continuity issues in the film that only adds to its greatness. However, what I most enjoyed was Kraus’s development of backstories for each of the characters in the film. It’s both hilarious and creative and highlights the ways that he thinks about people and situations. It also made me want to read more of his books, since I could see how detailed and precise he takes the development of these characters from their hairstyles to their clothes, and mannerisms. While most of the cast were not professional actors, Kraus notes some of the bolder choices that the actors employ, whether purposeful or not, that also lend to the film’s enduring legacy. I also loved learning more about the actors and crew involved in this film. I was particularly interested in learning more about Duane Jones, who plays the lead character Ben. I took an African American film class in college, and one of the films that was out of print but constantly discussed was Ganja and Hess. I don’t remember reading about Duane Jones or putting together that Ben from NOTLD was Hess in the film, and I didn’t get to see the film until a few years after graduating, but I noticed Ben right away, a little older and wearier, but still commanding the scene. Although Duane Jones passed away nearly 40 years ago, Kraus provides some insight and hypothesizes about Jones since he was a private man who only has a few film credits to his name. It was also fascinating and sad to read about Keith Wayne, who plays Tom, a young man who seeks refuge in the farmhouse. He had a fascinating post-NOTLD career that ultimately ended in tragedy, and Kraus’s keen insight and observations provide a tragic spotlight on Wayne’s life. Despite being about one of the most terrifying and transgressive horror films ever, this book is full of joy—it’s celebratory and so much fun to read along as Kraus takes us through the film. It’s a book I will definitely revisit, especially as I will rewatch NOTLD very soon. This is a great book for those who are fans of horror films, and especially if you are a fan of Romero’s work or NOTLD in general. I highly recommend this book! It was so much fun to read.
A few random thoughts that I encountered during my reading: One was the Danny Pintauro reference from the Horror Hall of Fame show. Kraus referenced that NOTLD received a Horror Oscar during this broadcast that either Pintauro hosted or presented to Romero. While Kraus referenced Who’s the Boss?, Pintauro also played Thad in Cujo before Who’s the Boss? I’m wondering if he was included because of Cujo. Weirdly enough, the local skating rink I went to had a picture of Danny Pintauro hanging up because he skated there at one point. This rink was in Blue Bell, PA, and Kraus also referenced a possibly racially driven murder that occurred in Blue Bell in 2022, which I didn’t even realize happened. Apparently a man was found hanging on the monkey bars of a park where I’ve gone running and taken my kids to play. It was a strange coincidence and haunting reminder of the power of this film.

[Jonathan Hawpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Partially Devoured author Daniel Kraus does a bang-up job of illustrating how a piece of pop culture can be life changing. His memoiristic plunge into Night of the Living Dead is an atomic level dissection of that B-movie horror classic's aesthetic and sociological impact, but better yet it's also a personal excavation of his marrow deep emotional connection to the little zombie film that spawned a thousand more. 8/10

[Howard Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel Kraus' Partially Devoured is sooooo much more than a passion project. Every masterstroke, happy accident & glaring blunder of Night of the Living Dead is subject to forensic scrutiny.
Fans, newcomers (& even those who've never really clicked with the pic) will be itching to (re)visit it & its many (re)iterations, poring over every frame, desperate to spot everything Kraus points out with his mind-melting knowledge of the film.

[Justin Soderberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

The publisher has requested advance reviews to be published closer to publication date. Just know, I LOVED this book and will post the full review here closer to pub date and on capesandtights.com!