The Dead Walk Diaries: Night

by Joe Young

The world changed forever in the course of one night, the first night of the zombie epidemic. A countless number of people were killed only to rise again as the walking dead. This collection of diaries are the first-hand accounts from people that witnessed what happened and describe in their own words what they experienced. Gathered from handwritten journals, reports, notes, audio and video recordings -the Dead Walk Diaries paints a vivid picture of the horror, atrocities, and chaos that occurred the first night the dead walked and attacked the living.

Genres: Zombies, Horror

258 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2007

Reviews

[Fjf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, it's such a fresh and original approach to the zombie genre. Each diary builds on the other and although by themselves the stories are extremely entertaining, collectively they are a masterpiece. It was just so intriguing to know what people were experiencing and how they were reacting during their different ordeals... and the zombies weren't always the enemy. All of the stories take place on the first night the dead rise, some survive, some don't. I cannot wait for the next book in the series.
book link
official website

[Patrick D'Orazio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I debated on four or five stars for this surprisingly fun and brief compilation of individual's tales of the first night of the undead invasion.

This book is somewhat mysterious in that there is no publisher listed and no details about the author. Heading to the website all you get is the option of ordering the book and a few tidbits on it plus it gives the impression that the author has collected these stories from other people--the website asks you for your diary entry, making me wonder if this book is actually the collected works of several different authors writing under the pen name of Joe Young (not that I would presume as such, but one could easily draw that conclusion based on looking at the website).

I liked the sparseness of this work. Each of the entries allow you to form a skeleton of the overall attack by the living dead-how it may have started, the city these people dwell in, etc. We are also given a small amount of thread that ties each of the stories together--an example is a garage band blasting their instruments while the dead surround their house, which is one story and that is mentioned by a fleeing National Guardsmen in his story...and most of the tales have those sort of fleeting links that give this book a sense of cohesion.

I was worried when I got this that it was self published. Too often zombie books are self published and do not even come close to being edited properly. As I mentioned there was no publisher listed on the book itself. As I read it I was pleasantly surprised to discover very few misspellings and typos which usually run rampant in the self published world.

Again, I debated on four stars or five for this, and settled on five because this book explored a pretty wide variety of experiences. That was its biggest plus. We get a terrific cross section of short stories, each with a different take on things. We get the radio broadcast, a child's perspective, a National Guardsman, a Police Officer, and numerous regular citizens telling us how they survived (or did not survive).

Good stuff and it deserves a spot in your library if you enjoy zombie stories at all.

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book, but it's been done before, most notably (and much better) by Max Brooks in WORLD WAR Z. The premise is that an undead zombie hoard has risen, and the "book" is the documentation found by those who went through it.

Most of those who left messages - videos, office memos, notes on napkins, etc. - are now dead. Some of the "entries" are funny in a horrible zombie-uprising way, like the office worker hiding in a supply closet who makes himself President since everyone else is now dead and banging on the door to get at him. One, dealing with a group of teenagers who decide that the need for more beer outweighs the chance of being killed by zombies, is just plain stupid.

Since THE DEAD WALK DIARIES: NIGHT, was published by a vanity or "self" publisher, there are a number of grammatical and typing errors in this very short story, but I will admit that they were, for the most part, not bad enough that it took away from the overall enjoyment of the story.

My biggest complaint is that the book just ends. No warning, no lead-up, but just...BAM! Here's the last "entry," bye-bye. For me, that was a total turn-off, in that there is no closure or completion of ANY of the "entries" left by those who lived and died during the attack.

A quick read, mostly entertaining, but it could have been a whole lot better. If you're looking for a wonderful zombie book in the same vein, I highly recommend the aforementioned WORLD WAR Z by Max Brooks.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. Some decent segments in this poor man's World War Z (each chapter is a different character's POV of the first night of the zombie apocalypse) and I liked how the author focused on one town, connecting the segments with one another, sometimes subtly and other times very blatantly. I would have liked more distinction between some of the different narrative voices; they blended together in places. More care needed to be taken with the editing (‘feint of heart’ instead of ‘faint of heart’ and ‘puss-filled wounds’ instead of ‘pus-filled wounds’ are two examples that spring to mind - the kind of mistake that jolts me out of the story) and as pointed out in another review, the comma needed to be utilized a LOT more than it was. I think with a little more time and care, this would have been a better book. As it is, it’s a fun read with some clever ideas, and I've no doubt the author will continue to grow as a writer. I’ll definitely read his next book.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, this is a short book, only about 130 pages, and looks to be a vanity press publishing. It contains a series of stories concerning various peoples views of first night of a zombie "rise". While they were entertaining nothing really stood out, except for one. "Office Memos" is a series of notes written by a survivor trapped in his office supply closet, and I have to admit had me chuckling as I read it.
I woul dhave rated it higher if there had been more physical content in the book, or the cover price hadn't been so steep.

[Manda Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent book but it was typical zombie literature I liked all the stories and could see how they all fit together but instead of forming them into a single story, the author just stops in the middle of the story and says …to be continued. That is the easy way out and it makes me sorry I took the time to read any of it.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

[Nina]

started off funky but now i want to read what finally happens.

[Jennifer Arney · Rating 4 out of 5]

short stories, good but short. Would like to see some of these fleshed out.