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Died
“You’d think the collapse of society and the end of human civilization would be fun, but when you love heroin and the only thing between you and your dealer is a billion mutated corpses, the novelty wears off pretty fucking quick.”
And with that opening line, we are thrust into Lottie’s world of rot and death. After purposely injecting a lethal dose of “juice”, she comes back, but not like any of the ravenous creatures that roam the wasteland. Lottie comes back the same. Mostly. Her eyes are completely gray and she is unable to die. She’s, unfortunately, unable to get high or drunk so all the trauma that she’s been numbing with drugs for years is an untethered monster.
Join Lottie on a journey to find the thing that can give her eternal rest.
“This book transcended absolutely
everything about the [undead] genre...
Distinctly human...DIED is brutal,
it is bleak, and it is intensely evocative.”
-Laurel Hightower (Crossroads, The Day of the Door)
And with that opening line, we are thrust into Lottie’s world of rot and death. After purposely injecting a lethal dose of “juice”, she comes back, but not like any of the ravenous creatures that roam the wasteland. Lottie comes back the same. Mostly. Her eyes are completely gray and she is unable to die. She’s, unfortunately, unable to get high or drunk so all the trauma that she’s been numbing with drugs for years is an untethered monster.
Join Lottie on a journey to find the thing that can give her eternal rest.
“This book transcended absolutely
everything about the [undead] genre...
Distinctly human...DIED is brutal,
it is bleak, and it is intensely evocative.”
-Laurel Hightower (Crossroads, The Day of the Door)
128 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 28, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Author
This book started off wild and didn't step off the gas for one instant
Lottie has her fair share of problems and a worldwide zombie like apocalypse is only one of them. Upon waking up after a house party she finds the world around her has changed. Mutated corpses walk the earth searching for flesh to feast on. Lottie, not interested in participating in some grand scale survival epic decides to take her own life by taking a lethal dose of her substance of choice. However after succumbing to it's effects and slipping into the void, she wakes back up. Soon she realizes that she's incapable of dying despite her overwhelming desire to do so, and every time she does she finds herself coming back changed, and back into a world gone mad thats full of threats.
This book was insane (in the best possible way). The premise alone was enough to get me running to read this ARC but what transpired after that was brutality and mayhem that i could never have anticipated. This book was such a crazy ride, and as it ratcheted up the intensity I was left with whiplash at all the developments and disasters that Lottie was put through. While this book is definitely bleak it's so entertaining as it becomes a nightmare within a nightmare that you truly can't look away from.
Died is a very fun ride and definitely one worth checking out
Lottie has her fair share of problems and a worldwide zombie like apocalypse is only one of them. Upon waking up after a house party she finds the world around her has changed. Mutated corpses walk the earth searching for flesh to feast on. Lottie, not interested in participating in some grand scale survival epic decides to take her own life by taking a lethal dose of her substance of choice. However after succumbing to it's effects and slipping into the void, she wakes back up. Soon she realizes that she's incapable of dying despite her overwhelming desire to do so, and every time she does she finds herself coming back changed, and back into a world gone mad thats full of threats.
This book was insane (in the best possible way). The premise alone was enough to get me running to read this ARC but what transpired after that was brutality and mayhem that i could never have anticipated. This book was such a crazy ride, and as it ratcheted up the intensity I was left with whiplash at all the developments and disasters that Lottie was put through. While this book is definitely bleak it's so entertaining as it becomes a nightmare within a nightmare that you truly can't look away from.
Died is a very fun ride and definitely one worth checking out
May 15, 2026
Oh, wtf did I just read? (compliment)
April 19, 2026
Death is life’s ultimate mystery. What fate—if any—lies beyond this mortal coil has been the subject of more speculation than any other since humankind’s beginnings. The core conceit of every religious movement great and small, and of countless works of art, literature, poetry, film, and song, have been devoted to understanding, and coping with, our inevitable demise.
The horror genre, in all its various permutations, is perhaps the storytelling form best-suited for examining death and its aftermath (and various theoretical afterlives). The zombie, in particular, is a figure honed by decades of narrative natural selection to serve as post-modern metaphor for death itself. Originating in the rites and rituals of Haitian voodoo, the shambling, shuffling, cannibalistic gut-munchers audiences are most acquainted with were actually created by writer-director George A. Romero for his seminal 1968 black-and-white flick Night of the Living Dead. Owing more to the ghoul of Arabian folklore than to their Caribbean counterparts, Romero’s idea of a worldwide apocalypse involving the ravenous returning dead quickly spread beyond the silver screen to permeate every aspect of popular culture, from comics to video games to television.
In the literary realm, too, zombies continue to fascinate readers, and one of the more exciting practitioners of the subgenre is Texas-based indie author Izzy Von, whose latest novella, Died (arriving April 28 on Amazon), is a bold, imaginative, and thoroughly dark examination of the undead.
Lottie is a young deaf woman living in Texas, coping with the demons of an abusive childhood by self-medicating with heroin. When Lottie attends the day-after Thanksgiving party at a lakeside house, a mysterious event causes most of the attendees to simultaneously drop dead. The victims don’t stay that way, though, and after Lottie endures an initial assault from the cannibal corpses, she learns via social media that what’s happened at the lake isn’t an isolated incident, but a worldwide phenomena referred to by survivors as ‘Black Friday’. In despair, Lottie shoots up with what she hopes is a fatal dose of heroin; awakening soon thereafter, Lottie believes she’s failed in her life-ending ambition, only to discover to her horror that she’s instead revived as a rare type of zombie known as a Grey Eye, a walking corpse that’s retained its intelligence and that can regenerate any injury with whatever nearby material is at hand.
To her dismay, Lottie discovers that her newly acquired undead constitution prevents drugs and alcohol from having any effect, and those hurtful childhood memories soon manifest as literal hauntings. Her situation only worsens once Lottie is held captive and repeatedly killed by both a maniacal neighbor and an obsessed online stalker of hers from the pre-apocalypse days. After these harrowing experiences, Lottie finally escapes and ventures into the wider world outside the lake house, where she discovers that Romero-style shufflers aren’t the only kind of creatures people turned into on Black Friday. There are underwater zombies called Bubblers, and Leviathans, massive tentacled monstrosities that command swarms of the undead in their wake. There’s also the enigmatic Land of Red and Black, an ever-expanding patch of scorched earth that that Lottie feels inexplicably drawn to. Most dangerous of all, however, are The Templars, fire-and-brimstone pseudo-religious survivalists intent on exterminating anyone who doesn’t adhere to their narrow-minded extremist ideology.
While set in the same world as Von’s previous novels, A Dandy Among the Dead and its sequel X-Mas of the Dead, Died trades the comedy and witty repartee of those books for grim nihilism. While first-person undead narratives have been published before, few—if any—have portrayed the zombie with quite as much raw, unflinching honesty as this. Von holds absolutely nothing back in regards to Lottie’s suicidal mental state, her addiction, or in the relentless depiction of ever-escalating violence. Indeed, Died wallows in hyper-detailed splattery set pieces more potent than the grossest of hack ‘n slash gorefests, and once the bloodshed begins, the audience experiences each inflicted wound as if it were happening to them. Every orifice that can squirt, ooze, dribble or drip is explored, stretched, strained and rearranged with a relish rarely seen on the written page, and the sheer descriptive power of Von’s imagination is simultaneously exciting and disturbing, even if, at times, the ugly viciousness threatens to unglue the novella’s narrative cohesion.
Despite the savagery, however, Lottie’s journey is also a deeply introspective one, with powerful ruminations about life, love, death, healing, and the nature of existence. Von’s use of a deaf protagonist is refreshing, and the flashbacks detailing the mistreatment Lottie suffered at the hands of her unsympathetic mother are heartbreaking, showing the audience not only where Lottie’s self-destructive mindset began, but where her reservoirs of inner strength lie.
If the litmus test for any creative work is how much it impacts an audience, then Died has already packed the proverbial wallop, scoring serious pre-release raves from the likes of mainstream horror writers Laurel Hightower (Crossroads, The Day of the Door) and New York Times Bestselling author Brian Keene (The Rising series, Ghoul, Dead Sea, the Clickers series). It’s praise wholly deserved, too. In the twenty-first century, there are some who say zombies and their related apocalyptic tales have become so embedded in the cultural zeitgeist that their ability to terrify has been diluted by familiarity. Yet authors like Von serve as reminders that new voices can offer fresh perspectives able to revitalize even the most overdone tropes, and it’s for those reasons that I’m compelled to grant Died the full 5 (Out of 5) here on Goodreads. This is horror designed to do what horror should—shock, incite and stimulate thought, and I, for one, can’t wait to die all over again.
The horror genre, in all its various permutations, is perhaps the storytelling form best-suited for examining death and its aftermath (and various theoretical afterlives). The zombie, in particular, is a figure honed by decades of narrative natural selection to serve as post-modern metaphor for death itself. Originating in the rites and rituals of Haitian voodoo, the shambling, shuffling, cannibalistic gut-munchers audiences are most acquainted with were actually created by writer-director George A. Romero for his seminal 1968 black-and-white flick Night of the Living Dead. Owing more to the ghoul of Arabian folklore than to their Caribbean counterparts, Romero’s idea of a worldwide apocalypse involving the ravenous returning dead quickly spread beyond the silver screen to permeate every aspect of popular culture, from comics to video games to television.
In the literary realm, too, zombies continue to fascinate readers, and one of the more exciting practitioners of the subgenre is Texas-based indie author Izzy Von, whose latest novella, Died (arriving April 28 on Amazon), is a bold, imaginative, and thoroughly dark examination of the undead.
Lottie is a young deaf woman living in Texas, coping with the demons of an abusive childhood by self-medicating with heroin. When Lottie attends the day-after Thanksgiving party at a lakeside house, a mysterious event causes most of the attendees to simultaneously drop dead. The victims don’t stay that way, though, and after Lottie endures an initial assault from the cannibal corpses, she learns via social media that what’s happened at the lake isn’t an isolated incident, but a worldwide phenomena referred to by survivors as ‘Black Friday’. In despair, Lottie shoots up with what she hopes is a fatal dose of heroin; awakening soon thereafter, Lottie believes she’s failed in her life-ending ambition, only to discover to her horror that she’s instead revived as a rare type of zombie known as a Grey Eye, a walking corpse that’s retained its intelligence and that can regenerate any injury with whatever nearby material is at hand.
To her dismay, Lottie discovers that her newly acquired undead constitution prevents drugs and alcohol from having any effect, and those hurtful childhood memories soon manifest as literal hauntings. Her situation only worsens once Lottie is held captive and repeatedly killed by both a maniacal neighbor and an obsessed online stalker of hers from the pre-apocalypse days. After these harrowing experiences, Lottie finally escapes and ventures into the wider world outside the lake house, where she discovers that Romero-style shufflers aren’t the only kind of creatures people turned into on Black Friday. There are underwater zombies called Bubblers, and Leviathans, massive tentacled monstrosities that command swarms of the undead in their wake. There’s also the enigmatic Land of Red and Black, an ever-expanding patch of scorched earth that that Lottie feels inexplicably drawn to. Most dangerous of all, however, are The Templars, fire-and-brimstone pseudo-religious survivalists intent on exterminating anyone who doesn’t adhere to their narrow-minded extremist ideology.
While set in the same world as Von’s previous novels, A Dandy Among the Dead and its sequel X-Mas of the Dead, Died trades the comedy and witty repartee of those books for grim nihilism. While first-person undead narratives have been published before, few—if any—have portrayed the zombie with quite as much raw, unflinching honesty as this. Von holds absolutely nothing back in regards to Lottie’s suicidal mental state, her addiction, or in the relentless depiction of ever-escalating violence. Indeed, Died wallows in hyper-detailed splattery set pieces more potent than the grossest of hack ‘n slash gorefests, and once the bloodshed begins, the audience experiences each inflicted wound as if it were happening to them. Every orifice that can squirt, ooze, dribble or drip is explored, stretched, strained and rearranged with a relish rarely seen on the written page, and the sheer descriptive power of Von’s imagination is simultaneously exciting and disturbing, even if, at times, the ugly viciousness threatens to unglue the novella’s narrative cohesion.
Despite the savagery, however, Lottie’s journey is also a deeply introspective one, with powerful ruminations about life, love, death, healing, and the nature of existence. Von’s use of a deaf protagonist is refreshing, and the flashbacks detailing the mistreatment Lottie suffered at the hands of her unsympathetic mother are heartbreaking, showing the audience not only where Lottie’s self-destructive mindset began, but where her reservoirs of inner strength lie.
If the litmus test for any creative work is how much it impacts an audience, then Died has already packed the proverbial wallop, scoring serious pre-release raves from the likes of mainstream horror writers Laurel Hightower (Crossroads, The Day of the Door) and New York Times Bestselling author Brian Keene (The Rising series, Ghoul, Dead Sea, the Clickers series). It’s praise wholly deserved, too. In the twenty-first century, there are some who say zombies and their related apocalyptic tales have become so embedded in the cultural zeitgeist that their ability to terrify has been diluted by familiarity. Yet authors like Von serve as reminders that new voices can offer fresh perspectives able to revitalize even the most overdone tropes, and it’s for those reasons that I’m compelled to grant Died the full 5 (Out of 5) here on Goodreads. This is horror designed to do what horror should—shock, incite and stimulate thought, and I, for one, can’t wait to die all over again.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I have NEVER in my life been so emotionally invested by a zombie. I'm not sure if I should be mad at the author for the way I've been wrecked by this book. Or impressed that this is a zombie story that can take my emotions twist them all up then stomp the heck out of them. Lottie is going to stick with me for a very long time.
This post apocalyptic story is a world full of zombies, mutants and giants. A sort of cosmic horror flavored zombie story, seasoned with heavy themes of self harm, past trauma and substance abuse.
No "me zombie eat brains" here. No fast flowing action. It's a slow burn you'll want to savor.
I was delighted when I realized this book ties in to the author's Dandy Among The Dead series. (this is a complete standalone)
If you're looking for a unique zombie story, look no further. Von has you covered.
This post apocalyptic story is a world full of zombies, mutants and giants. A sort of cosmic horror flavored zombie story, seasoned with heavy themes of self harm, past trauma and substance abuse.
No "me zombie eat brains" here. No fast flowing action. It's a slow burn you'll want to savor.
I was delighted when I realized this book ties in to the author's Dandy Among The Dead series. (this is a complete standalone)
If you're looking for a unique zombie story, look no further. Von has you covered.
Review of advance copy received from Author
This was nothing short of incredible. I'll be the first to admit, I'm not the target audience for stories of the undead. But this book transcended absolutely everything about the genre, in all the best ways. Distinctly human, even as Lottie ventures ever further from that state, DIED is brutal, it is bleak, and it is intensely evocative. Von shows us every angle of the dark underbelly of humanity, with vicious kills and constantly raised stakes, but in a way that lets the reader breathe in all the right places.
I meant to get my thoughts in order before writing a review, but I keep rambling and running all over because I'm afraid to spoil any of the subtleties here. I'll end by saying this is where splatterpunk shines, and that I think everyone should read this book. Well done, Izzy Von!
I meant to get my thoughts in order before writing a review, but I keep rambling and running all over because I'm afraid to spoil any of the subtleties here. I'll end by saying this is where splatterpunk shines, and that I think everyone should read this book. Well done, Izzy Von!
Review of advance copy received from Author
You are not prepared for this fresh new take on a zombie apocalyptic world. It is hellishly bleak with unknowable horrors at every turn.
What I loved most about died was how I could not predict what was going to happen next. Every iteration of Lottie was something breathtaking and sinful. The story moves fast, with changes and gore coming at you before you even know what’s what. I had flashes of Mandy and Tetsuo: The Iron Man.
The interludes brought about the most beautifully heartbreaking renditions of a person split open, to be examined again and again. This unflinching look at Lottie’s humanity is well balanced to the hellscape she is now living.
Izzy wrote something truly knock out. I hope you take the time to enjoy it.
I’d like to tank the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
What I loved most about died was how I could not predict what was going to happen next. Every iteration of Lottie was something breathtaking and sinful. The story moves fast, with changes and gore coming at you before you even know what’s what. I had flashes of Mandy and Tetsuo: The Iron Man.
The interludes brought about the most beautifully heartbreaking renditions of a person split open, to be examined again and again. This unflinching look at Lottie’s humanity is well balanced to the hellscape she is now living.
Izzy wrote something truly knock out. I hope you take the time to enjoy it.
I’d like to tank the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
May 26, 2026
I must say, I've never read a novel like DIED. Imagine, if you will, a Lovecraft-scripted, Romero-directed zombie film set in the "Hell" panel of Bosch's "Garden of Early Delights" (or in this case, post-apocalyptic Texas).
Plus drugs. And body horror.
Oh.... The body horror. Throw Cronenberg in that mix as well.
Actually, don't imagine all that. Just read DIED.
Plus drugs. And body horror.
Oh.... The body horror. Throw Cronenberg in that mix as well.
Actually, don't imagine all that. Just read DIED.
Review of advance copy received from Author
This novel was so damn good and original. Got me out of my reading slump. I need signed paper copies asap. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews